Stoke RGA‘s Jen Fietz returns to the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast this week to offer her insights on the economic challenges and opportunities facing Northeast Wisconsin manufacturers at the year’s midpoint. Among the topics covered on the episode include Wisconsin’s recent manufacturing job losses; economic uncertainty and inflation; tariff refunds; rising petroleum costs; hidden opportunities for manufacturers in data literacy, upskilling, and customer intimacy; and the impact of the data center boom on manufacturing in Wisconsin.
On the last point, Fietz cautions that data centers are a huge opportunity for Northeast Wisconsin manufacturers, but putting too many eggs in that basket is not a wise growth strategy.
“We are seeing a big influx in revenue, but one of the things we’re talking to manufacturers about is … what is the next big thing that you see?” she tells co-hosts Kate Bruns of Insight and Ann Franz of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance. “How are you starting to build that secondary portfolio and diversify the customers that you have, because at some point the data center work, specifically in manufacturing, will come down. We want to make sure our manufacturers are strong and ready for that.”
Economic uncertainty has been a prevailing topic leading into summer, Fietz points out, adding that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has led to rising petroleum costs that don’t only affect transportation costs but also the plastics manufacturing industry.
She says the headline that our state losing 9,500 factory jobs last year was “obviously scary.”
Eleven thousand Americans retire every day right now, she says, and there isn’t a large enough population in Wisconsin to fill the void: “So we’ve been preparing for that in all industries, but manufacturers have been feeling those hardships since the pandemic,” Fietz says on this week’s episode.
Hear more insights from the Stoke RGA owner and NEW Manufacturing Insights annual sponsor by listening to this week’s episode anywhere you get audio podcasts.
NEW Manufacturing Insights is a joint project of Insight Publications and the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance, produced by Woodward Community Media.
