A banner year for sales and improving conditions for manufacturers has allowed Deere & Co. to add new jobs to boost production levels at its worldwide operations, including its local production facility.

Dave Rodger, general manager of John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny, says his plant has added about 400 new jobs in the past 15 months to keep up with orders, along with executing a series of remodeling projects and plant updates to improve flow and provide adequate space for its expanded operations.

“Customer orders have been good,” Rodger said. “We’ve introduced some new products to this factory, including another large sprayer recently and new cotton harvesting and tilling equipment this past year as well.”

In 2002, Des Moines Works, which manufactures sprayers, cotton-harvesting equipment, tillage equipment and grain drills, received a tax incentives package estimated at $3.1 million from the New Jobs and Income Program. The tax incentives were awarded based on the company’s five-year, $30 million master plan to increase production 33 percent and create an additional 137 jobs. Since receiving the tax incentives, Deere has moved production of two sprayer lines to the Ankeny plant, launched new models and carried out plant improvements, Rodger said.

“We did participate with the New Jobs and Income Program, and the tax incentives were helpful in making the decision to grow here,” he said. “The benefits outlined in the NJIP have been met and exceeded in what we’ve done.”

The facility that houses Des Moines Works was built as an ammunition production factory during WWII, and has undergone several changes since Deere bought it in 1947. Construction and redesigning of production areas has been needed in recent years to accommodate the addition of two sprayer lines that were moved to Ankeny from Thibodaux, La.

“Our facility is about 57 years old, so we have done some limited construction of new docks and new building space,” Rodger said. “We also added some machine tools to increase our capacity – things like lasers to cut metal with – and reorganized some of the operations within the factory to improve flow.”

Efficiency is critical to Deere’s operations, especially to offset rising material costs, which have created challenges for many manufacturers this year. Deere, which posted record earnings of nearly $1.41 billion for fiscal 2004 – more than twice its earnings in 2003 – has demonstrated its ability to control costs where possible.

“Increases in material costs do continue to be a factor, but we attempt to offset those by product redesign, operations redesign, and flow improvement and labor and production efficiencies,” Rodger said. “All those things have worked well for us and been able to offset the costs.”

Rodger, who has worked for the company for more than 30 years, starting as an engineer with Deere & Co. in Moline, Ill., and for the past four years at Des Moines Works, said his plant has hired a broad range of people, some with prior experience and some new hires. After Deere provides orientation, some workers go on to get special instruction from Des Moines Area Community College.

“We do have a good relationship with DMACC, and they do a good amount of training for our people, particularly in the welding and machining areas,” he said. “These would be people who we’ve hired and want to have trained in our processes of welding and machining. We’ve consulted with DMACC to have them teach our processes.”

The relationship between Deere’s Des Moines Works and DMACC has been mutually beneficial for a number of years, said Dean Hoffmann, the program chair for manufacturing technology and industrial electro-mechanical technology for DMACC.

“We have a manufacturing technology program at DMACC, and John Deere frequently hires graduates of that program, and we collaborate with the company a few

times during the year to upgrade skills for their employees,” Hoffman said. “I think the opportunity for well-paying jobs in manufacturing and their longevity in the community and the agricultural marketplace really say a lot to our students, and we’re hoping for continued collaboration with them in the future.”

MANUFACTURING RECOVERY

Employment data for the past several months indicates a long-awaited turnaround for Iowa’s manufacturing jobs that were lost during the industry’s downturn, which began in late 2000. Ann Wagner, a research analyst for Iowa Workforce Development, said Iowa’s manufacturers have added jobs each month since June.

“We’re slowly starting to recoup from the slow deterioration that began four years ago,” Wagner said. “John Deere (Deere & Co.) and other area manufacturers have started to hire again, which is really encouraging, and layoffs have slackened off, with the exception of Tama Quality Beef in August.”

In Greater Des Moines, there was an 8.6 percent increase in manufacturing jobs between October 2003 and October 2004, with a 13.3 percent increase in machinery manufacturing. John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny has contributed to the number of new jobs in the local workforce by its steady hiring over the past 15 months.