Editor's Notes

By Bob Bouyea

Here is a little known fact: I’m a friction welder. Yep, I can friction weld with the best of them.

OK, to be honest, I did it one time, and “I” really didn’t do it, an automated machine did. But I professionally placed the material in the machine and pushed the button. Without that, you wouldn’t have a friction weld.

Recently, I was invited out to MTU Drive Shafts to tour the manufacturing facility (more accurately, I invited myself out). You see, I am a sucker for manufacturing. I love to learn how things are made. This obsession dates back to when I covered Caterpillar Inc. for the Peoria Journal Star newspaper in Peoria, Ill. As most of you know, Cat makes earthmoving equipment like front-end loaders, backhoes and bulldozers, or as they call them track-type tractors.

The Cat plants were typically hot and loud on a June day. So as I drove out to MTU Drive Shafts, I was expecting to encounter the same type of environment.

You see, MTU Drive Shafts makes, well, drive shafts. It is a subsidiary of Chrysler Co., so it manufactures drive shafts for the Chrysler 300, the Dodge Magnum and the Mercedes-Benz M Class. But it also makes drive shafts for Chrysler competitors such as BMW and the new Ford 500 and Freestyle automobiles.

This plant isn’t your father’s manufacturing facility. It is climate controlled, and much of the work is done through computerized and robotic equipment. It is a clean environment with little noise. But it is still a manufacturing plant, churning out roughly 125,000 drive shafts a month of differing sizes for each of the different autos. And they have their eye on quality.

Quality checks are built into the system every step of the way, especially when it comes to the rotational balance. This is where the company gets its competitive advantage, says President and CEO Robert Tykal. This balance affects noise, vibration and hardness, all of which the company wants to minimize

But the real story is in how quickly the company has reached this point.

MTU started in Aug. 2002 with Tykal as the lone employee. It had a building that Chrysler owned in the Palmetto Business Park off Ladson Road. But that building was not suited for manufacturing. It previously was a dimly lit warehouse facility. One year later, the floors and ceilings were reinforced, the lighting was enhanced, a 25,000-square-foot addition was built onto the building, equipment was brought in, employees were hired and trained, and the facility was in complete production.

In less than two years, the company has grown to 210 employees, with most of the 172 hourly and 38 salaried employees hired locally. And the company is looking for more as they ramp up production. It expects to be at capacity for the current facility by 2007.

However, to reach that point, the company needs employees. It currently is hiring its next phase of workers. Getting applicants doesn’t seem to be the problem; getting qualified applicants does. Recently, the company received 260 applicants for roughly 30 positions.

After weeding through the stack, the company picked out people with a steady work history and either a high school education or a GED. Manufacturing experience is preferred but not required. In the end, they were left with 22, which they hired. MTU pays in the top 10% of area manufacturers in wages of between $11 and $25 an hour, and benefits include medical, dental and vision insurance, Tykal says.

Now all they need are people.

Development byproduct. Redevelopment of neglected parts of cities creates a byproduct, and developers and cities can either treat that byproduct as a waste or as a benefit. It is not unlike the artificial gypsum byproduct that Santee Cooper produces from its scrubbers that remove sulfur dioxide from coal emissions. That material could be thrown into the landfill or repurposed. Many companies have seen the value in the latter and are buying the material to make wallboards.

The byproduct from redevelopment projects is people. When a developer comes into an area, most often, the people who live in the area are uprooted and sent packing; if they are lucky, they receive some assistance.

Developers need to take an active and financial roll when coming into the area and devise a plan to help with the relocation of the residents. Yes, the developer is helping a city when it redevelops a blighted area, but it is also going to make a huge profit.

If they and other companies take the time to look at the people in that area, they may just happen to find a benefit in this byproduct, a pool of qualified workers. One of whom may be Erika White, who was forced to leave her home on Mixson Avenue as developers began to transform the 44-acre site into a $200 million mixed-use development. Here is a young woman who is holding down a full-time job, finishing her GED and raising a toddler. Do you think she has a strong work ethic?

I’m sure she’s not the only one. Take a look.

Bob Bouyea is the executive editor of the Business Journal. E-mail him at bbouyea@crbj.com.

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