Tour of Manufacturing

In October, Alexandria Industries opened its doors at our manufacturing facility located in Alexandria, Minn., to participate in the nationwide Tour of Manufacturing. We are always excited to educate people about what it is truly like to work in manufacturing and share what we do.

There is more to the event, then just opening the doors and letting people walk through our facility. We start planning months ahead of the event. Our outreach to let people know about the event included creating local newspaper inserts, radio and roadsign digital billboard ads, and posting yard signs throughout the community.

But we didn’t stop there. Because the most important visitors are young people, we visited several area schools to personally share information about our upcoming event.  During our time with the students, we focused on what it is truly like to work in manufacturing and why it is a viable career choice.

To give them a real-life example of someone who took advantage of the innovative possibilities in manufacturing, we played an EdgeFactor video, “Metal & Flesh.” In the video, a man who lost half his leg from a snowmobile racing accident, made his own prosthetic leg so that he could continue to ride his dirt bike. He then built similar legs for other amputees, so they could do things they would never have dreamed of given their injuries. The 10-minute video is definitely worth the time to watch it. Go to, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lemeblp9i0, or search EdgeFactor Metal & Flesh on YouTube.

The Event
On the day of our Tour of Manufacturing, we opened the doors to our facility and shared many important details about our business, including the raw materials we use, our extrusion presses, die shop and tool room, and our CNC machining capabilities. We also shared information about our long-lineal machining centers (automators), quality lab, robotics technology, and shipping services. And we highlighted the roles of our employees and what they do to serve our customers.

We also set up a display area to show visitors some of the specific components we make for our customers. This area included a robotics demonstration by the Gear Heads, a local FIRST Robotics team. We believe robotic students will serve a huge part in the future of manufacturing. The Gear Heads’ robot contains machined components for the robots legs and scissors lift that were made with support from Alexandria Industries. It was truly our honor to have them participate in our event.

Nearly 200 people came to tour our facility. We saw some new faces and some old friends. We also saw  family members of our employees, and many community members. We saw many students too!

Everyone had a great time and the feedback was positive. Visitors enjoyed learning more about our company, and about manufacturing.

Together, we can help more people understand what manufacturing is like today, and work to change the misperceptions of manufacturing careers. One person, and one conversation, at a time.

If you would like to learn more about hosting a Tour of Manufacturing event, feel free to contact Patty Hoffman at phoffman@alexandriaindustries.com