As the recession sweeps away the automobile plants that long were the pillars of Delaware's old manufacturing base, many smaller manufacturers have found a way to keep going -- even thrive.
 
Whether it's equipment or packaging for scientific discoveries, computer electronics or parts for nuclear power plants, small- to medium-size manufacturers in Delaware are working their niches.
 
For instance, Les Edwards, CEO of Isogen, said business orders are roughly double or triple what he originally expected when company officials decided to move from consulting to making products.
 
Isogen has a new facility in Newark that mixes and packages injectable drugs in small batches, including anti-cancer drugs. He said the company has 32 people on staff now, and by the end of next year, he expects it to be closer to 50. They've been planning a bigger facility in New Castle, but that will wait until the credit freeze thaws out, he said.
Smaller manufacturing companies tend to be more nimble and responsive to what people need, he said.
 
"We can respond to the marketplace. But when you have this big factory with all this deployed capital you have to utilize, there's almost nowhere for you to go," Edwards said.
 
There's one remarkable difference in the manufacturing sector these days, said John Stapleford of Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pa. It's easier to mass-produce products like automobiles overseas for less, he said. But for smaller batches that respond to immediate needs, it can be cost-effective to do that stateside, he said.
 
Whereas much of the staff of an old-school manufacturing facility would have been blue-collar workers, now they tend to make up far fewer names on the roster, he said. In their place are research and development workers, engineers, marketing and technical support staff, he said.
 
"In this country, when you look at global competition, our comparative advantage is human capital," said Stapleford, who noted the manufacturing industry in Delaware was down from 44,000 workers a decade ago to about 27,000 today. "It does emphasize the importance of education, colleges and universities."
 
Only about a third of the workers at Isogen work on the factory floor, Edwards said. The rest are scientists, engineers and support staff, Edwards said. Even the people who do the filling of drug packages have a technical associate degree, he said.
 
Also in Newark is Analtech, which provides thin layer chromatography plates for the pharmaceutical industry, drug testing, forensic analysis and university research. At 18 employees, the company has just one fewer worker than it did a year ago; sales are off only 5 percent from where they were a year ago, officials there said.
 
Ken Grant, sales and marketing director, said Analtech has benefited from being the only domestic manufacturer of the technology. Diversifying its product line and its super-speedy turnaround time for small-batch orders have also helped a great deal, said Steve Miles, Analtech's general manager.
 
Analtech officials say they have saved worker time and money by redesigning their factory floor. The shrink-wrap machine had been across the room from the bubble wrapper, and workers had been making and piling boxes in their spare time.
 
Putting these elements in the same vicinity made it easier to package the products, and waiting to make boxes until they were needed saved space, they said. A four-person packaging operation could suddenly be accomplished with half that staff, redeploying the others to different tasks.
 
And it changed to a four-day workweek with longer hours each day.
 
"Things get done faster," said Terry McVey, production manager. "Mondays are a lot busier."
 
The company made the moves with help from the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership, using a program used nationally called "Lean," which emphasizes efficient work practices.
 
Steve Quindlen, center director of the partnership, said many of Delaware's smaller manufacturers are holding their own because they make small batches of parts companies still need. Many of these businesses, with 30 or fewer employees, were smart to diversify their customer base as they watched the chemical and automobile manufacturing sectors shrink, he said.
 
"I don't need a big shop to do a small volume," Quindlen said.
 
Amer Industrial Technologies, which makes high-quality parts for the nuclear power industry, has received increasingly more business in recent years, said its president and founder, Ahmad Amer.
 
The upcoming construction of new nuclear power plants will nearly triple the company's work force over the next two years or so, he said. Résumés for engineers, welders, administrative assistants, receptionists and accountants have been piling up, he said.
 
John Coates, president of Handy & Harman Tube in Camden, also doing business as CamDel Metals, said his company's decision to diversify is what kept it healthy.
 
The company's core business is making stainless-steel seamless tubing for the oil and petrochemical industry, as well as aerospace, defense and medical industries. But the company found new markets, including solar power, to help bolster the bottom line.
 
Revenue is down about 23 percent from last year, but the company is still profitable; revenues are about where they were in 2007, he said. The company had to reduce its work force by about 20, to a total of 135, in February and March, he said.
 
"It's truly about new products, diversification and creativity," Coates said.