Conference on how to keep jobs in U.S.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - On Thursday hundreds gathered to discuss ways to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

The conference's theme was "made lean in America" focused on creating good jobs, a strong tax base and a brighter thinking.

The CEO of the Massachusetts-based lean enterprise institute told 22News Americans can keep jobs from going overseas by keeping things lean.

And Springfield serves as the perfect backdrop for that message.

"Without the machining industry that was developed here in the 1800s, going back even farther in Connecticut and Massachusetts, there would have been auto industry in Detroit and all these practices we now think of in terms of lean thinking or modern manufacturing would not have come about,” said John Shook of Lean Enterprise.

Shook says he has seen companies slowly returning to the U.S.