DuPage County’s tony image of white-collar workers and gleaming corporate headquarters tends to obscure the significance of what the more than 2,300 manufacturing plants bring to the county’s economic vitality.
From box makers to cookie bakers, manufacturers large and small operating in the county churned out more than $19.5 billion in goods in 1999, according to statistics supplied by the Illinois Manufacturing Association in Chicago.
But perhaps a better barometer of manufacturing’s importance to the county is the fact that these manufacturers employ more than 78,000 workers, or about 13.2 percent of the county’s workforce. The total payroll is estimated at $3.5 billion, or an average salary of about $44,800. The ripple effect of those wages in spending in the county is valued at more than $6.1 billion annually, said Greg Brooks, association spokesman.
Despite the sector’s unquestionable economic value, manufacturing lacks the panache of high-technology businesses and often gets taken for granted, said Bonnie Wood, executive director of the Lombard-based East West Corporate Corridor Association.
To help the sector gain greater appreciation from local and state officials, Wood crusades across the county and in Springfield to extol the valuable role of manufacturers.
For example, she said, compared with a growing number of warehouse operations springing up around the county, “dollars from manufacturing exceed something just taking up space.”
It’s vital for county, state and local community officials to nurture the manufacturing environment by committing to improvements in roads and education to preserve that economic engine, Wood said.
An urgent need exists for the county and state to commit money to ease congestion on the county’s highways because transportation is critical for moving goods in and out of the county, she said. Gnarled traffic impedes trucking, boosting the cost of products, she said.
Attracting and keeping workers also becomes more difficult if they must battle traffic daily, Wood added. That’s especially worrisome when more than 50 percent of the county’s workforce doesn’t live in the county, she said.
“What was a half hour (trip), now is an hour. That affects you,” she said.
Mike Birck, chairman and chief operating officer of Tellabs Inc. in Lisle, has seen the explosive growth of traffic since the company moved to the county 23 years ago. The company employs about 1,400 people at eight locations in DuPage County and another 1,800 in Bolingbrook in Will County.
“The biggest impediment (to operating in the county) is gridlock,” Birck said.
The situation likely will not improve after the company consolidates offices in summer 2001 and opens a new 800,000-square-foot headquarters in Naperville along Interstate Highway 88 east of Illinois Highway 59. The Lisle center will remain open.
Aware of the congestion on Illinois 59, Birck has enlisted the support of Naperville officials to lobby Gov. George Ryan and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority to build another exit on I-88 at Raymond Boulevard. In the meantime, he believes the company’s flexible hours will allay some of the problem.
Though communities such as Naperville and Downers Grove actively have supported companies, the county has adopted a laissez-faire attitude toward business development and retention.
With DuPage County on the sidelines for business retention and development, that task is left to local officials. Economic development officials for several communities said they have little turnover and when a company leaves there is little trouble attracting a replacement.
“We do not have any problems recruiting (new businesses),” said Raman Thakker, director of community development for the Village of Addison.
Addison benefits from its strong industrial base–the state’s fourth largest, Thakker said. “Because we’re already established, it builds upon itself,” he said.
Moreover, the community continuously conducts needs surveys to assess concerns before they become serious troubles, he said.
The county’s lack of involvement, though not unusual in the state, does not sit well with Wood.
“If we’re trying to figure out how to maintain and keep that base, we need to know what business we’re in,” she said.
This is becoming harder to decipher each day, the manufacturing association’s Brooks said, as traditional “dirty” manufacturing increasingly gives way to new, cleaner manufacturers that blur the line between manufacturing and distribution. He cited repackagers, companies that receive products from a manufacturer, then rework them a little to add value before selling and shipping the product.
Whatever the case, manufacturing businesses need support and nurturing, particularly in educating and training workers, Wood said. There is a critical need for greater cooperation and integration with community colleges to educate people for technical entry-level positions.
The quality of workers is the business owners’ No. 1 complaint, Brooks said.
Schools must go beyond just preparing students for college and white-collar jobs because not everyone takes that route, he said. It is imperative to provide more vocational education and place more emphasis on reading and math skills. There is also a need for more computer education because computers are pervasive, even on the factory floor, he said.
Jerome Paulson, president and chief operating officer for Flexible Steel Lacing Co., a metal-fastener maker in Downers Grove, is concerned about the skill levels of new employees. “We’re a blue-collar factory, but we’re looking for people with (computer) skills,” he said.
Wood warns that Illinois–and thus, DuPage County–is in competition with such states as Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. If employers can’t find what they want in the labor pool here, they will go elsewhere, she said.
“Illinois, unfortunately, has not had an integrated plan where employers have said, `This is what we need,’ ” Wood said.
That is changing, however.
A new federally funded job-training program called the Workforce Investment Board will give corporate executives a greater say in what needs should be addressed, Wood said. She does not know how much money DuPage County will receive.
For now, though, the greater problem is the tight job market.
But that might be a blessing in disguise because despite the booming U.S. and Illinois economy, these are difficult times for many manufacturers.
Illinois last year reported a decline in full-time manufacturing jobs, in stark contrast to the 5 percent increase statewide in the number of full-time jobs, Brooks said. Industrial machinery makers lost 4,200 jobs, electronics firms 2,100, and rubber and plastics plants 900, he said.
Moreover, manufacturing businesses represent the largest segment of companies leaving the state, Brooks said. The reason given by most executives who bid farewell, Brooks said, is that Illinois is an expensive state to do business, with its high workman’s-compensation rates. Businesses also are being lured by incentives from neighboring states, particularly Wisconsin and Indiana.
High business taxes in Illinois are a constant concern, said Ralph Grandle, president of Downers Grove-based Tricon Industries Inc., which makes plastic connectors, switch components and other products for the automotive industry. Those customers are demanding price decreases as competition for their business heats up, and higher taxes adds to the cost of doing business, Grandle said.
“Has it been a strong enough motivation to move to Indiana? No, but we have talked about it,” he said.
The 56-year-old, family-owned company moved from Chicago’s South Side in 1963 when it ran out of space for expansion. DuPage County land was plentiful and cheap back then.
The company remains in the county because of the good environment for Tricon’s 550 employees to live and work in, Grandle said.
Moreover, he said, there is a good highway network for his company, especially since the construction of Interstate Highway 355, as well as convenient access to O’Hare International and Midway Airports.
But the county’s attractiveness to potential employers is a Catch-22.
Grandle, for one, is glad the county is not recruiting new businesses.
“It’s a detriment to have companies moving in because it’s so hard to find employees,” he said.
There also isn’t much room to grow.
Slipmate Inc. moved to Carol Stream a decade ago from Franklin Park in Cook County because property taxes in DuPage County were significantly lower, President Steve Matecki said. The company’s location off Interstate Highway 290 at Rohlwing Road provides great access for shipping its goods as well as making it convenient for the employees to get to and from work.
The company makes a variety of protective coatings to guard against such things as heat, corrosion and abrasion.
But Slipmate has pretty much filled its 100,000-square-foot space and there is little surrounding property to build an addition to the plant.
If more room becomes necessary, it is impossible to say whether the company would stay in DuPage County, Matecki said.
A move, though, would cause quite an upheaval for everyone. “We all live in the area and like it here,” he said.
