Made in Arizona: Local manufacturing brings jobs to the state

PHOENIX - Manufacturing jobs are on the rise in Arizona with 2000 new jobs in the past year.

We are seventh in the country for high tech manufacturing jobs with an average pay of $74,000 a year.

LAI manufactures all kinds of items from medical to military equipment. We went the company’s manufacturing plant in Phoenix to see their operation. 

The one thing they have in common is the things they make are fairly high tech.  For example, they produce products that go on the F-35 fighter jet and armored vehicles.

Bryan Repan is a process engineer at LAI. 

He lost his old manufacturing job when it was shipped overseas to Asia. 

With four mouths to feed, Bryan decided to go back to school.  “That is something I worried about, being laid off at old jobs,” says Bryan. 

He has worked at LAI for 12 years now. 

His little brother is in the military. He and other soldiers are being protected by Bryan’s handiwork. 

“We do things others can’t do,” says Stewart Cramer, who is President of LAI.  He spoke to us from their headquarters in Scottsdale. 

He is a former engineer turned businessman who is bullish on manufacturing for Arizona and America. 

“America is still at the top of the list for manufacturing because of our innovative workers,” he said.

One of LAI’s specialties is using high powered water jets to drill holes. 

Their machines can punch a hole the size of a human hair through titanium.

Some of their products, like medical equipment, is shipped overseas to places like Asia, the same place Bryan’s old job disappeared to more than a decade ago.