Order gap causes worry for York County manufacturer

West Manchester Township, York County-based machining manufacturer Weldon Solutions reopened this week following the county’s transition to the yellow phase in Pennsylvania’s three-phase reopening plan.

Travis Gentzler, president at Weldon Solutions, was glad to see work return to the company’s manufacturing plant this Tuesday, but after two months without filling new orders or working on projects, he is worried what the following months could look like if his clients aren’t ready to place new orders.

Weldon Solutions is an employee-owned manufacturing facility specializing in CNC cylindrical grinders and robotic and bakery automation.

The sudden change to working from home was a difficult one for Weldon’s staff of 35, according to Gentzler.

Unable to continue on any projects with the plant closed, staff was asked to reach out to active customers to continue relationships. As a manufacturing company with most of its work allocated to its headquarters, Gentzler said he and his team were not prepared for working from home.

“I spent the first two weeks helping people connect. It took us a while to adjust,” he said. “That’s one thing I will be spending time on. If we need to get out of here again in September because cases are spiking, I need to know that I can get stuff home with my staff.”

The company filed for exemptions with the state twice to try to reopen but were denied twice.

With the facility now open, Gentzler said his staff can continue to work on projects that were paused in March, but with many of the company’s clients tightening their budgets in the wake of the pandemic, he is concerned about when Weldon Solutions could see new orders come in.

“I foresee my guys being steady from the time they get back into August,” he said. “At that point, if we don’t start getting orders in real soon, this fall will be very slow for us. That is my biggest concern right now.”

Filling Weldon Solutions’ gap in orders will depend on how the economy bounces back in the coming weeks. If clients are still unable to order projects by the fall, Gentzler said he may have to resort to layoffs.

“We are always one of the last companies to lay off people being employee owned and being manufacturing,” he said. “We sacrifice profit because it’s too hard to find skilled labor.”

Gentzler said he doesn’t expect social distancing protocols to have too much of an effect on operations for works at Weldon Solutions’ manufacturing floor where there is plenty of space for each worker to spread out, but he said he could see problems arising with in-office staff operating in cubicles.

“Everyone will want to socialize and catch up but at the beginning it just can’t happen,” he said. “Someone asked if we would have our managing meeting and I said we would probably still do it on Zoom from inside the building.”