Laura Putre

2 weeks ago | industryweek.com | Jill Jusko |Geert De Lombaerde |Anna Smith |Laura Putre

Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site. Guess who is celebrating a centennial in 2025? It's Caterpillar Inc., which officially turns 100 on April 15.

1 month ago | industryweek.com | Laura Putre

That’s why we’ve ended up growing in Mexico, to about 850 employees. We have a facility in Norcross, Georgia, and a facility in Houston, Texas, that do what we call “dailies”—the stuff that the uniform industry orders today and they need on their doorstep tomorrow. If an order comes into Norcross or Houston for name tags and company items by three o’clock in the afternoon, we ship same day.

1 month ago | industryweek.com | Laura Putre

As senior editor, Laura Putre works with IndustryWeek's editorial contributors and reports on leadership and the automotive industry as they relate to manufacturing. She joined IndustryWeek in 2015 as a staff writer covering workforce issues. Prior to IndustryWeek, Laura reported on the healthcare industry and covered local news. She was the editor of the Chicago Journal and a staff writer for Cleveland Scene. Her national bylines include The Guardian, Slate, Pacific-Standard and The Root.

1 month ago | industryweek.com | Laura Putre

Anna Dibble can testify to the staying power of manufacturing careers. The operations leader of Cummins Inc.’s engine business unit, Dibble has spent 33 years with the global engine and power systems company. She started at the Jamestown, New York, plant when she was 19, a summer hire on break from Pennsylvania State University. “I grew up in Jamestown, and I happened to walk in,” she recalls.

1 month ago | industryweek.com | Laura Putre

On March 4, President Donald Trump dropped the hammer and imposed promised tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China. Both Wall Street and the U.S. auto industry immediately went into panic mode. The stock market tanked and auto executives did some frustrating math as they tried to figure out how to keep the ship aright (let alone profitable) with 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on China.