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Why are Women More Likely to Quit Jobs in Manufacturing?

“Even as the industry has started to recover, women in manufacturing face persistent problems— including sexual harassment, inequality in pay and promotions, and dissatisfaction with family leave,” says a new report.

Women are more likely to leave their jobs if they work in manufacturing compared to men in the same field. Women are also more likely to leave manufacturing compared to other industries.

These are the findings of a recent study by “Factory Flaw, The Attrition and Attention of Women in Manufacturing”, published by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). These findings hold true when controlling for age, race, marital status, parental status, union membership, region and local economic activity, the report notes.

The issues behind this departure are, unfortunately, not new. “Even as the industry has started to recover, women in manufacturing face persistent problems—including sexual harassment, inequality in pay and promotions, and dissatisfaction with family leave—and are more likely to leave their jobs than women in other industries,” the report concludes.

Pay is a very large issue. The report found that men are more likely than women to hold the highestpaying manufacturing jobs. For example workers in petroleum and coal earn $43 an hour, and only 17% of women hold these jobs. But in textile jobs, which pay under $20 an hour, women account for more than half of these jobs. Additionally, the percentage of women in manufacturing jobs has decreased, and these jobs generally pay higher.

Another critical area that causes women to leave jobs is family leave policies. The AAUW study showed that 69.2% of women were not satisfied with the amount of paid family leave. Some comments from the survey made this point.“Offer maternity leave with full pay rather than just shortterm disability pay,” one woman suggested. While others wanted “more paid time off for pregnancy, taking care of a child, and other related care” and others wanted to see an increase in the number of weeks given for maternity leave.

Addressing these issues will benefit both the workers and the industry as a whole, the association

says. “Not only will women and their families gain from having access to these well-paying jobs, but industry will benefit richly from the skills, talents and diversity that more women can bring,” said Kim Churches, AAUW’s chief executive officer. “Our findings are a call to action for employers to increase the presence – and power – of women in the manufacturing world.”

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AAUW recommends that manufacturers:

• Take firm steps to prohibit sexual harassment. Creating clearly defined sexual harassment policies, instituting complaint procedures, making harassment training in-person and interactive, and conducting bystander awareness training are all needed.

• Ensure equality in pay and promotions. Pay audits, greater transparency and setting current wages without regard to past salary history will help.

• Improve family-friendly policies. Benefits such as paid family and medical leave, flextime help workers balance their tasks at work with those at home and reduce women’s likelihood of leaving their jobs.

• Support training and reskilling. Increasingly, well-paying manufacturing jobs require a college degree, at a minimum. Companies should create apprenticeship programs for college students and offer tuition reimbursement for employees. By: Adrienne Selko ABS is NADCAP Accredited To Meet Your Heat Treat And Passivate Needs. 7956 South Potomac St. Centennial, CO 80112

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Introducing Tech Financial Services

our reputation and expanded our expertise to offer the best financing solutions to the finest manufacturing companies in Introducing Tech Financial Services the US.

Tech Financial Services has been an industry leader since 2003. Over the years, we have built

Tech Financial Services has been an industry leader since 2003. We proudly serve machine tool distributors, manufacturers, Over the years, we have built our reputation and expanded and end-user customers by providing a wide range of financing our expertise to offer the best financing solutions to the finest and leasing options. Given our experience, combined with our knowledge of the economic and organizational issues manufacturing companies in the US. confronting our machine tool customers, we are able to provide the most competitive financing alternatives, and We proudly serve machine tool distributors, manufacturers, differentiate ourselves from traditional lending sources. and end-user customers by providing a wide range of financing Chris Frans, VP (Denver, CO) has been with Tech Financial and leasing options. Given our experience, combined with our Services for over 8 years and has provided financing to thousands of customers knowledge of the economic and organizational issues confrontaround the US. He has a great understanding of the manufacturing industry, the ing our machine tool customers, we are able to provide the most competitive financing equipment, and what is needed in order to meet each individual customer’s needs. alternatives, and differentiate ourselves from traditional lending sources. Please reach out to Chris with any financing inquiries that you might have. Email A him at: chrisf@techfin.net 2Z Manufacturing Rocky Mountain• 12 • Jan / Feb 2021

Athena 3D is a relatively young company, founded just 2 years ago, in 2019. The company, a Minority-Owned Small Business, demonstrated the ability to manufacture thousands of products using 3D technology during the pandemic — where they manufactured 130,000 face shield frames intended to support front line workers.

Today, using additive manufacturing (3D printing), the company offers its customers and clients production-quality parts with production volumes and pricing.

Memo Romero founded Athena 3D once he saw how production 3D printing had the power to revolutionize product design. Memo is a mechanical engineering graduate of MIT and Stanford University. He brings 28 years of industry experience in semiconductors, power systems, thermal engineering, and product development to Athena 3D. Memo has over 20 U.S. patents and has designed products for NASA, the International Space Station, as well as countless well-known industrial and automotive companies.

From its onset, Athena 3D selected HP to partner with to give engineers and designers access to superb bulk parts in less time. Today, they own both the HP Jet Fusion 4200 and 5200 Series 3D printers. Taylor Moore, Senior Application Engineer for the company, says, “HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology is a powerful 3D printing technology that produces highly accurate and durable parts that are capable of being used directly in enduse, low to mid-volume production, or for rapid prototyping. The HP Jet Fusion 4200 is ideal for short runs and smaller production runs, while our HP Jet Fusion 5200 is well suited for volume production.”

Today, the company is staffed with a team of engineers and ownership has been expanded to include Memo plus 3 additional owners: Jacob Moss, Dean Pierce, and Steven Szymeczek. Dean says, “We have assembled a team of engineers and technicians that have strong backgrounds in additive manufacturing (also called 3d printing). With our expertise, we can help a 1 person entrepreneur to take his/her concept to fruition, and we are equally well suited to help an engineer in a large corporation to take a design to production.” He continued, “Athena 3D Manufacturing helps to lower the barrier to entry for a new product, and we offer engineering and manufacturing, all in-house.”

Michael Dymond, Director of Sales for the company, says, “We work extensively with engineers, and many are in Fortune 500 companies in the medical, aerospace and defense industries. While we didn’t have any customers pushing us to certify to ISO 9001: 2015, with our strong engineering background we clearly saw the benefits to adding formal processes to our business. We knew that ISO certification would help to promote the highest level of quality at our company — it would in essence set a benchmark for us, and it would enable a culture of constant improvement.”

Athena 3D Manufacturing was working with the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP) when they made the decision to ISO certify. Dean says, “We needed a consultant and BMSC was on their approved supplier list. Additionally, our founder Memo knew of their reputation through his years in the industry. We contacted Bretta Kelly, owner of BMSC, and got a very competitive quote for her services. And so late last year, we began working towards certification with the help of BMSC.”

Dean adds, “Both Bretta and her colleague Debbie Hart were absolutely outstanding. The amount of education we received throughout the process was incredible. Bretta and Debbie walked us through every step of the process – it wasn’t just about filling out a particular form.”

Taylor adds, “They were exceptional in engaging everyone in our company with the processes. They were concise yet very good about how to talk to their audience. For those who were more technical and familiar with ISO, they could speak with technical ease; just as well they spoke in layman’s terms to those less technical and familiar with ISO. They were instrumental in helping every employee to embrace the process.”

Dean adds, “Bretta and Debbie are so professional, and yet they were also fun to work with. They are exceptional at lessening the fear of the process. I would happily have paid more money for BMSC’s services!” Bretta says “If Dean wants to spend more money for the project, I am happy to provide a myriad of add on services that we offer!”

If you are interested in help with design and manufacturing of your parts, including finishing and validation, using additive manufacturing, contact Athena 3D at (480) 454-5037; info@ athena3dmfg.com or www.athena3dmfg.com

Are You Ready To Implement ISO 9001:2015 or AS9100D or simplify your current Quality Management System? Call (602) 445-9400 or visit BusinessMSC.com to learn more.