MADISON – Gov. Tony Evers proclaimed October as Manufacturing Month, and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) will be promoting the state’s top industry throughout the month. In addition to making a number of stops throughout the state on its Manufacturing Tour – sponsored by M3 Insurance – WMC is releasing a series of videos promoting the industry.
Manufacturing is the number one contributor to Wisconsin’s economy, producing $63 billion in total output in 2018 – 19 percent of Wisconsin’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Additionally, the state’s more than 9,000 manufacturers employed 475,000 people in 2018.
The first video released by WMC focuses on women in manufacturing. Opening the video, Sandy Krach explains that 47 percent of the workforce is made up of women, but that number is only 30 percent in manufacturing.
“There is a lot of opportunity to get women more engaged,” says Krach, who is the Director of Product Selection Applications at Greenheck, which is headquartered near Wausau.
The video features women who work in manufacturing at both Greenheck and Fond du Lac-based Mercury Marine. To help get more women exposed to manufacturing, Mercury Marine has started a program targeting students.
“In the last five years, we started a partnership with the local high school,” Sarah Zimmerman, Mercury Marine Director of Global Lean Six Sigma, says in the video. “What we wanted to do is encourage girls at the high school to start thinking about manufacturing.”
The full video can be viewed below:
For more information about Manufacturing Month, please visit www.wimanufacturingmonth.org, and to register for the Wausau or Madison stops of the State of Wisconsin Manufacturing Tour, please visit www.wmc.org/mfgtour.
