The Richards-Wilcox company of Aurora has been in business for 144 years, outlasting many sheet-metal businesses that once operated in the Fox Valley. So it must be doing something right.

But President Robert McMurtry knows that resting on one’s laurels is not the way to stay in business.

So Richards-Wilcox is using a grant from Kane County to figure out ways to do things better, including training and retaining workers.

It is one of 20 companies that received $30,000 Lighthouse grants being administered by the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center. The Kane County Board approved the program last October, and the recipients were chosen in the spring.

They are the first grants awarded as part of the county’s new $1 million manufacturing program, a joint initiative with IMEC. The money came from federal American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 recovery funds the county received.

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“In general, manufacturing is in quite an exciting time,” said Dave Boulay, president of IMEC. “This is our generation’s manufacturing moment.”

That’s due in part to geopolitical and demographic influences, Boulay said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when factories overseas shut down and demand for products exceeded the ability to supply them, “we learned what we can and cannot make in this country,” Boulay said.

Since then, “the country has effectively built an industrial policy,” he said, of returning more manufacturing to the United States.

One demographic influence is the departure of the baby boom generation, including transferring ownership of companies, Boulay said. And the United States’ population growth has flattened, so finding workers is getting harder, he said.

Adopting digital technologies in production is a “great equalizer” for small manufacturers, he said.

So, IMEC will be working with some grant recipients on that.

Richards-Wilcox’s plan

Richards-Wilcox, located in a sprawling 365,000-square-foot complex of buildings on South Lake Street (Route 31), was founded in 1880. It built hardware for doors such as barn doors and pocket doors. During World War I, it embraced automation to improve production, including conveyor systems, as the men working at the factory went off to war.

Today, the company employs about 130 workers in three divisions: R-W Hardware, focusing on doors and enclosures, including those for zoos, stables and aquariums; Richards-Wilcox Conveyors; and Aurora Storage. Its clients have included local jobs such as the shelving in the library at West Aurora High School, as well as the enclosures at a SeaWorld park that opened in 2023 in Abu Dhabi.

Richards-Wilcox’s grant work is happening even as it already is planning $10 million in capital improvements and getting set to write a strategic plan with IMEC’s help.

It will use the Lighthouse grant to work with IMEC consultants on four areas.

The first is developing “training within industry” (TWI) instructions that will standardize operating procedures and work instructions, to bring new employees up to speed quicker. Especially since newer employees are not sticking around as long as veteran employees, many of whom are retiring now after 20 to 30 years with the company. There’s a huge loss of knowledge, artistry and skill when those workers go, McMurtry said.

“We can’t rely on tribal knowledge verbally passed down from a worker to another,” McMurtry said.

Secondly, it will survey its employees about job satisfaction, training and career development, with a goal of retaining more employees.

It also is working on systems and procedures to improve efficiency in using its equipment, including collecting data on equipment availability, to optimize production scheduling and maintenance.

And lastly, it is studying ways to improve its lean-manufacturing capabilities.

If it tried to do this work in-house, some of it might not get done, McMurtry said, due to spending and pressing work priorities.

“I think it (the grant) is critical to our future,” he said.