Jared Lyford, director of operations, Forest City Gear. 

At Forest City Gear, Lyford occupies a role with reach: coordinating manufacturing operations, facilities, and capital expenditures for a company that supplies gearing for aerospace, defense, and space applications.

“We are a contract manufacturer for loose gearing… We build completely to the customer's design.” But gearing alone isn’t the biggest challenge—staffing is. “There’s a skills gap—and in order to find turnkey talent to satisfy immediate capacity needs is challenging.” Forest City Gear meets that challenge through extensive training, using both internal resources and outside expertise. “We utilize Helios, Gleason, Kapp, and all of their resources—and we’re very active with the AGMA and AGMA’s training—to help technicians get a more in-depth understanding of what they’re doing.” The need is urgent. “We’ve just gone through a transitional time where the boomers are leaving the workforce and Gen X is aging… it becomes critical to build that pipeline.”