VIDEO: What it is like inside two Dayton region factories

Manufacturing may have taken a hit in the Dayton region but plenty of products are still made here.

In fact, the manufacturing sector makes up 22 percent of the Gross Regional Product in the 14-county Dayton region, according to EMSI data provided by the Dayton Development Coalition.

A Dayton Daily News photographer and reporter went inside two area manufacturing plants, Staub Manufacturing Solutions in Dayton and the Fuyao Glass America plant that opened in 2015 in the former General Motors plant in Moraine.

Most of us only see these buildings from the outside. These videos provide a rare glimpse of what happens inside those doors.

Staub is locally owned and employs 40 people. The employees use laser-cutting machines to manufacture metal parts for a variety of manufacturers, including those making heavy trucks, locomotives, agricultural and earth-moving equipment equipment and suppliers to the restaurant and retail industries.

Fuyao is a Chinese-owned automotive glass manufacturer. The plant employs 2,300 people and is expected to add another 700 over the next three years.

The Dayton Region Manufacturers Association is working with area companies to reach young people in middle and high school to show them that manufacturing can be a viable career for them, said Angelia Erbaugh, president of the association, which has 400 members.

“In general this workforce thing, everybody’s talking about it,” Erbaugh said. “Everybody’s worried about it. The solutions are just so long-term.”

THE PATH FORWARD

Like all of you, we care deeply about our community, and want it to be the best it can be. There is much to celebrate in the Dayton region, but we also face serious challenges. If we don’t find solutions to them, our community will never be its best.

We have formed a new team to dig into the most pressing issues facing the Miami Valley. We want to engage you and others in the community to move toward a stronger and better future. We’ve begun a project we are calling The Path Forward in which, with your help and that of a new 16-member community advisory board, we will seek solutions to issues readers told us they were most concerned about.

In June, we began the project by examining the current state of the opioid epidemic, asking what a recovered community would look like. A few weeks ago, we began an examination of Dayton Public Schools. Today, we explore why the local economy is booming for some people, while others continue to struggle.

Follow the project on our Facebook pages and at DaytonDailyNews/PathForward, and share your ideas.

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The Path Forward: Jobs and the economy