North Central Massachusetts has a proud manufacturing heritage that can be sorted into two broad categories: “legacy” manufacturers of consumer goods like furniture, car parts, and food products, and “high-tech” firms specializing in innovation-driven products like pharmaceuticals, electronic components, and machinery parts.

“Regardless of the category, manufacturing in North Central Massachusetts is experiencing a renaissance,” said Roy M. Nascimento, president and CEO, North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. “By creating jobs, driving economic growth and demonstrating how the industry continues to evolve and innovate, our manufacturers are continuing to honor the legacy that made our region known as one of the most robust manufacturing hubs of the 20th century.”

While many of our region’s manufacturing leaders remain dedicated to the principles and values of those who came before them, the way these companies make the products their customers have come to know and trust for generations has evolved from hardscrabble workshops to clean rooms and high-tech labs.

L.S. Starrett Company

Founded in 1880 by Laroy S. Starrett, the L.S. Starrett Company in Athol is one of the region’s oldest companies. As a manufacturer of more than 5,000 variations of precision tools, gages, measuring instruments and saw blades for industrial, professional and consumer markets around the world, the walls within the L.S. Starrett Company speak volumes of an old mill facility that is modernizing and evolving operations while continuing to honor the roots of what made the company a global leader in toolmaking.

Matthew L. Wells, director of operations and continuous improvement at the L.S. Starrett Company, said it is not uncommon for generations of the same family to work at the company. “There are times when we have up to three generations of the same family with us, some with more than 50 years of service,” he said. “This is a really important aspect of our culture because with those years of service comes a level of dedication, knowledge and deep history within the company and for our products.”

For Wells, and many other manufacturers in the region, that dedication, knowledge and history is gone when retirements occur. In fact, Wells said that in the three years since he began working at L.S. Starrett, the company has gone from 70% of its workforce having years of tenure to almost 50% of its workforce having just five years or less experience on the job. “It’s admirable to have people work with you for their entire careers and be part of your family, but when they leave it’s a big challenge for us as we have relied on an individual’s knowledge to supplement our manufacturing process.”

To bridge the gap between legacy workers and the manufacturing process, L.S. Starrett has looked to local technical and vocational schools, as well as the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP), which works to provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with resources to help companies be successful.

“People are our number one asset and we have a lot of room for opportunity,” added Wells. “Through MassMEP, we established an operator training program to educate employees on how to read a Starrett blueprint and identify quality characteristics of our parts. We also partner with Monty Tech and Franklin County Technical School to offer more advanced technical programs that enable the student to work full-time during the day and attend school in the evening.”

And L.S. Starrett isn’t the only manufacturer in the region looking at today’s youth as the key to future success. SMC, Ltd., a medical device manufacturing company located in Devens, is also collaborating with local technical schools and universities to build its employee pipeline.

SMC Ltd.

Brian Payson, executive vice president at SMC, said the company has partnerships with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and UMass Lowell to offer co-op programs. And through a collaboration of parents, teachers, principals and superintendents at schools across the region, the company created an internship program designed for students to explore careers at SMC.

As a global company, SMC has nine manufacturing locations around the world with 2,000 employees, of which 440 employees work in Devens. As SMC continues to grow, it is maintaining strong roots in Devens with a 250,000 square foot expansion. “We love being in Devens,” added Payson. “We made the decision early on to automate our processes as much as we can so we can concentrate on high volume products to absorb the cost of automation.”

But for Payson, the real impact of today’s industry comes when he is touring guests at the Devens facility.

“We’ve hosted tours for superintendents in central Massachusetts and welcome other groups to our facility, and it always makes me smile when they realize this isn’t their grandfather’s manufacturing,” said Payson. “They are surprised with the massive focus on our automated engineered solutions and with the huge technical demand for engineers and workers to support the maintenance of the machines. It’s just fantastic to show them what we are doing!”

For some companies, leaders need to only look within their own family to continue their legacy. Catania Oils, which is celebrating its 125th year, is a leading provider of organic oils, including vegetable oils, olive oils and blended oils, for the foodservice and retail markets. A fourth-generation employee, Joseph Basile grew up sweeping floors and doing small tasks as a child when his grandfather led the company. Now more than 30 years later, Basile is at the helm as President.

“I grew up in the business from a young age and through my teenage years spending a lot of time with my grandfather at the plant on weekends,” recalled Basile. “As I got older, I would spend more time at the factory and did a lot of the jobs which look different today because the technology has grown leaps and bounds.”

In addition to SMC, L.S. Starrett is also focusing heavily on automation, especially in areas with difficult processes or tasks for lower skill sets to give employees with a higher level of skill more skin in the game on the shop floor.

“We want to give our employees more responsibility and ownership on machine fault recovery and putting in basic Lean principles on the floor,” said Wells. “We’re also working with robotics automation and leveraging AI (artificial intelligence) to detect quality issues in our inspection process.”

Jon-Michael Raymond, chief revenue officer at L.S. Starrett, said AI is also coming into play to identify marketing trends. “We can use AI to help with the sales process to identify new leads and track trends so we can have a targeted approach to the industry,” he said. “By investing in technology and using AI for data analytics, our sales [representatives] can see current trends, view hundreds of distributors, and explore thousands of products at their fingertips, which is very valuable.”

Catania Oils

At Catania Oils, AI is something Basile and the team are watching closely. “We are in the process of making investments in AI from a resource and time perspective,” said Basile. “A lot of things today are run by computers and automation has really exploded internally in running the business.”

Whether our manufacturers are creating jobs, driving economic growth or exploring AI and automation, one thing that has stood the test of time for generations is the collaboration among other manufacturers in the region.

“Together, we can make the overall region stronger by sharing best practices on megatrends and market conditions,” said Payson. “Market [intelligence] is critical to gage where we are and where we need to go regardless of our industry so I always want to hear from other manufacturers about how they are dealing with using technology and navigating the geo-political environment especially from folks in our own backyard.”

Basile agrees. “Being involved with the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, networking and coming together to understand common pain points versus being a single voice trying to get attention is a powerful thing,” he said. “By working together and compiling resources, we can draw labor to us, we can automate to do more with less, and we can have a stronger culture tied together in a network with the right people.”

For Nascimento and the Chamber team, working with 400 manufacturers that call the region home means taking the Chamber’s commitment to advocating and supporting the industry one step further. In 2024, the Chamber announced the Manufacturing Council of North Central Massachusetts to support the industry and regional economy.

“The Chamber has always been a strong champion of local manufacturing, advocating and supporting the industry in multiple ways,” said Nascimento. “I believe that our strong advocacy and support of the manufacturing industry is one of the things that helps set our Chamber apart. From hosting manufacturing tours to publishing a Manufacturing Directory and supporting workforce efforts for the industry, the Council is a natural extension of our work and reflects our commitment to supporting and growing this important sector of our economy.”

Want to learn more about the Manufacturing Council?

Council members can network with peers, participate in tours of manufacturing facilities to learn best practices, attend quarterly meetings featuring experts in the industry, gain exclusive access to policy leaders, and collectively advocate for the industry. To learn more, call Roy at 978-353-7600, ext. 225.

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