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2015 | Doing Business in Connecticut 65 By Paul Marks E ngineers Colin Cooper and Jeffrey Paul became fast friends in the M.B.A. program at Columbia back in the '80s and found they shared a pas- sion for "lean" manufacturing, the cost- saving discipline that was transforming manufacturing around the globe. Team- ing up to acquire an old sheet metal shop in rural Eastford in 1998, they set about updating operations to incorpo- rate "just-in-time" delivery, value-steam mapping and other lean efficiencies. Cooper grew up in New Britain, but it was a job with UTC that brought Paul from western Pennsylvania to the state where the two would later strike out on their own. Over the years, they expanded the Whitcra Group through acquisitions. Specializing in precision parts and assemblies for aerospace customers such as General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircra, Whitcra has more than doubled in size to about 450 employees. And more growth is in sight. Last winter, it landed a 10-year, $234 million contract to supply parts and assemblies for Pratt & Whitney's new line of Geared Turbofan engines. Whitcra is one of the many Connecticut companies benefiting from the UTC division's success with more fuel- efficient engines for the Airbus A320, Bombardier CSeries and Mitsubishi Regional Jet. UTC demands strict quality standards of its suppliers. Cooper, Whitcra's CEO, said the contract is the outgrowth of a longstand- ing relationship with P&W. "Over the years, we've done a lot of development work with Pratt as they've been developing this engine. Certainly that put us in a pretty good position to secure this work. What's exciting right now," he added, "is we've been saying over the past several years, 'On a good day in development, we break even — and we don't have many good days!' But now this is production. We're not the only supplier, so there's risk, and there's also opportunity if we execute and the other suppliers don't." At peak production in 2020, the P&W contract will mean more than $30 million in annual revenue for Whitcra. Whitcra also makes parts and assemblies for General Electric's new CFM Leap family of engines, which entered flight testing last fall. e CFM Leap-1 engine, which competes with P&W's PW1100G for the Airbus A320neo jetliner, also is moving toward production. Combined with the anticipated sharp "ramp up" of P&W's engine production, that means a challenge for Whitcra and other suppliers, Cooper said. Typically, aerospace work calls for complex, high value-added parts at lower volumes, he noted, but the next 10 years will call for flawless production of complex parts at much higher volumes. "All three of our Connecticut facilities will play critical roles in fulfilling our obligations under this contract," Cooper said. at has Whitcra drawing on the rapid-production model of the automo- tive industry to reconfigure its production line once again. Cells with a cluster of machines performing different operations are being altered to become "flow lines." More than 30 new employees were hired over the winter. "It's all about continuous improvement and it never does end," Paul said. "What's great is that aer 16 years of doing this, we're still friends." ❑ Engineers Colin Cooper and Jeffrey Paul founded Whitcraft in Eastford in 1998. (LLCs) eligible for tax credits worth up to $7,500 that previously were only available to larger companies. "It's exactly what we wanted," Zoldy said. "I think the prospects for manufactur- ing are good. e automotive industry is up. We're seeing some 're-shoring' (of jobs to the United States). Oil prices are lower. Steel's coming down. We've seen growth in the commercial rail market." In March, the state Department of Labor reported that Connecticut employers, climbing back from the recession, added more than 25,000 jobs in 2014 — the best year for such growth since 1998. And the forecast for 2015 is generally favorable. Economist Nick Perna, an advisor to Web- ster Bank, predicts Connecticut will gain another 25,000 to 30,000 jobs this year. For manufacturing to prosper, the key is having the right kind of skilled workers available. Growth, Gioia emphasized, relies on "developing more job-ready manufactur- ing worker candidates." Hardest to find are machinists and operators of computer-controlled production machinery. ree years ago, the state created three new manufacturing training centers at community colleges in Bridgeport, Danielson and Waterbury, modeled aer the highly suc- cessful Manufacturing Machine Technology Program at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, which over a decade has issued certificates to more than 1,000 students. e state also has created a $30 million Manufacturing Innovation Fund designed to help smaller companies in historic manufac- turing communities make capital investments in needed equipment, technology or talent. Even while imposing $80 million in budget cuts this spring, Gov. Dannel Malloy vowed to continue state assistance pro- grams designed to support manufacturers. ese include the Small Business Express program, which by February had provided $186 million in grants and loans to almost 1,300 companies. In the 2013-14 fiscal year, the state also spent $78.5 million to fund 22 projects under the Manufacturing Assis- tance Act. Gioia noted that the long downward slope of state manufacturing employment has flattened in recent years. "I think we have the opportunity to reverse some of that in coming years," he said. e hoped-for gain of 8,000 to 10,000 new jobs through 2016, as reflected in the CBIA survey, "would cer- tainly put that on an upward trajectory." ❑ Flying High Whitcraft Group founders see jet-fueled growth from $234M parts contract PHOTO/WHITCRAFT GROUP PROFILE