The Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) was founded around 32 years ago with the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). At that time and into the mid-2000s, there was a growing apprehension regarding the loss of manufacturers and small-to-medium businesses across America. To combat this, a manufacturing extension partnership (MEP) was launched in every U.S. state and Puerto Rico, creating a network of organizations. The MMTC won the bid to become the official MEP for the state of Michigan.

With a manufacturing and supply chain network that spans the U.S. and India, Aerostar’s offering is simple: exemplary engineered components and customer service, and always at a highly competitive price.

Many companies have a proud and rich past. In other cases, the company’s history is shorter but its prospects are exciting. To speak with the owners of Diversified Tooling Group is to get a peek into a company with both: a proud family history spanning three generations and a passion for their business that points to a bright future.

If one could highlight a single manufacturer in Michigan for being innovative and fresh in the way it approaches the field, it would be Atlas Technologies. As a division of Stonebridge Technical Enterprises, Atlas Technologies goes above and beyond to make careers in manufacturing the envy of many in the trades and in other fields. Moreover, the Michigan-based company has achieved double-digit annual growth in the wake of tremendous transformation over the past three years.

In 1898, Charles Grotnes (pronounced ‘Grote-ness’) founded an eponymous machine works in Chicago to provide services and products for a very specific industry. He “started a business to produce metal rings which held the staves of a barrel together,” Vice President, Jim Zielinski tells us.

At Aluminum Blanking Company, a Michigan-based toll processor of aluminum, stainless steel, and surface-sensitive materials, the team strives to be a cut above the rest in all that it does—which is a lot.