October 2025

October 25^th is National I Care About You Day, which is a day encouraging people to express their love and appreciation for family, friends, and significant others. Traveling for work and being away from home may require a little more creativity to celebrate, but it’s no excuse to miss out on this opportunity. Just like having the right tools on the job, the right tools for communicating can make all the difference.

This blog covers some common ways to stay in touch with family and friends and hopefully will give you a couple of new ideas.

Send an Email or Text

This is an obvious answer, but sending a message to a person or group is so easy. It can be a quick “Good morning, what are you up to today?” message to your significant other to start the day. It could also be that ongoing text chain with your best buddies full of memes, irreverent jokes, and savage fantasy football trash talk.

Regardless of what you choose to send, it’s an easy way to keep a conversation going.

Voice and Video Calls

Many studies have shown that hearing the voice of a loved one has psychological benefits. It can reduce stress and anxiety, boost mood and happiness, and reinforce relational bonds.

Send a Postcard

Many of us enjoy seeing new places and exploring this great country. In fact, travel is one of the selling points of taking a job with FlexTrades! A great way to share that experience is to send a postcard.

If there’s something interesting within 50 miles, there’s probably a postcard with a picture of it readily available. State welcome centers, tourist sites, truck stops, and gift shops are just a few common places to find one. Before you drop it in the mail, write a quick note about where you were or what you were doing to add even more to the postcard.

Video Games

A 2023 technician survey revealed that a common travel essential for technicians is their video game console or laptop. If you already play games at home, it’s a relatively easy activity to pack up and keep the good times rolling on the road. Of course, this option depends on a solid internet connection, so be sure to check with your hotel to see what the internet and Wi-Fi connection options are before you go.

If internet speeds don’t allow a full-blown console game to run, there are hundreds of games you can play using a web browser or the app store on your phone.

Streaming Together

If you like to “Netflix and Chill,” there are a number of ways you can stream content with others.

For free content, like YouTube, most apps with screen-sharing features will work. Some apps even have built-in functionality to make it easy and interactive. For example, Discord has a built-in feature called Watch Together, which allows you to build and watch a YouTube playlist with anyone you want.

For paid streaming services, like Netflix or Hulu, there are a number of apps or browser extensions, such as Teleparty, that allow you to watch together, but anyone watching will need a subscription to those services.

Virtual Date with Your Significant Other

Last year, we posted a blog with ideas on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the road. But you don’t need to wait for Valentine’s Day for a virtual date.

This can be as easy as planning to go for a walk while on a video call. Or take it further and plan an evening to eat a meal together while streaming a movie or TV show. You could even schedule a delivery of flowers or a gift to arrive during your call.

Conclusion

With smartphones, tablets, and laptops, it’s easier than ever to stay in touch with friends and family wherever we all are. If you’re looking for ways to stay connected and celebrate National I Care About You Day, give some of these suggestions a try.

For decades, Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing has been the gold standard for efficiency. By keeping inventory lean and production tightly aligned with demand, JIT has helped manufacturers control costs, improve quality, and stay competitive in fast-moving markets. But, as the last few years have shown us, even the most finely tuned JIT systems can hit a wall when disruptions occur. Supply chain delays, demand spikes, and labor shortages have forced manufacturers to rethink what resilience really looks like. That’s where Just-In-Case (JIC) thinking comes in.

At FlexTrades, we help manufacturers maintain the efficiency of JIT operations while building the flexibility and readiness of JIC. Because when unexpected challenges arise, being ready “just in case” shouldn’t mean sacrificing everything that makes your production model successful.

Why JIT Works and Where It Breaks

When it’s operating smoothly, JIT is a thing of beauty. It minimizes waste, reduces storage costs, and helps ensure quality through continuous improvement. But JIT also assumes everything goes according to plan. Materials arrive on time. Machines keep running. Your workforce stays at full strength. Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t always cooperate.

Even minor disruptions such as a supplier delay, sudden order surge, or a few key employees out sick can ripple across your production. That’s when your efficient, finely tuned system can quickly turn into a backlog. Manufacturers worldwide are learning the hard way that “lean” can’t mean “fragile.”

The Rise of Just-In-Case Thinking

A Just-In-Case mindset doesn’t replace JIT, it reinforces it. JIC is about building agility and redundancy into systems and processes wherever it matters most, without losing the precision and efficiency your business depends on.

For many manufacturers, this shift includes diversifying suppliers, investing in smarter forecasting, or keeping a modest inventory buffer. But the most overlooked, and often the most critical, factor is your workforce. If you don’t have the right people in place when demand changes or disruptions hit, every other JIC measure becomes a stopgap. That’s where FlexTrades comes in.

Your Workforce: The Ultimate Just-In-Case Strategy

At FlexTrades, we provide workforce flexibility that allows JIT manufacturers to operate confidently, even when conditions are unpredictable.

Here’s How

Rapid Deployment: Our highly skilled tradespeople and extremely experienced technicians can be mobilized nationwide in a matter of days, not weeks or months. That means when production needs to ramp up quickly, or recover from downtime, help is already on the way.

Precision Skill Matching: From machinists and welders to maintenance techs and engineers, we deploy the exact skill sets your operation needs to ensure consistent quality and minimal onboarding time.

Built-In Flexibility: Whether you need 5 people or 50, for a few months or several years, our model adapts to your demand curve. That flexibility helps you maintain throughput during spikes without carrying excess labor cost during slow periods.

Continuity Without Compromise: Because our technicians are employed, managed, and supported by FlexTrades, you don’t sacrifice productivity for preparedness. You get seasoned professionals ready to plug into your systems and processes right away.

From Reactive to Resilient

We’ve seen the difference this makes.

One manufacturer we supported faced a backlog of parts awaiting inspection due to a serious shortage of skilled quality inspectors locally. When our FlexTrades team deployed this client estimated their backlog to be at least three YEARS long. Our team cleared that backlog in just three MONTHS, which also gave their permanent workforce breathing room to focus on recruiting local talent without the looming pressure of a growing backlog.

That’s what Just-In-Case looks like in action: the ability to react quickly without losing efficiency or control.

Building Resilience Together

Manufacturers don’t have to choose between lean or ready. The smartest operations are blending both, running Just-In-Time but prepared for Just-In-Case.

At FlexTrades, we make that possible. Our workforce solutions help American manufacturers plan ahead for the unpredictable, giving them the confidence to say “yes” to opportunity – even when conditions aren’t perfect.

If you’re ready to make your JIT operation more resilient, let’s talk about how FlexTrades can help your business prepare for Just-In-Case.

October is National Manufacturing Month in the United States. Like many companies, FlexTrades jumps at opportunities to advocate for our industry, and for those who work in the skilled trades. Let’s take a look at when National Manufacturing Month started, and why it should matter to all manufacturers.

History

National Manufacturing Day is the first Friday of October, and was first celebrated in 2012. This first instance was a collaboration between the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

In 2014, former President Barack Obama made the first presidential proclamation declaring the First Friday of October as National Manufacturing Day. Former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have made similar proclamations celebrating this day as well.

As interest in this day grew, the whole month of October became National Manufacturing Month.

The Purpose

There is a steady need for skilled professionals in manufacturing and many sectors face regular labor shortages. It is important for the industry to make a unified effort to find ways to fill those gaps.

National Manufacturing Month is intended to showcase modern American manufacturing to the masses. It is an opportunity to expose the next generations to the excellent career opportunities that are available. Companies and educational institutions open their doors to give a glimpse into the training programs and careers that could be the future for many young people just getting started.

In Action

One of the most popular computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software companies, Mastercam, has celebrated National Manufacturing Month for years. One of their programs allows students to see the design process that happens in their CAM software and follows that process to the CNC machine that executes those designs.

Last year, the University of Nevada, Reno hosted Northern Nevada Manufacturing Day. The day was full of events, starting with employer panels from local manufacturers including Tesla. Later, they hosted a networking event for students to meet the panelists and other employers.

What Can You Do?

If you’re a manufacturer, host a tour of your facility, show how your products are made, or represent your company at local Manufacturing Month events.

If you’re an educator, plan on-campus events for your community to attend so they can see how various trades are taught. Invite alumni back to campus to speak to students about their real experiences in the trades.

If you’re looking for more information about careers, or you’re just fascinated by manufacturing, look for local events to attend!

Lastly, keep an eye on our blogs, and our YouTube channel. We are all about advocating for the trades.

Happy National Manufacturing Month everyone!