When JBE Inc. opened in Hartsville in 1982, the “old school manufacturing company” was mainly working with metal — clinging it, grinding it, whatever the manufacturing companies the subcontractor served needed.
More than 40 years later, the family-owned company has evolved to offer three contracted services to their clients: manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain management.
“Everything is rooted in assembly,” said John Miller, JBE’s director of business development.
The company assembles pieces for manufacturers, and the need to provide logistics — warehousing and distribution — was a natural evolution. Managing a clients’ supply chain was another obvious progression for the company, which serves clients in the aviation, automotive and electrical industries, among others.
JBE’s evolution mirrors South Carolina’s journey from textile mill hub to advanced manufacturing powerhouse. With the arrival of companies like BMW and Boeing about 30 years ago, subsequent investments have spurred billions in economic growth for the state, adding tens of thousands of jobs and spurring unprecedented growth in communities from coast to mountain.
“Certainly South Carolina has the business climate that attracts large (manufacturers),” Miller said.
The company assembles pieces for manufacturers, and the need to provide logistics — warehousing and distribution — was a natural evolution. Managing a client’s supply chain was another obvious progression for the company, which serves clients in the aviation, automotive, and electrical industries, among others.
“Certainly South Carolina has the business climate that attracts large (manufacturers),” Miller said.
And as manufacturing grows, the state’s supply chain ecosystem (infrastructure, trucking, warehousing and logistics firms, to name a few components of the industry) must grow, too. Between 2017 and 2023, trucking, distribution and logistics firms announced investments totaling more than $2 billion, according to the S.C. Dept. of Commerce.
With about 13 percent of the state’s workforce employed in manufacturing — and thousands more promised jobs in the pipeline — additional growth of the logistics industry is crucial to attracting and retaining manufacturing investments.
“The Palmetto State has become internationally-known, not only for making things and making them well, but also for our skill in getting those things where they need to go,” the S.C. Dept. of Commerce’s website states.
Reduction and resilience: How logistics enables manufacturing
Logistics enables manufacturing operations to keep everything outside of the factory floor running smoothly, from ordering parts to exporting the final product. And as automation, artificial intelligence, and supply chain operations become more sophisticated, manufacturers and their suppliers are increasingly using a more on-demand model, referred to as “just in time” manufacturing.
As opposed to ordering set supplies at set intervals, manufacturers are adapting to the needs of the market and the economy as needed. “The whole world's going to just in time,” said JBE’s Miller, “whether it's just in time manufacturing or just in time sequencing.”
JBE employs just-in-time sequencing, which means they anticipate the needs of their clients. That way, when an order comes through, it’s already assembled and ready to be shipped.
“But then that also means that as a manufacturer, you have to be very careful not to over manufacture,” he said. “You don't want a lot of product sitting because then that's your revenue and money sitting on the shelf.”
But it’s a careful balance for companies like JBE. Stocking up on parts vulnerable to economic upheaval helps a manufacturer’s supply chain become more resilient. Miller offered a recent example: when the shipment of a needed part from Europe severely disrupted a client’s manufacturing operation, JBE pivoted to keep a back-supply of those parts on hand.
“But then that also means that as a manufacturer, you have to be very careful not to over manufacture,” he said. “You don't want a lot of product sitting because then that's your revenue and money sitting on the shelf.”
The supply-chain interruption came amidst tariffs enacted by the Trump administration, which has raised costs for products spanning the entire globe. The tariffs complicate an already complex economy prone to “the bullwhip effect.”
Imagine this: A customer increases their order from one to 10, so the distributor increases their order from 10 to 100. The manufacturer then increases their supply from 100 to 1,000. Now, an excess of product has flooded the market and there’s a swift stop-order on the product.
The result is overcrowded warehouse shelves, decreased prices, and a loss of jobs for factory workers. It’s nearly impossible to avoid, but Miller said JBE works with clients to ensure the bullwhip doesn’t crack down so harshly on their employees.
“People end up losing jobs sometimes because extra capacity was brought on, extra labor was brought on for that capacity,” he explained. “And then now all of a sudden you went from needing 10 people to produce the orders to now the orders have dwindled to a small trickle.”
By diversifying what the industries they work with, JBE can counteract the typical hiring-and-firing cycle. “That's probably one of the biggest keys to our success,” Miller said. “For 42 years, we've never been in one industry or with one client. I currently have nine customers across four or five industries.”
South Carolina’s diverse manufacturing landscape is bolstered by the region’s plethora of infrastructure options. Miller said having the port in Charleston, as well as the state’s two inland ports, give them plenty of in-state options for distribution and ordering. Add in the nearby Port of Savannah and the harbor in Wilmington, North Carolina, and logistics operations have a healthy competitive landscape that keeps options plentiful and affordable.
The state has invested billions in ensuring its infrastructure is keeping up with manufacturing growth. A four-foot harbor deepening project in Charleston will allow for bigger shipping carriers to utilize the ports, and the expansion of Greer’s inland port has enabled more efficient operations in the epicenter of the state’s manufacturing industry.
The only stressor for the growth of manufacturing and logistics in South Carolina, Miller said, is labor. The state’s legacy as a textile mill hub has left many with the impression that factory work is still “dirty, nasty, unsafe, hard work.” Most of the state’s manufacturers, though, adopt high health and safety standards for their employees, many of whom are working with machines — the field is called mechatronics — to assemble advanced products on an assembly line.
Still, “we're just not seeing the influx of new talent to match the outgoing of retiring talent,” Miller said. That’s where the state’s technical schools come in, most of whom are adapting to offer tailor-made training programs for students to eventually get jobs at plants like Scout Motor’s incoming electric vehicle factory in Blythewood.
Likewise, universities like Clemson and USC offer supply chain and logistics programs, creating a pipeline for highly skilled administrators to direct the flow of goods across the state. Talent development is another major initiative of the state — manufacturers won’t invest billions to build unmanned factories. But with programs popping up statewide — in every level of schooling — the labor pool is being developed. Just like the supply chains, the work is needed to keep running.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here