DAYTON — Richard Halderman, president of Integrity Manufacturing Corp., is a member of the Northridge Optimists Club.

For now, at least. He hasn’t been feeling too optimistic in recent memory.

“I’ve been concerned that they’re going to kick me out,” Halderman said with a wry half-grin.

They are a few changes Halderman — who has been in local manufacturing for more than three decades — would like to see before he feels the nation and the area are truly out of the economic woods. One of those desired changes is a willingness by companies to invest again. Another is a willingness to beef up inventories approaching what he feels are dangerously low levels.

Still, something may be happening out there. David Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, wrote Friday, Jan. 29, that “restocking of business inventories provided a major, though temporary, boost to growth in the fourth quarter, accounting for 59 percent of the increase in GDP in the final three months of the year.”

Gross domestic product grew 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter last year, the federal government reported Friday.

Late last year, Integrity won a key suppliers’ award from a key customer, Cessna Aircraft. Actually, Integrity has won Cessna’s “Stars 2000” honor — representing 100 percent quality and no missed deliveries — for two straight years.

Given that Cessna represents 25 percent to 33 percent of the company’s business, the award is no small matter.

With no product line of its own, Integrity produces parts to customers’ specs. It makes machine gun, tank and helicopter components for FN Manufacturing in Columbia, S.C. It makes parts for Globe Motors, Inc. in Dayton. Its customers can also be found in the food processing, printing, recreational vehicle and communication industries.

Even with that diversity, though, the recession has taken a toll. Halderman said Integrity has kept all its customers, but what might have been an order for 300 units in better times has shrunk to, say, 150 units.

Geoff Hoefflin, general manager of Dayton’s PITCO Aerospace — which won the same supplier’s award last year from Cessna — agrees. PITCO didn’t lose any customers in 2009 — which Hoefflin called the “worst” year in his career financially — but customers are ordering less or not at all. That’s one reason why being recognized by a current customer like Cessna matters. Hoefflin looks for better times in 2010.

“It’s a big deal, particularly in these times,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.