Apr. 27—Northeast Pennsylvania is still a hub of innovative manufacturing. A number of companies have made the region their home base of operations as they continue to push their respective industries forward, technically and socially.
A. Rifkin and AWG Contracting are among the leaders in their fields, and in Northeast Pennsylvania’s manufacturing culture. Each of these companies bring an innovative spirit to their day-to-day operations.
A. Rifkin
Since 1892 — 133 years ago — A. Rifkin has worked within the booming sewing culture of the region to provide custom-made, reusable fabric products to essential industries. Today, under the leadership of President Darcy Buck, they serve many market bases, including banks, elections, government, restaurants and schools.
Located on the Sans Souci Parkway in Hanover Township, A. Rifkin provides a variety of protective textile products. For instance, they have manufactured bags that can replace manila folders that are secured by only a red string.
“Our bags, being reusable fabric, can last far longer than that envelope ever will, and it can hold more,” Buck said.
The true innovative part of the A. Rifkin model, however, is the custom-made aspect. Each industry requires certain specifications that are not compatible with other industry needs.
“We literally will custom manufacture our bags specific to an individual customer, so if all the bags in our line don’t quite fit what they want inside of it, we’ll add an inch here and an inch there and a security feature and literally custom design something to your needs,” explained Buck.
The biggest competitive consideration for a business like A. Rifkin are imports, but balancing the needs of each market remains a top concern. For this reason, it is critical that the A. Rifkin team gets comfortable with adapting to an ever-changing economy. For its entire existence, the business has changed with the times, as well as with the customers that develop alongside those times.
Buck is a fifth-generation leader in the A. Rifkin family of leaders and the first woman to be in charge of the company. Because of this structure, A. Rifkin was recently certified as a women-owned business by the Small Business Administration.
The new certification comes with a number of businesses. Many potential customers actively look to support women-owned businesses, and certain monetary opportunities are open to businesses owned by women, minorities, and veterans. These boosts represent just one way the innovative spirit of A. Rifkin have aided the bottom line.
Over the years, the company has persisted and adjusted to two world wars, the Great Depression, recessions, and, in recent times, the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latter scenario, A. Rifkin was closed for two days, but bounced back to prepare masks and surgical caps for local hospitals.
With each external factor that has come about since 1892, the markets of interest for a company like A. Rifkin have shifted. That’s a trend that has continued up to the modern day.
“New markets, I’ve found, have still sprung up in the last 11 years with the recreational and medical marijuana, which was all cash-based, and we sell cash bags,” said Buck. “So here’s a market that I couldn’t have predicted might pop up, and here it is.”
The markets may change, as can the methods of payment. With cash being a candidate for being fazed out, A. Rifkin may need to consider the possibility of cash bags becoming outdated. But Buck said that they are prepared for that change. At this point, it’s practically a tradition for the company to adjust to the times.
AWG Contracting
Moses West, the owner of AWG Contracting and the founder of the Moses West Foundation, has a clear objective: save lives. He does it through rebuilding military equipment and using the manufacturing techniques AWG as a means to produce water in significant amounts where it’s needed through low energy consumption.
As temperatures around the globe rise, water evaporates at a pace that can result in water and food scarcity. Water scarcity is an issue that can impact any population, even those that are unaware of the risks in their water.
“Right now, everyone is struggling with water security,” West asserted. “Some people realize it; most people don’t realize it — how short we are on pure water.”
AWG Contracting is on the frontlines in the fight against water supply issues. He pointed to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which he said ballooned the price of a gallon of pure water to between $5 and $10. On the nearby island of Vieques, thousands of people were left with a completely disrupted water supply.
In response, AWG ran a generator to provide water, according to West, to 15,000 people on the island.
Water scarcity is not only a matter of water not being present. It is additionally a concern when the available water is unhealthy. In the United States, toxic chemicals and other factors are reducing the viability of the pure water that is available in some of North America’s most important aquifers.
“These aquifers are becoming highly contaminated, they’re becoming dry, the [Biscayne Bay in Florida] is becoming salty — see: salt water incursion — and canned chemicals, farming chemicals rolling into the aquifers now.”
West pointed out the outdated nature of the minimum toxic chemical limits allowed by the federal government, and suggested that there is significant apathy when it comes to the people in power keeping water safe.
“It’ll come from the federal government [and] local, state and water municipalities,” West said of those who should be held accountable for water policy. “They’ll detect lead in the water and they’ll just say, ‘Well, it shouldn’t be there. Drink it anyway.'”
To make a difference under these troubled conditions, West has tried to find high-quality workmanship in a number of places, from Texas and Wisconsin to Spain. When he moved AWG’s operation to Pennsylvania, he found the work ethic he was searching for.
“In Pennsylvania, I’m getting more work done than I’ve ever gotten completed in my life,” West said.
West’s manufacturing standards are high, and he owns multiple patents for pieces and processes that were never developed before West became involved in machine building. That’s what he brings to AWG. Beyond that, he is always looking to innovate.
His newest venture, harkening back to his goal of saving lives, is to reduce the risk of heat stroke and heat exhaustion by developing new air conditioning solutions.
“Innovation is fun,” West said of his continued ambition. “When it stops being fun, I’ll stop doing it.”