By Marilyn Odendahl, Truth Staff
modendahl@etruth.com
WAKARUSA -- For the second time in less than two months, Elkhart County is welcoming more jobs from overseas.
Dwyer Instruments Inc. will be closing its manufacturing operation in Puerto Rico and moving the production line to Wakarusa. The transfer will create 49 new positions at the Ward Street plant by the end of 2009 and bring $500,000 in new investment to the local facility.
Tom Alexander, director of human resources for Dwyer, credited the employees' adoption of lean manufacturing techniques with streamlining the production and increasing the number of pressure gauges being built in Wakarusa. Consequently, this eliminated the company's need to have two facilities manufacturing the same instruments.
"Everybody comes out at the end of the day with more units that we can sell and more money in their pockets," Alexander said.
Dwyer's announcement comes on the heels of Dometic Corp.'s decision to move its refrigeration production from Sweden to its campus in Elkhart, bringing 241 manufacturing jobs. In August, officials from the state and the city gathered to formally applaud the recreational vehicle industry supplier picking Elkhart over Mexico or China. The company said it chose Elkhart primarily because the city is home to many of Dometic's customers and shipping costs would be lower.
Lower costs also played a role in the Dwyer consolidation. Sending raw materials to Puerto Rico and hauling the finished products back had always been expensive during the 30-plus years the plant operated overseas, Alexander said. However, under traditional manufacturing processes, the Wakarusa facility alone could not meet customer demand.
Now with the improved efficiencies that have taken hold in the Elkhart County location over the past couple of years, Alexander said, the local plant can meet current and future demand. Moreover, an incentive program, which boosts the hourly rate, encourages workers to exceed the production schedules.
Dwyer, founded in 1931, manufactures industrial gauges, instruments, sensors and controls for a variety of commercial customers. The Wakarusa plant, which currently has about 60 employees, makes a magnehelic gauge that was invented by Jim Dwyer, son of the firm's founder.
Along with acquiring the Puerto Rican operation, the Wakarusa plant is also benefiting from the launch of a new production and the switch from silk screening to printing the calibrations on the gauges, Alexander said.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Dwyer Instruments up to $45,500 in performance-based tax credits and up to $30,500 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans, according to a press release from the IEDC. The town of Wakarusa is also considering additional property tax abatement at the request of the Economic Development Corp. of Elkhart County.