Dana CEO Kamsickas Advises President as Member of Manufacturing Council
This story appears in the March 6 print edition of Transport Topics.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One of the people to whom President Trump listens on the economy’s manufacturing sector is Dana Inc. CEO James Kamsickas, one of 28 members of a manufacturing council the president established and a man who believes in setting up factories where goods will be sold.
“You have to build where you sell,” he said. “Dana is a build-and-resell company.”
The company, which manufactures truck axles and drive shafts, does business in 34 countries and has annual sales divided almost evenly between the United States and the rest of the world. However, the Maumee, Ohio-based manufacturer Kamsickas has run since August 2015 is different from many other companies; Dana does not build drive shafts in Asia or South America and export them to North America, for example. It sells in Asia or South America what it builds there.
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Kamsickas was appointed on Jan. 27 to the White House Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, which offers advice and perspective on taxation, international trade, infrastructure, regulations and the workplace of the future. He said the initiative’s members divided themselves into four subcommittees and meet about once every three months.
Among key issues, Kamsickas said, the taxation of trade is a mess that needs to be rearranged.
“This is more about fair trade than free trade and how to put in a level playing field,” Kamsickas said Feb. 28 at the Transport Topics booth at the Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting.
Two major tax problems, he said, are on the repatriation of profits earned abroad and the discrepancy between import and export taxation.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that for 2016, the nation’s trade deficit for goods and services was $502.3 billion, up from $500.4 billion in 2015. Exports were $2.21 trillion in 2016, and imports were $2.71 trillion.
In addition to tax and trade matters, Kamsickas said, he is especially interested in workforce issues. Just as TMC maintenance directors are perpetually searching for truck technicians, Kamsickas, 50, said Dana is always on the hunt for software engineers and skilled labor, but working in manufacturing is not viewed as glamorous a career as it once was.
“We need to improve vocational training, for mechanics, engineers and others,” he said, adding that it can be especially difficult luring skilled labor to rural areas.
Having lived in Europe for three years, Kamsickas said, he is “a big fan” of the German, Austrian, Swiss method of education. There, only about one-third of high school graduates move on to college. The rest receive a technical or trade education.
“If you don’t go to college, it’s not frowned upon,” he said. “The goal should be for people to have pride in doing things with their hands. It’s a proud career.”
A federal program he does like is the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck work that offers seed money to manufacturers to develop more fuel-efficient trucks. DOE is on its second round of SuperTruck.
“I’m very bullish on SuperTruck. It’s cooperative across the commercial vehicle market,” he said. “You won’t find that in other sectors where we’re involved. I think it’s a benchmark.”
Kamsickas wants the rest of the country to take a lead from his company; he said Dana is growing both through acquisition and expanding the businesses it already has.
On March 1, the company announced the completion of its $100 million acquisition of part of U.S. Manufacturing Corp.
Dana bought the axle-housing and driveline shaft manufacturing operations of USM’s Warren, Michigan, location.
Dana said the facility currently employs nearly 800 people, bringing Dana’s presence in the greater Detroit region to 1,400 people at four facilities.
