The year is coming to a close, and it’s time for us to look back and review our best moments of 2013.

We started this blog back in July, and we’ve really come a long ways since then. Covering everything from the manufacturing skills gap, to how pancakes are manufactured, we’ve had the opportunity to discuss a lot of great manufacturing-related subjects throughout this year.

To help conclude 2013, we thought we’d take a look back and review our best blogs of the year. So, without further ado, here are our top 10 favorite blogs from throughout 2013:

1. The 20 Best Manufacturing Blogs Around: Sure, this may be a ‘best of’ list in and of itself, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be one of our best blogs of the year. This list that we put together back in August is still very helpful, and we regularly read each blog on this best of to keep up on what’s happening in the manufacturing world and beyond.
2. 5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Manufacturing: Here at NeMAC, we’re big fans of challenging false preconceptions about manufacturing. There’s a lot of misunderstanding out there about what manufacturing is today (and what a career in manufacturing means), and in this post, we address a few lesser-known facts to show that there’s a lot more to manufacturing than you think.
3. Cool Stuff Being Made: 5 Looks Behind the Scenes of Manufacturing: Fewer things are more useful for truly getting a perspective on what’s going on in manufacturing than videos. We can talk all about how cool manufacturing is today, but why not let you see for yourself? From the Boeing 777 to frozen pancakes, these videos showcase how things are made today.
4. A Behind the Scenes Look at Manufacturing a Viper (and a Tesla Model S): While we’re on the subject of behind-the-scenes videos, this video we found of the Viper being created is one of the coolest around. Almost everything is made and assembled by hand–a rarity in automaking today. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Tesla Model S, which showcases some of the most automated, high-tech manufacturing techniques around.
5. Exploring STEM With the Zombie Apocalypse: We talk about STEM skills a lot here on the blog–mainly because they’re so valuable to a career in manufacturing or engineering. But sometimes, work in the classroom can get boring. We understand that, and take a look at a new approach for exploring STEM: through zombies! What could be cooler?
6. What About Women In Manufacturing?: Women in manufacturing are being discussed more and more as time goes on, both in terms of what women are in manufacturing, and of what manufacturers need to do to help women succeed. Women In Manufacturing, an organization headed up by the Precision Metalforming Association, seeks to address these questions, and we discuss the organization itself here in this post.
7. Behind the Brand Talks “Work Smart, Not Hard” With Mike Rowe: Mike Rowe is a great figurehead for manufacturing and the skilled trades. One of the biggest issues he’s trying to combat today is the “work smart, not hard” mantra, which he sees as outdated, especially with the rising cost of college and the growing skills gap. In this great interview, Mike talks about the challenges facing manufacturing and the skilled trades, and why “work smart, not hard” may not be such a great mantra after all.
8. Get to Know Nebraska Community Colleges (Part I: The Schools): For high school students thinking about a career in the skilled trades or manufacturing, going to community college and getting an Associate’s Degree is a great way to jumpstart a career. Luckily, Nebraska is home to some great community colleges. Here, we introduce each, and tell you why you ought to think about a community college for your degree!
9. 4 Things to Look for In a Manufacturing Education Program: As you may be able to tell from the post we just mentioned about community colleges in Nebraska, education is important to us here at NeMAC. Even so, you shouldn’t just go on enrolling in any program–there are certain things you should look for when trying to start your career in manufacturing. Have a look here for our tips on choosing a program!
10. Is a College Degree Really Worth It?: Let’s face it: college is expensive. As college has become more expensive, it’s become less accessible to many people. Many of those same people don’t realize how lucrative and engaging a career in manufacturing can be, leading us to ask: is a college degree really for everyone?

Looking at everything above, we hope that you’ve enjoyed 2013 here on our blog as much as we have!

We’ve had a great time writing all of these posts, and can’t wait for 2014. We hope you tune in when the New Year rolls around to see what more we can come up with! It should be a very exciting year for manufacturing, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds.

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photo credit: via