For manufacturers, growth can create a challenge that has little to do with demand. They need enough skilled people to meet that demand.

That was the situation facing CNH’s operation in Fargo, North Dakota. The facility manufactures large-scale agricultural equipment and wheel loaders for the construction side of the business, and as production needs grew, finding the skilled tradespeople needed to support that growth became increasingly difficult.

According to Tom Dennison, Operations Manager at CNH Fargo, the local labor market presented a significant challenge.

“The skilled trade we were looking for seemed to be lower in this area,” Dennison explained, while pointing to positions such as welders, machinists, plasma and punch operators, press brake operators, laser operators, mechanics, and electronics-related roles.

Even when CNH identified the right candidate, there was another challenge: time.

Months of Searching Wasn’t Sustainable

For a manufacturing operation, an open position can have a much bigger impact than simply leaving a job unfilled. When production depends on specialized expertise, vacancies can limit capacity, slow operations, and make it harder to respond to changing demand.

Dennison noted that CNH could sometimes spend months trying to find and hire the right people on its own.

That timeline created a clear gap between the people the facility needed and the speed at which it could bring them into the operation.

FlexTrades helped close that gap.

From Months to Weeks

CNH partnered with FlexTrades between 2023 and 2025 to supplement its workforce with skilled professionals across a broad range of manufacturing roles.

The difference in speed was significant.

As Dennison put it, while hiring independently could take months, “it’s literally weeks” with FlexTrades to get the right people through the door and working.

That speed gave CNH something critical: flexibility.

Rather than allowing open positions to dictate how quickly the operation could grow, CNH had access to skilled professionals when and where they were needed. Dennison said, “We wouldn’t be able to grow as fast as we had without that FlexTrades ability. It would have slowed us down dramatically.”

The support wasn’t limited to one type of position, either.

During the partnership, FlexTrades deployed traveling manufacturing professionals in roles including:

  • CNC Operators
  • Diesel Technicians
  • Maintenance Technicians
  • Fabricators
  • Assemblers
  • Painters
  • Press Brake Operators
  • Quality Inspectors
  • Welders

That breadth of expertise allowed FlexTrades to support different areas of the operation and address a variety of skilled workforce needs as they arose.

Speed Was Only Part of the Solution

Getting people into the facility quickly only solves part of the problem. In a highly technical manufacturing environment, the quality and experience of those workers matter just as much.

This was one of the areas where FlexTrades made a particularly strong impression on Dennison.

Reflecting on the maintenance technicians and welders CNH received, he said their skill level coming into the facility was “surprising.” Rather than requiring extensive training before workers could contribute independently, the experience and capabilities of FlexTrades professionals helped shorten the gap between onboarding and performing the job independently.

For CNH, that meant the value of the partnership wasn’t simply filling empty positions. It was bringing in people who could contribute quickly and effectively.

“If you want to get up and going with quality people fast, that’s definitely the way to do it,” Dennison said.

A Workforce Solution Built for Manufacturing

The needs of a modern manufacturing operation continue to evolve. In the same interview, Dennison discussed how technology is changing the skills required on the production floor, with IT and operations technology increasingly converging.

Machines are generating more data. Equipment connectivity is increasing. Operators and maintenance professionals are interacting with technology and systems that require a broader digital skill set than they did decades ago.

That makes access to qualified technical talent even more important.

For CNH Fargo, FlexTrades provided a way to address those workforce challenges without being limited solely by the available local labor pool. When the operation needed skilled professionals, FlexTrades could provide them in weeks rather than leaving CNH to spend months searching for the right fit.

And that combination of speed, flexibility, and quality gave CNH the ability to keep moving.

Dennison’s recommendation is direct: “I wouldn’t go with anyone else, that’s for sure!”

For manufacturers facing the same skilled labor constraints, the lesson from CNH Fargo is clear. When growth depends on specialized talent, the ability to quickly access experienced skilled professionals can make the difference between waiting to scale and being ready to grow.