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Masters of Manufacturing: Fernando Ortiz
News

Article From: December 2023, by Fran Eaton, TMA News Bulletin Editor
“Manufacturing is still the one industry in the US that can take you from humble beginnings into the upper middle class in one generation. I’m living proof of that.”
That’s just a taste of the passion one hears about manufacturing when speaking with Fernando Ortiz, Roberts Swiss’ Vice President, and General Manager.
But the process of growing from scarcity to financial security “takes a lot of work, a lot of loyalty, and a lot of grace,” Ortiz told TMA News in a recent interview.
Machining the Part
Ortiz and his four brothers grew up in a rugged, inner-city neighborhood.
“I’m a product of Chicago. When I was born, my parents lived in the Humboldt Park and Logan Square area before it was popular to live there,” he said.
Ortiz’s father and mother were machinists, and his father worked faithfully for years on the same Roberts Swiss shop floor where the younger Ortiz came to work in 1992.
Fernando’s father urged him to get a job to pay for a car while he was studying accounting. Taking advantage of an opening at Roberts Swiss, the younger Ortiz learned machining skills through TMA’s training and proudly displays several industry certificates and diplomas on his office walls.
“I spent six months in the plant. That was the most I was there. I came on board to the office and started doing all the estimating. So my career trajectory here goes from the plant, working a little bit on machines, a little in the quality office,” Ortiz said. “I drove the van and delivered products and got to know the vendors and see what they were doing.”
Ortiz says his interest in learning new things while at the same time discovering historical developments has been vital to his career growth.
“From the office to the blue-collar perspective, I’m a hybrid. I sit in the corner office here, but I’m always in the plant. And I’m always looking at drawings and talking to engineers – always seeking knowledge about new technologies,” he said.
Roberts Swiss – the name of the company where Ortiz now manages operations – includes the word “Swiss,” derived from the machines created in Switzerland to make parts for the Swiss watch.
“So when you’re thinking of a Swiss watch, you’re thinking of high accuracy, high precision, and that’s what we do now with our capabilities. So we make things with a tiny hole the size of half the diameter of one of your hairs, but we also work with an inch-and-a-half component that’s huge,” he said. However, all are high precision – often reviewed best through a microscope that Ortiz has in his office.
“We’re contented to be able to supply customers with quality products and be able to fulfill their requirements. We’re a small, nothing in the middle of nowhere Chicago compared to huge multi-million, hundred million, $200 million businesses, but the small makers are still making an impact, and those are where most of those guys are coming to get their product done. They can’t specialize in every aspect of it, right?” Ortiz said.
Adapting to global manufacturing changes
Roberts Swiss is thriving despite the challenges most U.S. manufacturers face from overseas competitors. Things changed during COVID, Ortiz said, when it became more and more difficult to keep things going during the supply chain crisis.
While items might be less expensive to produce overseas, Ortiz began prodding clients with obvious but often avoided questions.
“Sure, I’d say, the cost to make the items in America may be more expensive, but did you count in the travel time? Did you count the potential issues they have once they cross the borders? Did you count in the tariffs? And then if you have to return something, the process it takes to get it back over there and get new products can be a real problem,” he said.
For many, those harsh realities cause the customers to reconsider their project plans. And that’s important for the customers, the US manufacturing industry, and the United States as a whole, Ortiz said.
“At the end of the day, we have to be a country that sustains itself. We need to be able to provide our food, along with our own fuel. It’s nice to be in a global market. Some people thought we would be the bankers and the lawyers to the rest of the world and that the others would be the makers.
“Well, that doesn’t work as well in reality as in theory. In actuality, we need to be the makers because when something bad does happen, there are problems if we’re not the makers, and we experienced that a few years ago,” Ortiz said.
Looking back on TMA Chairmanship
While Ortiz focuses on Roberts Swiss and his wife and 15-year-old twin daughters at home, he looks back fondly on the
time he served on TMA’s Board and as Board Chairman in 2015 – the year TMA moved into its Schaumburg headquarters.
“It’s rewarding to me when I walk through TMA’s training center and see all the machines and what we now have as an organization. I can look at that and say, ‘Wow, I was at the ground level of this, and look at what it is today.’ The TMA organization is now more strategic. We could move, and they’ve taken it on and made something out of it,” he said.
Serving as TMA’s first Hispanic board chairman, Ortiz, who is not a company owner, was unique as he worked side by side with Board members who were first, second, and third- generation owners.
He says he saw firsthand that partnering with others in the industry creates a thriving community that he believes can impact the world and lift people from poverty to comfortable lifestyles in one generation.
As Ortiz shared at the 2023 Christians in Manufacturing Annual Prayer Breakfast, he’s proud to manufacture and be active in the Christian faith. And he’s grateful for how his life has been rewarded.
“For me, it’s all about hard work, loyalty, and grace. I’m a believer. I am not ashamed of that,” he said. “I am proud to be a maker. And I’m proud to stand for my faith. I believe that God’s grace has been upon me, and I continue to believe that. Struggles will come, but we must be honest about what we feel, which is good.”
By Fran Eaton, TMA News Bulletin editor – from the Fall 2023 TMA News Bulletin