Gray Manufacturing steps up university ties

By Marcus Clem

The largest tech-centered construction project in Northwest Missouri will have one section of it named in honor of a hometown St. Joseph industry leader.

The Gray Manufacturing Workshop Bay will serve as the heart of the Convergent Technology Alliance Center when it opens this fall on the campus of Missouri Western State University. Leaders gathered Thursday at the company’s plant on South Leonard Road to celebrate this ongoing progress. The university anticipates significant new enrollment from the project, its most important revenue source.

“These are really wonderful jobs, but they require a very high level of skill and education,” Missouri Western President Elizabeth Kennedy said. “And, when students see the technology that is behind this type of work, it is just something that grabs their attention. It has a great ‘cool factor’ for the young people, and I think it will be a game-changer.”

Gray Manufacturing gifted $500,000 to the $12 million project, anchoring public contributions to the university by the State of Missouri, the City of St. Joseph, North Central Missouri College, Buchanan County and several private donations. This group represents the “alliance” part of the CTAC’s name.

“Gray Manufacturing and our other corporate partners are also closely involved in advising us about equipment purchases and course delivery methods to help ensure that the education that takes place in CTAC is directly relevant to the workforce needs of today,” said Marc Archambault, the university’s vice president, who is executive director of the MWSU Foundation, as quoted in a news release.

Chairman and CEO Pete Gray spoke about how the $500,000 is considered a necessary investment in workforce development. Steps taken to date by his firm to train its own skilled technicians from scratch have been something of a stopgap.

“We would have hired them immediately if we could have but they’re just not available,” Gray said. “We got to a point where we were hiring people that were trainable, and we would bring them in and train them on our own.”

Consistent shortages of 20 to 30 positions at previous times have expanded the lead times on offer to clients. That creates a risk of business going elsewhere in search of products that are delivered without delay. Technology advances on the shop floor have reduced the human labor need somewhat, although robots and other cutting-edge devices present labor needs of their own.

“At this point, we are fine from an employment standpoint, but I know that many of the local manufacturers are not in that same position that we are today,” Gray said.

Gray Manufacturing was founded in 1952 by J.H. Gray and his son, Joe, who was Pete’s father. The company is best known for its array of equipment in the field of automotive maintenance.