***DVD Purchase Update

TO GET A DVD COPY OF THE MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE DOCUMENTARY CALL AND PLACE YOUR ORDER AT: EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS, Margie at CESA#7 920-465-2599

The fourth annual 2012 All Stars were announced at the New North Summit.  Winners are from a variety of manufacturing careers throughout northeast Wisconsin.  The online magazine features the winners.  If you would like a hard copy of the magazine, email ann.franz@nwtc.edu.

http://www.insightdigital.biz/issue/48699

Documentaries and video stories in combination with various multimedia platforms have proven to be effective drivers of public awareness, setting press agendas, influencing politicians, companies, and campaigners.

(Image courtesy of Jess Search , CEO of BRITDOC & Beadie Finzi)

WHAT’S NEXT? 

One of our main goals was to produce and complete a documentary that tells the story on the importance of the future of manufacturing if we want to survive, compete and perhaps even prosper. We the producers are very happy with the outcome in our efforts of trying to tell this amazingly HUGE story in the allotted TV time of only 57 minutes. But….there is soooo much more to tell.

We only touched the surface in telling the manufacturing efforts in Wisconsin - there are so many more people, organizations, companies that we still need to hear and learn from. What about our neighboring states – what’s their story? Midwest region? Nationally? Internationally?

As always we the producers depend on you the people, organizations and companies that continue to make the manufacturing sector hum. This year we will continue to work with Northeast Wisconsin’s Manufacturing Alliance and produce the short video stories you’ve seen over the years on this website. We also hope that as the membership on this website continues to grow we will hear from others that would be interested in helping us tell the next story through documentry(ies) and video shorts.

This website has been key to our success. We would like to thank The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation http://www.smeef.org/ who sponsored this website last year and who again are funding this website through 2012! 

Respectfully

Alex Zacarias  

Warren Gerds column: TV show
offers insight to future of manufacturing

Take a survey tell us what you think about the documentary:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FFK7RK2

11:00 PM, Jun. 20, 2011|

It's almost automatic: Say "manufacturing," and visions of doom and gloom cloud the mind.

Hold on, says "Manufacturing the Future," a locally made documentary that starts airing today on Wisconsin Public Television. Rather than accept a blanket statement, the program travels out in the field and finds out what there is to find out, primarily in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Yes, the program says, there are fewer manufacturing jobs to be had than in the
past. But there are ample manufacturing jobs. Those jobs require more high-tech
skills in the past, and the program underlines the importance of technical
college training to take advantage of openings.

Told in a refined technique — through the voices of participants, in this case through almost 2,000 video and audio clips — the documentary is for business and job-minded people. In the end, aren't we all?

Makers Alex Zacarias and Dean Thomas tap a perhaps surprising resource to
illustrate key points — a blacksmith. We see Jeff Benson at work in his shop in
Howard and hear him at key points in the hour.

In formative days of a town, the blacksmith was even more important than a doctor, Benson says. The blacksmith was essentially a town's first manufacturer because he created tools and products. The program relates that to present-day
firms throughout the region.

"Everything you touch has been manufactured," says Jeremie Meyer, technology teacher at Green Bay Preble High School.

The documentary continually visits area companies to subtly point out that not all
manufacturing is done elsewhere.

Some observations may surprise. The image of the paper industry is that of a
shriveling, dying vine. The program says tonnage is up, produced by fewer people — with high-tech skills.

Many sharp people who are leading area companies appear on camera. It's a
heartening program.

Green Bay Press Gazette 11:00 PM, Jun. 18, 2011

Richard Ryman column:
Documentary examines manufacturing challenges

A locally produced documentary on manufacturing will air at 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday on Wisconsin Public Television.

"Manufacturing the Future" was produced by Educational Television Productions of
Northeast Wisconsin and sponsored by Wisconsin Public Television and NEW
Manufacturing Alliance. Co-producers were Dean Thomas, executive director of
Educational Television Productions, and filmmaker Alex Zacarias.

Zacarias and Thomas spent three years filming across Wisconsin for the one-hour documentary, though many of the people in the film are from the NEW North region.

"We were trying to tell the stories of manufacturers, big and small," Zacarias
said. "The alliance was able to open up doors for us in Northeastern Wisconsin. We also wanted to tell the story from a woman's perspective, and found a
company in southwest Wisconsin."

The documentary examines challenges facing Wisconsin manufacturing, including environmental issues, globalization, a shrinking skilled work force and negative perceptions.

"We have examples of companies that have overcome the challenges," he said.
The film made its debut in February at the Green Bay Film Festival.

Wisconsin vies with Indiana as the nation's top manufacturing state. Ann Franz of the Manufacturing Alliance said 24 percent of the jobs in Wisconsin are manufacturing-related.

Franz said the group is cutting the documentary into 5- to 12-minute sections
for use in classrooms, and manufacturers are writing teacher guides specific to the
segments. "The idea is to have teachers use the video each day for a week and at the end have a manufacturer come in to talk to the class," she said.

The website for the "Manufacturing the Future" effort is www.manufacturingthefuture.com

NEW Manufacturing Alliance's website is www.newmfgalliance.org

 

The Green Bay Film Festival was a great success. We had a packed room and a lively discussion after the showing of the film.

Here are some comments we received from some of the viewers at the festival:  

“What did you think of the Manufacturing The Future documentary film?”

“What did you LIKE about the Manufacturing the Future documentary film, what’s working?”

1. The producers did a great job in demonstrating the variety of "manufacturing," from a multimillion dollar to small business.

MORE TESTIMONIALS:

You did a masterful job on the documentary. It's an excellent portrayal of manufacuring as it currently exists. I hope all K-12 students and their parents get a chance to see it, because I believe it will dispel any false perceptions they have about manufacturing as a career and open their eyes to the enormous potential that exists for career opportunities.

I just finished previewing Manufacturing the Future.  I love the title and I love the whole production.  

You did an excellent job of covering a complex subject in a way that lets the voices within the manufacturing community speak positively and powerfully about the quiet strength and viability of manufacturing in Wisconsin.  So many in manufacturing are creative, humble people who keep adapting and getting the job done.  This documentary helps these humble folks give voice to their passion for making things and for creating meaningful work for so many.  It is a sharp contrast to the constant barrage of negative media (see below) about manufacturing.  Thanks, for giving our manufacturing community this clear, powerful voice.

I also like the way you were able to include so many different types of manufacturers.  The diversity of types of products, processes, technology, and the attention to the role that sustainability will play in the future are all woven into a very cohesive flow.    

Kudos to you and your team.  Well done!

Chris N. Linn, Vice President - Marketing & Business Development  - Bassett Mechanical

The MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE Program is an initiative to increase awareness about manufacturing in Wisconsin including its history, the challenges it faces today and the future for our next-generation of manufacturers. The program includes a documentary with educational components and a web site with links to resources and information about the manufacturing industry. The MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE Program will shine a light on an industry once thought of as dark and low-tech and give you a glimpse of the future of manufacturing in Wisconsin.

EDUCATIONAL TV PRODUCTIONS N.E.W. & WISCONSIN PUBLIC TV
presents MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE a documentary



After 3 years of film production by the producers of Educational Television Productions of Northeast Wisconsin that included hours and hours of interview footage with experts throughout the state of Wisconsin the TV documentary MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE is finally off the production line. With over 1,983 video and audio clips this one hour documentary asks the questions on how to solve today’s manufacturing challenges if there is to be a tomorrow for this industry.

According to today’s mass media reports on the closing of factories and paper mills one would think that Wisconsin’s manufacturing is a thing of the past – or is it? The real questions are how and what’s needed to solve the future of manufacturing in Wisconsin.

The simplest answer is in its very definition: manu•fac•ture (man′yo̵̅o̅ fak′c̸hər) - The making or producing of something.

As the award-winning filmmakers, Alex Zacarias and Dean Thomas found in the making of the MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE documentary the answers are not all that simple. The question is how to solve the problems in this industry. Where are the jobs going to come from? What skills are needed by the next generation of manufacturers? How do you address the issues of clean energy?

The creative use of no narration in the program explores these hard issues by using a series of small stories that are interwoven and held together by comments shared by industry leaders and a modern day blacksmith as they share their thoughts on the future of manufacturing.

One of the programs compelling stories looks at a small business owner’s manufacturing specialty shop as he shares his personal story of fighting the conventional wisdom of education and his hopes for success for his daughter who will be next in line in running the business. Another story looks at the role of women in manufacturing since Rosie the Riveter to a present day CEO. Also, a story on the issue of sustainability and manufacturing is also explored as being vital to manufacturing’s future. One of the main themes that run throughout these stories is the role of Wisconsin’s educational institutions that have worked and continue to work with the manufacturing industry in ensuring its future.

CONGRATS 2011 NEW MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE ALL-STARS

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/insight/newmanufacturing_allstars2011/#/0

WATCH THE FULL STORIES OF THE 2011 MANUFACTURING  ALLIANCE ALL-STARS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwktz62PDLQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV_70s24BBs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlSvXlHAI2k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM9y6k35d98

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_eA7DpivyM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5OCzU8oLc4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c27O6v0xZ3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPCZwBxW_80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlwA4odh5Dw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL7PpWetrBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKFYi23hVz8

MANUFACTURING AND SUSTAINABILITY

Watch these manufacturing stories and learn about their sustainability efforts.

KI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjEzKYbuNAc
SCA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyt_9e0oAYg
Holsum Dairy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9zrBdV-64k
Miller Electric
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_kblAVmSvU

ORION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL6FsgL3HbU
Coating Excellence International
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJddYIl8bc8
Bassett Mechanical
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_UsUrcesw