Garland Manufacturing Sector Gets Boost

A major economic sector in Garland is getting a much-needed boost.

Seven Garland manufacturing companies, such as Karlee, Micropac Industries, J&A Manufacturing, Kraft Foods, SST Trucking Company and National Circuit Assembly and Dallas-based company Marlow Industries, will benefit from a $367,506 grant from the Texas Workforce Commission.

The grant will fund skills training for approximately 400 Garland-area employees. Richland College will partner with the Dallas County Manufacturers' Association to provide this training.

"One of the key areas that we've had concerns with is succession planning and our leadership," said Jo Ann Brumit, CEO of Karlee, a family-owned Garland manufacturing solutions contractor. "Many of the people that come to us are not trained, are not ready to move into those positions."

Employees will be trained in the areas of leadership development, lean manufacturing, project management and more.

"For any manufacturing company or small business to be competitive, you have to continually train, and it's expensive, and we all know we are in tough economic times," Brumit said. "To be able to get a grant to help us is really critical to our success."

Garland's manufacturing sector is the ninth-largest in the state of Texas, and more than 350 manufacturers are based in the city.

"A lot of the times, this training will enable the companies to go for different bids for different projects, because then they have employees that are trained to do what is necessary to get the award for that particular project," said Tandy Dollar, of Richland College.

Trainees will work with companies until August 2012.