A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT AGENDA

Changing Gears: A 13-year-old student visits a leading gear manufacturer to explore future career options and, while there, learns about the European education model along with some interesting insights from many women she meets that are already succeeding inside “a man’s world.”

Forest City Gear (Roscoe, IL) frequently opens its doors to visitors, usually from customer and prospect companies, as well as international trade associations, the media, vendors and, occasionally, even competitors. Owners Fred Young, the current chief executive officer, and Wendy Young, the company president, have always believed that this policy was beneficial to the visitors, who see some of the industry’s finest gearwork, produced and validated for quality on absolute state-of-the-technology, world-class equipment.

The company was founded in 1955 by Stetler and Evelyn Young, Fred’s parents, and is now considered among the premier gearmakers in the world, with successes ranging from the Mars Rover to the BMW/Oracle, winner of the America’s Cup.

On March 30, 2011, however, another visitor came to tour Forest City Gear with a slightly different agenda. 13-year-old Alexi Cluff visited Forest City Gear to learn about manufacturing and especially to explore the options for women in manufacturing, an environment traditionally thought to be “a man’s world.” She was accompanied by her grandfather Brian Cluff, the vice president of Star-SU LLC (Hoffman Estates, IL), a leading supplier of gearmaking machinery, other machine tools and a proprietary line of cutting tools. Cluff and his longtime colleague and partner, David Goodfellow, manage and operate Star-SU.

Alexi is not your typical 13-year-old girl. She is currently enrolled in a program sponsored by a grant from the Motorola Foundation and conducted at the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Northern Illinois University. The program is a workshop in partnership with NIU-Enhanced Engineering Pathways, the Society of Women Engineers and the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois. The stated objective of the program is to challenge and sharpen the skills of accelerated learning for 12- and 13-year-old girls selected by their local middle school science and math teachers.

Currently, 48 girls work in small groups, each assisted and taught by NIU women engineering professors and women engineers from various industries. These instructors mentor the girls on various engineering projects, from the building of simple electrical circuits to create sound, motion and light, to bridge building, chemical engineering and lean manufacturing simulation. The groups meet on Saturday mornings on the NIU Naperville (IL) campus and also attend a summer camp that is held each June.

The groups or individual students have tours arranged for them at local area manufacturing locations such as electronics and communications giant Motorola, where they can absorb “real world” experiences and – especially – meet other women of all ages who have succeeded in the various disciplines required in a manufacturing environment.

Since Alexi’s grandfather had a long working relationship with Forest City Gear, he reached out to Fred and Wendy Young to arrange a tour. The Youngs obliged, giving the young lady a complete tour of their factory and quality lab, plus arranging a roundtable discussion with a number of the women at the company who perform all categories of activity for Forest City Gear. A world leader in precision gear manufacturing, Forest City Gear has an international reputation for “excellence without exception” – which also happens to be the motto of the company.

Women from all departments of the company, including application engineering, human resources, gear grinding, gear deburring, gear hobbing, order processing, estimating, expediting, procurement, materials inspection, quality validation, machine set-up and company management were at the table. Alexi’s eyes and ears were wide open as she listened attentively to every word.

Seated at the roundtable for Forest City Gear in addition to Wendy Young were Kika Young, Geneva Parr, Mary McClellan, Krista King, Sharyl Stewart, Lori Lovett and Ingrid West, women who are involved in literally every aspect of the company. As McClellan mentioned, “We touch the products at every step of the process, especially me (in gear deburring), because of my little fingers!”

These women were unanimous in their advice to Alexi Cluff: “Always be willing to learn more, never be afraid to speak up with your ideas, bring all your skills to the job, every day, and don’t hesitate for ask for directions . . . something men never do!” They all had a good laugh.

Alexi said, “I’ve always been interested in making things and finding out how they work,” a sentiment her grandfather echoed. “I started making gears when I was 14 and it’s fascinated me ever since.”  If there’s anything to that old adage about the genes skipping a generation, perhaps the gear industry will have another Cluff in its future!

At the end of the roundtable, Fred Young had some comments. He detailed the difference in the European education model, where there’s considerably more encouragement given to young women to explore any and every working option. In America, he noted, “Our greatest strength came from manufacturing, the basic ability to make things better and faster than anybody else. The value-added service of making something from raw materials is what builds a nation’s wealth and makes us more self-reliant. Letting go of manufacturing would be a big mistake. By learning and using the technology we develop, as well as what we can gather from other countries, we’ll make America a stronger nation and more successful, in the long run.”

Following the visit, Alexi’s grandfather remarked to Wendy that “Alexi was excited and, on the way home, quite animated. The sharing time with your ladies impressed her immensely. She has been journaling her observations and told us in the car on the way back home that the very first class she had at the NIU workshop for girls was a hands-on exercise in lean simulation and that what she saw in the shop, from the way the routing sheets, bar codes and processing were set up, meant that they obviously have implemented lean manufacturing practices! As she downloads, processes and articulates what she saw and observed, she has already started to ask me questions about gear geometry. Such sweet candy to this old grandpa!”

In reviewing the NIU program and the comments above, perhaps it is possible that Alexi Cluff actually is your typical 13-year-old girl. They just need to be shown their options.

Forest City Gear Co., Inc., 11715 Main Street, Roscoe, IL 61073-0080, 815-623-2168, Fax: 815-623-6620, www.forestcitygear.com.