- What industry combines the talents of artists, engineers, fabricators, machinists, marketing, sales and business?

Small-scale manufacturing.

And advances in CNC, 3D printing and laser cutting have brought manufacturing into the home.

In "The Career Center," we're going to visit a unique manufacturer of recycled goods and talk to a small nonprofit about the career pathways available for people interested in small-scale manufacturing.

- [Announcer] "The Career Center" is made possible by General Motors (upbeat music) and by these supporters and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat electronic music) (birds chirping) (students chattering) (bell rings) - So my first job was at a candy store and the work environment was very busy, often very crowded, noisy, and I realized that wasn't a good fit for me.

So a job that I got after that was outside.

I was a counselor for a children's gardening program and I was still working with people, which is what I really liked, but the work environment was much more relaxed and I got to be outside, which was amazing.

- Yeah, I've had a job working in a restaurant before.

I didn't like how demanding the environment was.

- Not exactly a job, but I'm working on an upper body exoskeleton with a team of other people and we're designing and building it.

- Wow, that's amazing.

And that's a lot more interesting than scooping candy out for people.

It's so cool.

But you mentioning that is making me think of some videos that I've been watching recently about small-scale manufacturing, businesses or individuals that are creating small batches of products.

I think it's something we should check out together.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Consumer products are made with many metal and plastic parts.

Metal and plastic machine workers set up the machines that produce the parts and operate them during production.

Hundreds of thousands of machine workers in the manufacturing industry work in different phases of production.

Following blueprints, they set up the machinery to produce the correct product.

Machine setters prepare the machines before production and perform test runs of the initial batches, making repairs or adjustments as needed to ensure quality control.

Then operators take over and may have to load the machine with metal or plastic materials or adjust machine controls during production.

They periodically inspect the parts and conduct minor maintenance.

At completion, they remove and test finished products, then document production numbers.

Metal and plastic machine operators may specialize in a particular type of machine.

For example, computer-controlled machine tool operators operate robots to perform functions on work pieces.

Computer-numerically controlled machine tool programmers called CNC workers develop computer programs to control automated processes.

They require more training than other machine workers.

Extruding and drawing machine workers push out thermoplastic or metal materials in the form of tubes, rods or hoses.

Cutting, punching and press machine workers run machines to saw, bend or straighten materials.

Molding, core-making and casting machine workers run machines to form metal or thermoplastic parts or products.

Multiple machine tool setters, operators and tenders set up or operate more than one type of cutting or forming machine tool or robot.

Manufacturing facilities typically employ machine workers full-time, usually in shifts that include evenings, weekends and frequent overtime.

With automation, multiple machines may be controlled at the same time, so workers train on different machines and gain a variety of skills.

Because these workers operate powerful high-speed machines, most usually wear protective equipment such as safety glasses, earplugs and steel-toed boots.

Respirators are common for those in the plastics industry who work near materials that emit dangerous fumes or dust.

Employers prefer to hire candidates with high school education then train machine operators on the job.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] On a manufacturing floor, technical problems can result in complete havoc.

Molders, shapers and casters need to be composed and consistent to carry out detailed production processes.

They may craft food products, candles, tiles, figurines and pipes from a variety of materials such as clay, glass, concrete and stone.

Stone-cutters and carvers follow diagrams to cut stone with hand and pneumatic tools.

They also use sandblasting and polishing equipment to finish the stone.

Glass workers shape molten glass according to patterns.

They heat glass at very high temperatures until it becomes pliable, then mold or blow it to form products.

Minor injuries such as burns and cuts occur frequently.

Potters make ceramic and stoneware products using production machines or a potter's wheel that spins the clay as the potter shapes it with their hands.

Potters mix and apply glazes and operate the kilns to harden the pottery.

Molding and casting workers mix materials, construct and fill molds and cast products from metal, clay or plaster.

They use heating equipment to bake material, then finish products by boring holes, trimming excess material or stamping with identification symbols.

Conditions that are sometimes hazardous require most of these workers to wear protective clothing and equipment every day.

They stand and make repetitive motions much of the day and may work around loud noise.

Most positions require a high school diploma, although potters typically require technical training or on-the-job experience.

- So the really cool thing about small-scale manufacturing is that it can encompass a wide range of things.

- What do you mean?

- Well, small-scale manufacturers are typically entrepreneurs, people who had an idea for a product or a business and they wanted to see it through to the end.

So a small-scale manufacturer can do so many different things.

It can cover a lot of different bases.

You know, one of our students recently went to a small-scale manufacturer named Pingree in Detroit, and they make things out of recycled leather.

Let's take a look.

(upbeat music) - [Caleb] Are you a maker, a tinker or a crafts person who'd like to bring their creations to the market?

Do you have a style to share, products to purvey, handcrafts to hawk?

Today, I meant Pingree Detroit to learn the tricks of the trade from a cooperative of makers who design, manufacture and market unique creations.

Since forming in 2015, Pingree has been dedicated to making handmade items with minimal environmental impact.

Why did you choose to get into manufacturing?

- We actually didn't start with a product in mind, we actually started with the mission in mind.

So as a worker on cooperative with a social mission, our goal was to create meaningful living wage work.

We didn't actually know what we were gonna create or how we're gonna create, we knew in Detroit that there was an opportunity to build something special.

And so, when we were talking to folks about our desire to create employment opportunities for veterans and Detroiters and we wanted to utilize upcycle materials and make something here, in those conversations, we found that folks were really energized about it.

And my neighborhood actually said, "You know what?

Sounds like you're gonna be the boots on the ground in Detroit."

I was like, "Boots, we should make boots!"

How hard can that be?"

And Pingree Detroit was born with that idea of like, what would it look like to make shoes again?

And eight years later, we're making sneakers, we're making over 20 different products.

- You guys make everything.

- We're doing our best and you'll be actually making a wallet with us today.

It's called our Concord II Card Wallet.

So we're excited to have you learn with us today.

- The first step of making our wallet is pulling our leather.

So we have all of our leathers here and since we're gonna do black, we're gonna pick this one.

- So where do you get all these?

- So all of our leathers are from the automotive industry.

So a lot of these leathers are either discarded because of discoloring or marks, cuts.

Maybe they're the wrong color, not the right coating.

So a lot of these companies will get rid of these because they cannot use them and we upcycle them to create our own products here.

- [Caleb] So in general, what kind of opportunities do you think this industry can bring?

- The opportunities in sustainable manufacturing especially are infinite.

We're in this emerging economy that is looking for opportunities to create things that don't become a waste stream, that are non-toxic, that are carbon-negative.

How can we design work-in processes and products that actually improve the wellbeing of the person who makes it and the community around us?

So we just see opportunities to be thinking from a design perspective, engineering, all these solutions.

So we think if you can design products that are solutions, anything is possible.

- All right, we'll go down.

- Yap, one, two, take your hands up, perfect.

And right there is your piece.

- To a young person who wants to create things and is passionate, but they see there's already so many products on the market, what advice would you have for them?

- Sure.

So one, there's endless continuous improvement opportunities.

We don't have to always create a new product, we can improve on an existing product.

For us in particular, we see all these opportunities to create more sustainable products, products that are designed well, products that use things like upcycled materials from the auto industry, upcycled leather, upcycled everything.

To work towards an economy that's circular, meaning there's no such thing as waste, means that we're gonna be re-engineering and redesigning products so that instead of going to landfill, how could we create a closed loop so that we are recycling every component, upcycling components, creating no such thing as waste?

- [Megan] Have you ever used a sewing machine before?

- [Caleb] I have not, it looks interesting.

- So these are industrial sewing machines.

They're a little different than home sewing machines.

With this machine, there's a foot pedal to make the machine go forward, similar to driving a car.

So the further you press, the faster it goes.

We wanna go really slow.

- We wanna go slow.

- Yeah.

I will keep that in mind.

- Yes.

Put your foot up a little higher.

Nice and slow, just the tip of your toes.

- Ah (laughs).

Oh, okay.

So it sounds like there isn't a traditional pathway into this industry.

- So there are traditional and non-traditional ways to get involved in manufacturing and starting a business that creates products.

There are the traditional ways.

We're going through a two-year or a four-year program going into business school, learning manufacturing.

And there are also other, like they're folks who are good with their hands who just wanna learn and they start getting good at something and then they're friends, "Wow, I want one of those too."

And then that can become a business by itself and then it can grow that way organically.

There are a lot of ways.

I would say the most important thing is just to be eager to learn.

You'll learn that there's no one exact way to do it.

There's no one right way to be and there's no one right way to create a business.

It's you finding your own lane and then learning the best way you can go forward.

- Okay, Caleb, our next step is we're gonna emboss these Concord II wallets with our logo.

So the customers know that it's handcrafted right tn the city of Detroit by Pingree Detroit.

- Oh yes, it's all handcrafted.

- Indeed.

- [Caleb] So how do you stay true to your values while running a business successfully?

- You can stay true to your values and still be in business, right?

You just gotta really believe that anything is possible and then find folks who share your values that you can work alongside to create and bring this thing to life.

We definitely see our work as being outside of the status quo, right?

We're not making products just to maximize a profit.

We're making products to try and create a new way of doing business.

We hope for a future world where those things are celebrated, incentivized, supported from a government perspective, from a customer's perspective, to those folks who wanna work in such an industry that does those maximizing qualities.

- All right, Eric, I'm ready for the last step.

- All right, cool.

Our final step is etch painting.

And what this does is that it binds the layers together and kind of gives an aesthetic finish.

- Wow, cool.

Are there any Detroiters that inspired the work that you do?

- One of my favorite quotes is from an elder named Grace Lee Boggs who said we have to reimagine what it means to be a human being at this time on the clock of the world.

For us, we look through that lens every day of what does it mean to be alive right now?

What's our responsibility?

What's this opportunity look like to create new ways of doing business and waging a living?

So from everything we do, we try to root it in that idea of reimagining what's possible, reimagining work and reimagining a life that maximizes wellbeing.

- [Caleb] Thank you to Pingree Detroit.

I learned a lot today about how businesses can be responsible and help out their community.

By minimizing their impact on the environment, they believe they can maximize their contributions to their community and workforce.

- If I wanted to manufacture my exoskeleton, then would I need to go to an engineering school or a design school?

- Well, the first thing that you need to do is ask yourself what you loved most about the process.

So was it the engineering side of things?

Was it the design side of things?

Maybe it was the printing of your prototype that you liked the most.

So you have to think about that before we talk about those next steps.

- I kind of love it all.

- Ah, that's really good to know.

So my partner actually runs a non-profit small-scale manufacturing business called uniteSTEM, and he recently talked with us about small-scale pathways.

I think this could help.

(upbeat music) - Small manufacturing itself is one of the largest industries in the United States.

The definition of a small manufacturer is anywhere between one to a hundred employees.

My name is Frank and I am the founder and chief development officer for uniteSTEM.

We are a nonprofit and also a small manufacturer of educational products and educational curriculum specifically for integrated STEM education.

So the mission of uniteSTEM is works to create systems and create products that allow for greater access and affordability for schools, for parents, for youth, to engage and learn about STEM education and STEM disciplines in a way that is engaging and fun and experimental.

- So my name is Joann and I am a design release engineer at Stellantis and I volunteer here at uniteSTEM.

Currently, I am working on a drone project here at uniteSTEM.

We are designing our own circuit board and its sustain drone component to eliminate any requirement of soldering.

- One of the projects that we got involved with is related to the TSA competition.

This is a Technology Student Organization across the US that specifically works with K-12 and colleges.

The program that we got contacted for is a drone competition for high schools to build a DIY drone from the ground up.

We started researching the products and we went through and we did research on flight controllers, ESCs, radio controllers, all of the different components.

And then we went through and created a kit and then created a design specifically for the drone that would meet the competition requirements.

So on a small scale, our manufacturing will be anywhere between one to around 100 to 200 at a time.

That's about as much as we're going to manufacture on any given week.

This is due to our current capacity and also for small-scale manufacturing, we're looking to produce things in a small batch format, which allows for lower overhead for equipment and it allows us to adapt and change our models to fit what is needed in education at a quicker rate.

What unites everyone who does this, they just wanna make something.

You don't have to be a mathematician.

You don't have to be a biologist.

You don't have to be a PhD student.

People who work in this industry, they want to do something different.

They want a challenge, they want to learn new things every single day, and that's what you're doing.

- Working for a corporate company versus working for a small business kind of like uniteSTEM, they're polar opposites in some ways.

Biggest thing with corporate companies is you tend to work specifically for one component or one aspect, whereas small companies like this, you get to work on it as a whole.

So you can work on the structure of a component, you can work on the wiring, you can work on the program and everything here.

Whereas at a corporate, you're kind of like a specialist for a certain component or a certain feature and work with other groups and teams to generate the overall product.

- A career in small manufacturing is akin to walking into a space every day and then having to do something different.

It's the necessity of understanding that your day, that the challenges are going to change.

How you did something yesterday may not work today.

So how are you going to adapt?

How are you going to change?

- So the design process is actually multiple steps.

For me, it starts in my head.

I try to imagine what the final product is and the steps that will be required to achieve that product.

Then after that, I do multiple 3D modeling on the computer and I 3D print several prototypes.

Each prototype gets better and better until I feel confident that this should be the final product.

And after that, I hand it off to Frank and Frank takes it to the next level and turns it into a production product.

- If you're a student and you're like, "You know what, I have an idea and I want to be able to manufacture this one day," go down to the machine shop, talk to them about how they make it.

What tools do they use?

What are the methods that they use?

What is the math that they're doing?

And then go back to school and talk to your teachers and be like, "Hey, you know what?

I was looking at this and I need to understand what a thousandth of inch is I need to understand what a ten thousandths of an inch is."

You can be a student and you're interested in machining, you're interested in how to make something, go to Autodesk and get Fusion 360.

It's free for students.

Download the software to your computer.

Talk to your teachers in school.

Go down to your career in tech ed class.

- My journey started in high school, which I met Frank.

He was a student teacher there and my high school offered a program where you can take college level courses at the high school.

That provided me an opportunity to be innovative, to be creative, try new ideas, to spark my curiosity and learn new things.

- In small manufacturing, there are opportunities for internships, there are opportunities for apprenticeships.

There are multiple pathways into this career.

- Internet is a great way to help identify different organizations within your area that might offer opportunities like uniteSTEM does.

- You could go down to your local makerspace and learn how to use a piece of equipment.

You could take times and watch videos.

You could reach out to someone who's in the industry.

Often, they're really quite available to share their ideas and then you can begin to learn those skills.

What unites all of it is this idea that you can take something and change it and create it and present it to others.

(upbeat music) - So there really are a lot of different options with small-scale manufacturing, leaves things pretty wide open.

Last time, you did a mind map, right?

Do you have that with you?

- Yeah.

- Let's take a look at that.

- I completed it since the last time.

- Oh, fantastic.

Yeah, this actually will be great because I wanted to talk to you both about a five-year plan.

- What's a five-year plan?

- I'm glad you asked.

Here is a copy for you.

So if it's okay with you, Sam, maybe we can use your mind map to help explain what this five-year plan is all about.

So you just told us about your exoskeleton project and looking at your mind map, it seems like you are interested in hands-on work and working with groups and teamwork.

So I think that engineering would be a good path for you to explore.

So with that in mind, if we look at our five-year planner, what this does is it gives us a way to map out some of our goals across five years.

So for engineering, your long-term goals will likely need to include some sort of study at a college or university.

You could also set some short-term goals, maybe do a co-op or some kind of internship, and you can also map out what resources you might need along the way, maybe some obstacles that you might need to consider and have some plans for.

All in all, it's just a way for you to organize what you're going to be doing across this five-year time and give you a way to track your options.

- That sounds like a lot to put on one page.

- It does take a lot of time to think through this, but you're not including every detail and you don't want to include every detail.

You want there to be some room for you to change your mind and rethink some of these things as you have some experiences along the way.

So this is also reminding me of a new 21st Century Skills video that I just came up with on initiative and in it, I talk about SMART goals, which actually connects really nicely to this.

Let's take a look.

(upbeat music) In today's fast-paced and ever-changing world, there's one skill that's more important than ever before, initiative.

Hi, I'm Andrea Pisani.

I work with students every day to help them explore their passions and make great futures for themselves.

Let's talk about the skills everyone needs to make it in the 21st century, 21st century skills.

Initiative is a 21st century life skill.

But what exactly is it?

Why is it so important to learn and what can you do to improve it?

Initiative is the ability to take charge of your own life and to make things happen.

So what steps can we take to help build our initiative?

Let's take a look at three simple things you can do to help improve your initiative.

The first thing you can do is to set goals.

Goals help to give focus to what you want to accomplish.

They can also help keep you motivated.

But don't just set any old goals, you've got to set SMART goals.

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Maybe your goal is to do good in school.

Let's change that goal to be, I want to pass my math class.

That's better, but it isn't really measurable.

Pass can mean so many things.

And do you really just wanna pass or is there a certain grade you'd like to achieve?

If you didn't exactly achieve your goal, it is nice to know how close you got.

I want to pass my math class with an A plus.

Now that's looking good, but if math is your hardest class, is it really possible for you to get an A plus?

It might be, but let's pick something more achievable.

You don't wanna make your goals so hard that you won't be able to reach them, then you might not even try.

I want to pass my math class with a B plus, specific, measurable, achievable.

This goal is looking good.

Relevant.

Our goal is relevant because we want to do well in school.

Make sure that your goals align with what you actually want to achieve.

Setting goals for things that aren't important for you won't help build initiative.

Finally, good goals are time-bound.

That means you put an end date on them.

If there is no end date to your goal, you might never achieve it.

So let's rewrite our goal.

I'm going to pass my math class with a B plus average by the end of this semester.

Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Great SMART goal.

Okay, now we know all about goal setting.

Another way to develop initiative is to take on new challenges and responsibilities.

Whether it's starting a club, taking on a leadership role in a school organization or volunteering in your community, these experiences will help you build the skills and confidence you need to take charge of your own life.

And finally, pursue your passions.

There is no greater motivator than doing the things you love to do.

So there you have it, initiative is a powerful 21st century skill that can help people succeed in school, in their future careers and in their personal lives.

By setting SMART goals, taking on new challenges and pursuing your passions, you can develop the initiative you need to take charge of your own life and make a positive impact on the world around you.

Remember to always take the initiative to create a better future for yourself and for others.

- Thanks, Ms. Pisani.

You've given me so much to think about.

- That's great, Sam.

You're already off to a great start.

And if you'd like to learn more about careers in small-scale manufacturing, visit our website at mifutureofwork.org/smallscale.

There, you'll find videos, resources and more to help set you on your path.

See you next time on "The Career Center."

- [Announcer] The Career Center is made possible by General Motors (upbeat music) and by these supporters and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat electronic music) (piano music)