How One Manufacturer is Fighting the Skills Gap

Diamond Brand Gear has been manufacturing products for outdoor enthusiasts and our military by hand for well over a century. But like so many companies that rely on well-trained laborers, they’ve been forced with the challenge of a growing skills gap.

But they’ve found a way to innovate a lasting solution.

As Darren Dahl writes at Forbes:

Unlike other factories that rely on automation and robots, or who make their products overseas, Diamond Brand Gear’s 70 employees assemble their products by hand inside a 70,000-square-foot factory using high-speed industrial-grade sewing and cutting equipment.

But as the company looks to expand its product line, it faces difficulties in finding people with an exceedingly rare skill: the ability to sew.

“It’s become increasingly hard to find folks who can bring those skills to us from day one,” says John Delaloye, the company’s CEO and part-owner, who originally joined the business in 2005. “So we look for people we can teach those skills to instead.”

 

Click here to read the full story at Forbes.com.