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Labor Needs
Often Limit Mobility

Machine Tool Order Value by U.S. Region

($US, millions) Midwest : $129.49, 38% Central: $81.37, 24% Northeast: $48.95, 14% South: $42.11, 12% West: $40.10, 12%

Assn. for Manufacturing Technology, April 2000

Mold & Tool makes site selection look easy, but it's not. For most precision machining and related machine tool companies, location decisions are about balancing critical work-force needs with customer needs that are just as critical.

In fact, many companies stay put in traditional machining and tooling regions, competing with neighboring firms for employees, because of the extreme difficulty of finding the highly skilled workers they need elsewhere. Manda Machine, for example, a Dallas firm, hasn't moved since 1956. "We're pretty typical," said Andy Ellard, vice president at Manda. "It's extremely difficult to find skilled labor." Manda recently added 4,000 sq. ft. (360 sq. m.) to its facility, "just to spread out a little," as Ellard puts it, but the firm plans to stay at the current site.

Machine tool consumption, up 9 percent thus far for the year 2000, is strong enough to mean almost zero unemployment among skilled machinists and related workers. "The entire industry is struggling with the immediate need for qualified employees," says Chris Clayton, a principal with The Staubach Co. (www.staubach.com) in Cleveland. "Some companies are totally driven [in their location strategies] by the employee pool of skilled workers. They ask what [hiring] challenges they'll face by moving."