Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
News
October 06, 2021 09:20 AM

Staffing, logistics pinch Alabama molder even after it pulls work closer to home

Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    PN20210621p23-Koller-Craft-36p_i.jpg
    Koller Craft South
    The assembly line at Koller Craft South. The injection molder is seeking new workers needed to pursue new business opportunities.

    The auto industry has been talking about "reshoring" in recent years as if it were a kind of patriotic movement — pulling manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. from China, Indonesia and Mexico as way to bolster the American economy.

    Garry Craft wishes it were that simple.

    "We just transferred a lot of business from Mexico to our plant in Gadsden, Ala., because the company there couldn't get enough people to do the work," said Craft, director of sales at Koller Craft South. "They were having problems getting employees. And once their product got to the border, the trucks were sitting there for five to seven days because of staffing issues at the border."

    Koller Craft, an automotive Tier 2 injection molder and assembler of components that include interior trim pieces, decorative parts, cupholder assemblies and door handle assemblies, is adding 15 to 20 people to its 170-employee Gadsden plant to absorb the extra work.

    Cross-border shipments have been a vexing issue for suppliers such as Koller Craft since long before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in early 2020. The Trump administration's U.S.-China trade war introduced new unknowns into global supply chains in 2018. Tariffs on steel imports additionally changed some supply chain equations. And border shutdowns and congestion from the pandemic further complicated logistics.

    But suppliers in many areas say this year's main issue has been simply having enough workers to make parts and move them to their customers.

    Craft

    "It's just being able to get truck drivers," said Craft, whose name is coincidental to his employer's. "There are times when we've had to call our customer and say, 'We will not be able to get a truck out today because we can't get a truck driver. We will get a truck tomorrow.' "

    The industry already was fretting over a truck driver shortage before the pandemic came along. But then it worsened. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month that U.S. trucking employment has not come back from its pandemic dip and remains more than 30,000 people below its February 2020 headcount.

    Staffing and logistics challenges also raise quality flags in a supply chain, Craft added.

    "We've had some quality problems with companies that never had them before," he said. "And it's because they've lost some of their experienced talent. New employees come in who have to learn the product from the ground up."

    The labor shortage was intensified this year by the pandemic and the ensuing stream of federal unemployment benefits, Craft said. But he also knows that some regions of the country were struggling with worker demand before COVID-19 arrived and will still be struggling with it as the industry works its way back to normal conditions.

    Koller Craft South is part of Koller Craft LLC and owned by Koller Enterprises Inc.

    Alabama, home to Koller Craft South and its 213,000-square-foot plant, has experienced a tidal wave of auto manufacturing investments in recent years, and some locations in the state — as well as in nearby Georgia and South Carolina — were showing signs of a tight labor pool. In August, even as the U.S. industry continued running below capacity, Alabama reported an unemployment rate of just 3.1 percent, vs. 5.2 percent for the nation as a whole, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Last week, one of Alabama's biggest automotive employers, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc., participated in a job fair to try to woo more workers to its assembly plant in Vance.

    But the outreach was not for workers in Alabama — Mercedes went recruiting in the Detroit area, hoping to hire Michigan auto workers to relocate to Alabama.

    "Just because you have a population of 'X' people living in an area doesn't mean you have 'X' as a potential work force," Craft said. "I've seen Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers announce that they were bringing a plant into a given area, and signs went up in an industrial park and site preparation began, but those plants never materialized — because the work force didn't pan out.

    "It's possible to over-employ an area."

    Related Article
    As hiring problem grows, automakers, suppliers get creative
    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Georgia home to new PET chemical recycling plant
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified