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Aerospace sector strong, study says
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Monday, Oct 12, 2009
But the region boasts of 2,300 firms whose products or processes are instrumental to the sector, according to a new study by Team NEO, the nonprofit regional group that works to attract businesses to the area.
Each quarter, Team NEO researchers take an in-depth look at a different topic, hoping to spot trends or reveal strengths that might help it market the region to national site selectors and out-of-state companies looking to move or expand.
''When we have a company coming to town, we figure out what their industry is . . . and we look at the supply chain and see what inputs do they need, so they know they can come here and get those components,'' researcher Jacob Duritsky explained.
This month, the organization turned its focus on aerospace, an industry arguably born in Ohio, when Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton created the first successful airplane.
Many of the area's factories and skilled workers made the transition to aerospace during World War II, and the field has continued to grow through the efforts of Wright-Patterson Air Force in Dayton and NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, said Mike Heil, president of the Ohio Aerospace Institute.
Industry growing
While no industry has been unaffected by the current recession, aerospace remains strong, in part because developing areas like China and India are seeing ''explosive growth'' in commercial aviation, Heil said.
''Those countries are going to need to buy tens of thousands of airliners over the next decade or so, and they're going to need parts and supplies,'' Heil said.
The fact that the United States exports more aerospace-related products than it imports bodes well for the region and for manufacturers in the declining automotive sector who — as in World War II — are well-equipped to reinvent themselves.
''The fact that we have the supply chain here — some of whom are serving the aerospace industry, some of whom have the capacity to serve the aerospace industry — is what gives us a competitive advantage,'' said Team NEO's
Duritsky.
The organization's research found:
• One in four manufacturers in Northeast Ohio is in an aerospace-related field.
• The gross regional product (GRP) for all companies in Northeast Ohio capable of being in the aerospace supply chain was $8.4 billion in 2008. That's a 59 percent increase in the past 15 years, compared to 6 percent growth in the region's overall GRP.
• The lion's share of the aerospace-related GRP come from fabricated metal (21 percent), navigational, measuring and control firms (20 percent), machine shops (18 percent) and aerospace parts manufacturers (12 percent).
• People make more money working for aerospace-related companies — an average of $56,300 annually. That compares to $41,200 for all industries in Northeast Ohio.
• Ohio is the second largest supplier to Boeing Corp., with more than 500 firms providing more than $5 billion in components and services to the aerospace giant.
Local involvement
The Akron area's contributions to the sector are diverse.
For instance, in Bath Township, Summit Instruments Inc. makes sensors that measure acceleration, rotation and position. The tiny hand-crafted systems are used by the Navy and Air Force in testing new planes and weapons. Other customers include the Royal Australian Air Force, Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
TechniGraphics in Wooster converts geospatial and engineering data into electronic formats (think Google Maps) and does computer-assisted design so products can be visualized, tweaked and tested before leaving the computer screen. Its customer list includes Boeing, Airbus and Gulfstream.
In Cuyahoga Falls, Prospect Mold Inc. is an example of how a manufacturer once dependent on the auto industry can switch to the growing aerospace sector. The company recently invested more than $6 million in new equipment so it could quote bigger jobs in the aerospace industry, a critical element of President Bruce Wight's diversification strategy.
Timken Co., headquartered in Canton, has developed helicopter gearboxes, power units for jets and special coatings.
And NASA teamed up with Akron-based Goodyear to develop an airless tire for transporting large, long-range vehicles across the surface of the moon.
Team NEO Marketing Vice President Carin Rockind said the organization's research efforts ''help us to understand which sectors are actually growing so that we can focus our business attraction efforts there.'' The data are then shared with location experts and major companies around the country.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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canton, OH
Posted 08:12 AM, 10/12/2009
These are jobs that the state needs, not minimum wage casino workers.
Akron, Oh
Posted 11:47 AM, 10/12/2009
Yes,this sounds like a great job,all I have to do is get a degree in whatever they maybe hiring in..
sure hope this brings in More Jobs,for those of us
who look forward to working for a living.
Walnut Creek, Oh
Posted 07:07 PM, 10/12/2009
Not for long. These jobs, like all the other competetive product jobs were shipped overseas. These will be someday too. It's too bad we have a president who is more concerned about gay equality than jobs leaving the U.S.
