Mr. Griesbaum will lead the overall quality assurance efforts at K&M to meet total customer satisfaction. He will be responsible for the coordination of all quality related activities and supervise the quality engineers and inspectors. Additionally, he will serve as the company's Management Representative with respect to its continuing ISO-9001 certification and various customer-specific quality programs.

John has over twenty years of progressive quality management and engineering experience in large, international Tier 1 automotive companies. He has a demonstrated track record of leading successful advanced quality, engineering, and lean manufacturing initiatives.

John is a graduate of Valparaiso University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and resides in St. Joseph, MI with his wife and two children.
K&M Machine Fabricating, Inc. is a full-service production company offering quality integrated services and precision manufacturing capabilities since 1951. Located in Southwestern Michigan, K&M's manufacturing areas include a 223,000 square-foot machining building with 40 state-of-the-art CNC machining centers, a 67,000 square foot fabrication shop, and a 35,000 square foot burn facility.

Jeff will focus his selling efforts in both our traditional markets such as off-road construction and mining equipment and our newer markets such as wind power.

He has over fifteen years of industrial sales and project management experience and comes to us most recently from a heavy machining and fabricating company where he served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing.

Jeff is a graduate of Central Michigan University and resides in St. Clair Shores, MI with his wife and daughter.

As a maker of conveyor systems for manufacturers, Shuttleworth always changed with the times. The 100-employee Huntington (Ind.) company's strong business in electronics dropped off about five years ago as more production moved overseas. After that, the company focused on conveyors for food, health care, automotive, and paper products-until this year, when it entered what could be its most profitable niche yet: solar panels.

"It's got some of the biggest potential of the markets we've been in," says Jim Bonahoom, Shuttleworth's vice-president for finance. Even though Shuttleworth only just entered the market, the company expects solar to account for one-fifth of its roughly $20 million in revenue this year, Bonahoom says.

The green movement has become increasingly mainstream in the small business world (BusinessWeek SmallBiz, Summer 2006) in recent years as small consumer companies have embraced environmental principles to address shoppers' concerns about climate change. Now small manufacturers like Shuttleworth are also betting on growth in green industries. Market researcher Clean Edge predicts that making and installing solar power systems will grow from a $20 billion to a $74 billion industry globally in the next decade, and the firm expects wind power installations to grow from $30 billion to $83 billion. Clean energy advocates envision a sea change on the scale of a "low-carbon industrial revolution," as a recent Deutsche Bank (DB) report called it, to halve carbon emissions by 2050.

New Frontier for Manufacturers
Both presidential candidates have proposed caps on carbon emissions. Barack Obama has called for $150 billion investment in clean energy technology over the next decade; John McCain has pledged $2 billion annually toward advancing clean coal, among other initiatives. Policymakers also hold out clean energy as a panacea for America's troubled manufacturing sector, which have shed 3.7 million jobs in the past decade, or more than 20% of its workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A September report by the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, calls for an economic stimulus plan that would create 2 million green-collar jobs through $100 billion in tax credits and direct investment. Van Jones, a senior fellow at the center and author of The Green Collar Economy, says small businesses that offer ways to use less energy and produce it more cleanly could grow fast. For example, construction firms can focus on retrofitting buildings to be more efficient, and manufacturers can supply components for renewable power sources. "Wind in particular has some features that make building stuff here smart, because [facilities are] heavy," Jones says. "The towers are 20 tons of steel. The turbines are made of 8,000 parts."

One entrepreneur ready to create such green-collar jobs is Richard Wheat, president of Eagle Hoist in Louisville, Ky. The company makes heavy-duty lifts to move people and materials at high-rise construction and industrial sites. A wind farm developer asked him eight months ago to design a hoist that could fit inside wind turbine towers, so technicians don't have to climb 20 stories-with their tools-to get to the top.

Wind in His Sales
Wheat built a prototype and is now in talks with some 50 wind farm developers. He has spun off a second company, Wind Turbine Personnel Hoist, to handle the jobs, and he expects to hire 25 to 35 people to double the size of his current 30-person staff. Wheat says the turbine hoists will double his sales by 2010, more than making up for the dip he has suffered from stalled high-rise construction. "All the projections are that [wind power] is just going to continue to explode in percentage growth," he says.

That wasn't always the case. K&M Machine Fabricating in Cassopolis, Mich., started working with wind power companies 12 years ago, but it was unclear how viable the industry would be until recently. "I think a lot of stars have aligned over the last three to five years," says Gary Galeziewski, chief financial officer of the 250-person firm, which specializes in making large metal components. He says high energy prices, state-level commitments to buy renewable power, and more consistent support for clean power tax credits have combined to make wind power a booming market. Demand is sustained enough that K&M, which has sales of less than $100 million, expects to add at least 100 employees over the next two years to build parts for wind power companies.

But Galeziewski warns that entering green industries isn't necessarily easy for every company, and clean energy may not be the salve for U.S. manufacturers that some predict. "There's a lot of automotive companies trying to retool themselves to get into wind power," he says. But the quality standards for wind components are as stringent or more than for autos. And at K&M, he says, the biggest challenge is recruiting qualified operators from what he calls "highest rung of the machining industry" to work on expensive components. "These are not people just kind of standing on a line pushing buttons."

Still, for small manufacturers looking for growth markets, clean power appears to be a rare bright spot in a dismal economy. By aligning themselves with green industries, small companies in struggling sectors can build more sustainable businesses in the long term, says Van Jones. "There is a big opportunity to turn this breakdown in our financial and economic system into a real breakthrough," he says. "If you make a bet in the direction of the green-collar economy, I think you're going to be able to prosper.""

Tozzi covers small business for BusinessWeek.com

This article originally appeared in Business Week Online.

The SNK HF-7M high speed bridge milling machine is the largest machine of its kind at the IMTS and features 11 meters of x-travel and 4.7 meters of y-travel. The Mitsubishi MVR35 5-face vertical bridge mill offers 6.2 meters of x-travel and 3.5 meters of y-travel. Rounding out the lineup is another Mitsubishi, the M-HT 13/1618 horizontal boring mill with 3 meters of x-travel and 2.5 meters of y-travel. These are just part of a $20 million expansion project underway at K&M featuring a 52,000 sq. ft. machine shop addition.

Joining these machines in early 2009 will be two machines ordered more than a year ago. The PAMA Speedram 2000/3 horizontal boring mill offers 20 meters of x-travel and 5 meters of y-travel and the PAMA Speedmat 3/TR16 two-pallet horizontal boring mill provides 3 meters of x-travel and 2.5 meters of y-travel. All of these new acquisitions will be complemented by a Delta Slant Classic Gantry CMM with 3 meters of x-travel, 6.3 meters of y-travel, and 2.5 meters of z-travel. These large machines will give K&M the capability to machine virtually any size hub, bedplate, or gearbox in the wind industry.

The IMTS is the premier manufacturing technology show in the Americas with over 1,500 exhibitors from all over the world. The last IMTS brought together more than 91,000 visitors from over 119 nations. This year's show runs from September 8th through the 13th at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.

The new winners are Zachary Boller, a Buchanan High School graduate; James Spaulding, a senior at Ross Beatty High School; and Samantha Wigent, a graduate of NorthWood High School.

Seven previous K&M winners will receive an additional $1,500 for the fall 2008 term: Nick LaFlex, a senior at Michigan State University; Brittany McCray, a sophomore at Indiana University South Bend; Denisa Perry, a sophomore at Northern Michigan University; Danyelle Rife, a sophomore at Southwestern Michigan College; Edward Rivera, a senior at Western Michigan University; Lesley Rivera, a sophomore at the University of Michigan; and Russ Sanders, a sophomore at Lake Michigan College.

The K&M Scholarship Program was established in 2001 to honor Earl Marhanka, who founded the business in 1951.

The above article was printed as a part of Community Briefs : Michigan in the May 7, 2008 South Bend Tribune.

K&M builds the "guts" for wind turbines, the huge windmills used to generate energy across the United States. Other companies provide the turbine blades and exteriors and assemble the pieces together.

"We build what clients want," K&M CFO Gary Galeziewski told MiBiz. "There are many companies trying to retool themselves into alternative energy (equipment developers). Our reputation has spread."

Galeziewski said he expects double-digit growth in the alternative energy sector over the next few years thanks to a growing interest in generating power from sources other than oil and coal. Most of that interest comes from foreign investors, but there's also been a shift in public policy at home. Several states - like Texas, Iowa and Pennsylvania - are requiring utilities to get a certain segment of their power from sources other than oil or coal. Michigan is not one of those states, though Galeziewski said there is a wind farm being planned for Huron County, at the tip of Michigan's thumb.

Manufacturing wind turbine parts is only one segment of K&M's business. Its major work is in building equipment for the mining and metalworking industries, something the Cassopolis-based company has been doing since 1951.

"If you're driving down the road around here and see that Caterpillar yellow, there's a very good chance that we made it," Galeziewski said.

The construction vehicle manufacturer is K&M's largest customer, though it also counts John Deere and locomotive maker Electro-Motive Diesel among its clients.

Galeziewski said much of the company's growth has happened in the last decade thanks in large part to the need for energy, both "green" and traditional. Despite talk from politicians about generating more alternative energy in the United States, Galeziewski said "business is booming" for the construction equipment his company manufactures. That's because of increased pressure to find sources of oil.

Galeziewski said many companies are ordering larger pieces of equipment, too. Right now, most wind turbines generate between 1-1.25 megawatts of electricity, but there's a growing trend toward larger turbines, those that can generate twice as much power.

One of the barriers to stepping into the alternative energy business is scale: companies simply can't compete if they don't have the room and equipment to handle massive machinery. K&M has three buildings covering nine acres in Cassopolis.

Right now, the company has about 250 employees, but Galeziewski said he's looking for more as the company grows. K&M announced annual bonuses of $4,200 to each hourly employee for 2008 and is building a 52,000-square-foot addition to its machine shop. It was also the first stop on Gov. Jennifer Granholm's November 2007 tour of alternative energy businesses in Michigan.

"We got a lot of media calls after that," Galeziewski said.

The only stumbling block in K&M's path is finding acceptable workers. The company plans to hire some 120 people in the next two years in fields like welding and CNC machinery. Nationwide, Galeziewski said the funding is "drying up" for skilled trade workers, despite a steady and even growing need for their abilities. Though he credits Southwest Michigan school systems for having active programs in the skilled trades, he said the type of work K&M does requires only the best.

"With the size of equipment we make, these things can't fall down," he said. "It demands a high level of skill. If there's any limiting factor to our growth, it would be on the employment side."

The company has relationships with local colleges, including Southwest Michigan College and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, which have strong skilled trades programs, Galeziewski said. It's also looking to keep Michigan workers in the state. He said K&M would welcome any out-of-work engineers and machinists from the Big Three automakers or any of their suppliers.

COPYRIGHT 2007. MIBIZ.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This article appeared in the Monday, March 17, 2008 issue of MiBiz, read by upper management executives in West and Southwest Michigan. Print subscriptions are free to qualified individuals who are employed in West and Southwest Michigan. For further information about MiBiz, visit www.mibiz.com.

K&M Machine Fabricating, Inc. in Cassopolis had an excellent year. Hourly employees on the job for a year are each receiving $4,200. Bonuses over the past four years have now totaled $15,500.

K&M also is hiring. In the next 18-24 months, they look to add another 120 positions which they call "high-paying".

"The only limiting factor to our aggressive growth plans right now is people," said Derek McLoughlin, K&M General Manager in a press release. "We need to add to our immensely talented workforce so we can deliver the products and services our customers are demanding."

How do they do it? The company is playing a prominent role in renewable energy, specifically wind power.

The company started in wind power more than ten years ago and now makes wind turbines for companies like Clipper Wind and Gamesa.

The company is currently building a 52,000 square-foot addition to its machine shop and has ordered several new manufacturing machines.

View story at WZZM 13 website.

K&M needs to hire 120 additional workers to manufacture 36,000-pound wind turbine components.

K&M workers assembled to listen to Gov. Jennifer Granholm Monday afternoon. Gabe Covey of Cassopolis was part of the governor's state police security detail.
Her stop in Cass County was one of several launched last week around the state where the governor will talk about the job-creating role energy will play in Michigan's economy rebounding from reliance on the auto industry.

"Developing alternative sources of energy is critical for our nation in the 21st century, and it can mean thousands and thousands of jobs for Michigan citizens," said Granholm, who met privately with K&M officials, held a press conference and addressed K&M employees during her more than hour in Cassopolis on her fourth visit to this area.

While the agricultural sector produces ethanol fuel to power vehicles, "Wind, of course, produces electricity that powers your homes and businesses. There is no doubt that Michigan is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this. We have the next generation of workers coming through the pipeline (at Western Michigan University and Ferris State University, which sent representatives).

"Climate change is affecting everything from the icebergs to Great Lakes levels having gone down. The question for us as a state and as a nation is how we make sure we reduce global warming and create jobs. I want Michigan to take advantage of this moment where everybody's looking for solutions to the climate change issue. The solutions are all in creating alternatives to fossil fuel burning - to oil burning, to coal burning to natural gas. The bottom line is we've got to create alternatives," she said.

Recalling her trip to Sweden a few months ago, Granholm said, "They have a goal of getting 100-percent of their energy from renewable sources. As a result of that goal, they've created tens of thousands of jobs in the renewable energy economy."

What the Scandinavian nation is doing, the governor said, bodes well for Michigan, which owes its "wind potential" to being surrounded by water.

"In fact, I was told this morning that in the United States right now, the U.S. as a whole produces about 14,000 megawatts of wind. Michigan has the capacity to do 14,000 MW of wind by itself. We have the capacity to be the third-most productive state for wind.

"We don't want to destroy the view for tourists or anything like that," Granholm said. Our great manufacturers, like K&M, have to produce the turbine components. K&M has a history of producing really big components," from mining equipment to sculpture.

"You have to have an infrastructure associated with that kind of manufacturing capacity to get a piece of this business. Does Michigan have available manufacturing capacity, or what? Our workforce, combined with the wind possibilities, make a huge possibility for Michigan to employ people in this area."

Second, water. "Many businesses - and we were with some of them Friday - are now moving into the area of capturing movement from water currents," the governor said. "Any time there's movement, you can capture that and feed it into the electric grid. There are some who are manufacturing wind turbines and, at the bottom of the turbine, if the turbine is out in the water, they put devices that capture the movement of the waves, so you've got a two-fer. Both the wind and the water feeding into the electric grid. Michigan has the largest amount of shoreline of any state in the country other than Alaska, so our water capacity, combined with our wind capacity, is huge."

Turning again to Sweden, Granholm said, "They're also taking advantage of something Michigan uniquely has, and that's wood. That goes to this issue of the next generation of ethanol. Two-thirds of Michigan's land is covered by forests. We have the largest footprint of publicly-owned forest land of any state in the country. What a huge opportunity for us as we look at cellulosic ethanol, the next generation. We now have this moment to take wood ... and at the end of the process they have fuel for your car ... they call it 'wood to wheels.' If you can grow your gasoline, isn't that a better deal than paying three bucks a gallon?"

"It's an energy security issue, too," the governor continued. "As we fight this war in the Middle East, wouldn't it be great as a patriotism issue ... to be able to grow energy supplies here?"

Adding to wind, water, workforce and wood is a fifth W, waste.

"In Sweden, there's a region where they're getting 80 percent of their energy from burning municipal landfills," Granholm said. "But they don't let the CO2 (carbon dioxide) go up in the air, they capture it all and put it back into heating commercial and residential businesses. (Michigan) used to be the landfill capital of North America - and we still are. I hate to say that's something unique to Michigan we could capitalize on, but it actually is.

Solar doesn't start with W, but it also "is a huge opportunity for us, too," she said, pointing out that in the Saginaw Valley there is the world's largest producer of the silicon used in making solar panels.

"Three years ago we had one ethanol plant in Michigan. Now we have 18 biofuel plants coming online. There's a huge opportunity for us there, as well."

"The last thing I would mention," the governor said, "with our history in the automotive industry, no other state can claim the research and development associated with the battery, with fuel cells, with hybrid electric vehicles and flex-fuel engines. The combination of what we're doing is going to be a fuel-efficient engine for the 21st century. We produce the engine, the fuel that goes into the engine and the electricity that goes overhead and employ people in this sector.

"Our goal is to replace those lost manufacturing jobs in the automotive sector with jobs in this alternative energy sector, and that's why K&M is such a great example of a growing company where the demand is enormous."

Gary J. Galeziewski, K&M's chief financial officer, said, "A significant amount of investors are rapidly putting their money into wind farm developments around this country." Michigan so far has just one.

"Windmill manufacturers are pretty much sold out into the foreseeable future," he continued. "What's fragile is their supply chain of manufacturers. They do not have the capacity in their supply chains of companies like K&M, which can manufacture all of these components for them. That's what needs to be developed. That's what we're bullish on. We have expansion plans under construction right now to move quickly at the velocity this industry is moving at to support wind farm development."

An ethanol producer said his industry is looking at gasification of both wood and more of the corn plant and grasses to fuel factories more cheaply than natural gas.

He told Granholm about visiting a stretch in northern Iowa "where you drive 40 or 50 miles with windmills on both sides of the highway. We were at an ethanol plant in Minnesota that's putting in two windmills that are going to power that plant."

"This being able to use wood or waste for energy is the most cutting-edge thing," Granholm said. "It's very exciting. In fact, in the Upper Peninsula, they're taking waste from the pulp and paper industry, from the tops of trees to the stuff they leave on the forest floor, and they've teamed up with a firm in Sweden on a process called black liquor gasification - sounds illegal doesn't it?" she said to Undersheriff Rick Behnke.

"It (derives) electric energy and it can also create biofuels. The first place in the country to have this process would be in Michigan, based upon this partnership. Michigan is also the first state in this country to have a commercial cellulostic - the next generation of ethanol - plant. We want to be the state that leads the nation in breaking U.S. dependence on foreign oil. We feel like we've got an economic obligation and a moral obligation. Since we put the world on wheels, we could be the state that leads this change."

Granholm said such energy alternatives offer Michigan "triple wins" of: creating jobs in areas known to be growing; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and protecting the Great Lakes.

Such a policy would require a certain percentage from wind, attracting turbine manufacturers and bringing jobs.

"We're on board," state Rep. Rick Shaffer, R-Three Rivers, said. He attended the event along with Sen. Ron Jelinek's representative, Chris Siebenmark.

"This is really a bipartisan issue," the governor said. "Senators and representatives on both sides of the aisle have been very supportive of making sure the state moves forward because they recognize that Michigan is uniquely positioned when it comes to water and wind. I'm excited."

View story on Cassopolis Vigilant website.