On  the January 8th episode of CNBC’s investement show Mad Money, hyperactive host Jim Cramer devoted a significant amount of time discussing the plastics industry and, in particular, SPI member company PolyOne. Watch the video above.

Once you get passed his antics with the two Barbie dolls — which, in explaining plastics’ processes and societal contributions he names as his two girlfriends “Polly” and “Ethel” (get it?) – Cramer describes the strategic and managerial changes PolyOne has made to transform the company.  Cramer calls PolyOne a “fabulous bet on America’s economic recovery”  and a ”true plastic turnaround story.”  He concludes by saying, “I know that everyone is looking for recovery plays that have not happened… I want you to look no further than PolyOne.”

Headquartered in Avon Lake, Ohio, PolyOne Corporation, with 2008 annual revenues of $2.7 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials and services.  According to Plastics News, PolyOne posted profits of nearly $44 million in the first nine months of 2009, despite sales falling 32 percent to $1.5 billion compared to the same period in 2008. The profit during this nine-month time period was four times as large as profit from the year-ago period.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers‘ National Center for the American Workforce, there is a “broadening skills gap….taking an increasingly negative toll on America’s ability to compete in the global economy” and the challenge will be more severe as Baby Boomers in the manufacturing sector retire with no skilled employees to replace them. In fact, more than 80 percent of U.S. manufacturers report an overall shortage of qualified employees and 46 percent of small and medium manufacturers report that finding qualified employees is one of the most serious problems facing their company.

In an attempt to illuminate plastics careers to the next generation of students, a new episode of Degrees That Work, an award-winning documentary television series co-produced by Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn College) and WVIA-TV, is devoted to our industry. With past episodes devoted to nanotechnology, welding and fabrication and advanced manufacturing, the series was developed to build awareness of careers that may not be familiar to the public but offer ample opportunities.

With an extensive amount of footage shot at NPE2009 last June, the episode follows a group of high school students who are enrolled in a technical education class as they design and create the plastic body for a remote-controlled car to be raced against other high schools at an annual Plastics Experience event at Penn College.  The program also features interviews with national plastics industry experts as well as a visit to K’NEX Brands, a large injection molder that produces popular construction toy kits among other products.

There are only five accredited plastics engineering programs in the country. Two of those – Penn College and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College – are in Pennsylvania.  Get more information about plastics and polymer technology majors at Penn College.  

In addition to Penn College professors of plastics and polymer engineering, other  experts interviewed in the documentary include SPI President Bill Carteaux; Dana Gier, Julie McKenna and Erica Ocampo of Dow Chemical Co.; Dennis Gros of Gros Executive Recruiters; Robert Grace of Plastics News; Greg Koski of plastics.com; Michael Araten of K’NEX Brands and Tim Womer of Xaloy Inc.

You can watch the 28-minute program right here (see above)!  It will actually premiere at 7:00 p.m. (EST) on February 1st on public television stations serving northcentral and northeastern Pennsylvania, and will air several more times on those stations in February. The program will also air on select other public television stations — find your station here and request the program. Educators are invited to download the episode for classroom use. 

This would be an excellent resource for an outreach activity in your company’s community.  Ask Andrea O’Neill, WVIA’s director of education, about free DVDs and  lesson planning guides.

Inside-the-beltway types contend with daily acronym overload, a non-stop alphabet soup denoting different agencies, policies and programs. Compounding the confusion for plastics industry professionals is that there’s often overlap with our own initiatives (OCS, for example, is short for both Operation Clean Sweep — an SPI environmental stewardship program — and the energy-rich offshore area known as the Outer Continental Shelf).

CRS stands for Congressional Research Service and, while largely unknown outside the world of public policy crunchers, they’re the legislative branch’s non-partisan research arm, functioning as a sort of in-house think tank for Congress. And one of its recent studies stood out from the myriad other government reports that SPI regularly reviews and digests.

On the subject of natural resource availability and cost, today’s popular media often paints a gloomy picture of our nation’s future, suggesting a bleak and desolate America marked by scarcity, sky-high prices, rationing — an overall diminution of prosperity.

CRS says otherwise.

In a recent report, CRS puts U.S. combined reserves of natural gas, oil and coal ahead of every other country in the world at 1321 billion barrels of oil equivalent. And this doesn’t even encompass reserves in known but harder-to-access resources such as oil shale. Russia comes in a close second, at 1248 billion, but then the field drops off dramatically. Saudi Arabia? Third, at just 543 billion. China’s next at 494.

The technological know-how exists to develop these resources efficiently, cleanly and safely. Skeptical? Think about the offshore platforms that withstood Hurricane Katrina.

Long story short: the U.S. can create its own energy future. The only question is, will we? For our industry – dependent on these resources for both feedstocks and fuel – it’s a question that can have only one answer.

You’ve heard the rumors. You’ve read the industry papers and blogs. The grapevine is full of discussion that NPE is looking to change its 40-year tradition of being held in Chicago. Today, I want to say that…it’s ALL true!

NPE—The International Plastics Showcase—has a new home! I am pleased to announce that NPE, the triennial plastics industry expo and conference, will be moving to Orlando for 2012 and 2015. NPE2012 will be held at the Orange County Convention Center from April 1-5, and NPE2015 from March 22-26. As many of you know, this is big news! Founded by SPI in 1946, NPE had taken place at Chicago’s McCormick Place since 1971.

The move to Orlando was a decision made by the industry, for the industry. The SPI leadership, steered by the NPE Operations and Executive Committees, conducted a thorough review and analysis of the two contending host venues—Chicago and Orlando. In particular, NPE2012 Chairman John Effmann of ENTEK Manufacturing and Vice Chairman Jim Murphy of Davis Standard Corporation along with SPI Board Chairman Jim Buonomo of Nypro and Vice Chairman Chris Keller of The Conair Group deserve a pat on the back for the many hours they have spent personally reviewing the numbers and meeting with representatives from the two host venues. They have taken every aspect of the show into consideration along with the final proposals from the contenting host venues and presented their recommendation to the SPI Executive Board for final action. Here’s the bottom line: Orlando and the Orange County Convention Center will offer both exhibitors and attendees significant cost-savings that will continue the economic stimulus measures SPI enacted for NPE2009.

The NPE Operations Committee recommended Orlando after doing a systematic comparison of all possible venues. What we learned is that holding NPE2012 in Orlando would provide big reductions in the chief expenses incurred by exhibitors and attendees. These reductions could save the two groups an average of: 48% for booth utilities; 19% for on-site hauling (“drayage”) and rigging services for exhibitors; 23% on lodging; and 11% on overall travel. The savings on travel from the U.S. Midwest—a key plastics manufacturing region at whose heart is Chicago—would be even greater: 19%.  Finally, Orlando demonstrated a greater range in pricing than Chicago for hotels and restaurants, and lower costs for ground transportation expenses like cabs to and from the airport and convention center parking.

All in all, by moving the show to Orlando, SPI can save the plastics industry up to $20-million — which will play a substantial role in SPI’s mission to stimulate the plastics industry’s economic recovery.

And it’s not all about cost.  Orlando also was the clear winner with customer service. At the end of the day, Team Orlando led by the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Orange County Convention Center won the bid because of  its community effort, professionalism, dedication to service, partnership mindset–we’re not just a customer—and innovative spirit. Orlando truly made the discernible difference with a customer-service-centric attitude that will play a major role in enhancing the overall experience for everyone involved in the 2012 trade show.

I am also really excited about three other NPE innovations that will come with the change of venue:

• The switch to early April from the traditional late-June dates will allow far more time for exhibitors to follow up on inquiries and leads generated before summer vacations.
• Instead of the traditional Monday opening day, NPE2012 will start on Sunday, with educational programs and other special events; the trade show will be open from Monday through Thursday, eliminating the sparsely attended final half-day of previous shows.
• SPI will address the longstanding wish of attendees and exhibitors that exhibits be grouped by product category.

Over the next several weeks I will blog again to share more information about the industry-wide benefits and opportunities of NPE’s new home — Orlando!

“Does your company want to increase profits?  What about cut costs?”

Sounds like lines from the beginning of some cheesy radio ad or TV infomercial, huh?  But if you answered “yes” to either or both questions (and I know you did), then my next question is: Did you know that there is a manufacturing program that has been around for almost two decades whose mission is to support, strengthen, and grow U.S. manufacturing and in turn help companies increase profits and cut costs?

Facilitated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is a national network of 59 centers across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, with more than 350 locations across the country, providing technical assistance and business support services to America’s manufacturers.  They have worked with thousands of manufacturers delivering $1.44 billion in cost savings annually and $10.5 billion in increased or retained sales in one year.

MEP center specialists provide an array of services to companies, from initial assessments prioritizing opportunities for improvement, to implementation projects guiding companies through process improvements, productivity increases, and growth. Centers provide companies with access to training resources as well as specific project assistance. Some engagements are short-term classes or basic projects. Other companies engage in multiple projects with their local field specialist—as one improvement project often leads to several others.

Overall, MEP’s range of services includes:

• Programs in lean manufacturing
• Energy and environmental services
• Information technology to address continuity of service issues
• Programs addressing manufacturers concerns related to innovation, technology deployment and business growth.

If you want to see some of the plastics industry success stories (including SPI member Fabri-Kal, ) go to the “client successes” section of the MEP site and read through all of the great projects MEP has worked on with various plastics companies.

Ok, so you are interested, right?  To get started and to take advantage of the MEP program, first identify the MEP center closest to you.  Then pick up the phone and call the MEP center contact provided.  Once you have an initial discussion, a representative from the center will plan to meet with you and talk in more detail about the project(s) your company is interested in working on with the MEP.

This is no cheesy infomercial.  Don’t miss this great opportunity for your company.