TEACHERS VISIT THORNGATE ON STATE TOUR

Larry Woodard, a high school industrial arts teacher, puts his students through many paces during the school year.

"I even establish an assembly line to demonstrate some industrial techniques," said Woodard.

He was one of about 50 Missouri teachers who watched an assembly line in operation Monday at Thorngate Ltd., 1507 Independence in Cape Girardeau.

"This is a valuable experience," said Woodard. "It's a learning experience that we can pass on to the students."

The Thorngate Ltd. stop is one of several on the annual two-week Missouriana Study Tour, designed to give classroom teachers a personal look at Missouri business and industry.

The two-week tour, cosponsored by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Central Missouri State University (CMSU), Warrensburg, provides a hands-on learning experience to help participants in their teaching duties.

The state chamber has been sponsoring the tour for economics teachers since 1990 to provide a bird's-eye view of several business operations in the state, how the businesses operate and their day-to-day problems.

"The tour is great," said Robert Shier, a computer literacy teacher at Platte City Middle School. "You see things that you never expect to see."

Shier was watching the cutting line at Thorngate.

"The cutting is all done with computers," said Darryl Maschman, director of engineering at Thorngate and one of three managers who guided the group through the factory.

The teachers are in the second week of their statewide tour. They have visited the Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Doe Run Company mine at Viburnum, the Springfield Remanufacturing Center, and farm operations in the Missouri Bootheel, and Thorngate Ltd., a Division of Hart Schaffner & Marx.

Next stop for the group will be the DOW Chemical U.S.A. facility in Ste. Genevieve today. Other stops this week include the L.E. Sauer Machine Co. in St. Louis Wednesday, Monsanto Thursday and the Runge Nature Center Friday.

On hand to welcome the group on its arrival at Thorngate Monday were Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III, Chamber of Commerce President John Mehner; Rep. Mary Kasten, Sen. Peter Kinder, and a number of local Thorngate officials, including general manager Frank Adams.

Adams explained that Thorngate was the largest manufacturer of men's clothing in the world.

"One of the lines we produce here is the Tommy Hilfiger line," said Adams.

Hilfiger, who is widely acclaimed as the leading American menswear designer of the 1990s, signed an agreement with Hartmarx earlier this year.

During the Monday tour, the group watched "the making of a coat," from the cutting room to the completed product.

"We make about 7,000 coats a week," said Maschman, who explained that each coat involves 125 operations after cutting.

"There is no secret to our operation here," said Maschman. "All clothing manufacturers have the same tools and the same machinery."

Maschman credits the "quality" to the workers and the materials used in the coats and pants.

Thorngate employs about 600 persons at the Cape Girardeau plant, and another 200 at a plant in Chaffee.

"I'm amazed with how Missouri companies utilize all their materials," said Elizabeth Young, a middle-school teacher at Columbia. "There just isn't any waste."

Earlier in the week, the teachers visited a saw mill operation at Houston, Mo.

"We watched the operation from the cutting of trees to finished wood products," said Young. "The wood is used for lumber, pallets, charcoal and mulch. There is little waste."

Following the Thorngate tour Monday morning, the group spent the afternoon with representatives of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We held a picnic lunch for the group at Bollinger Mill," said Linda Hill, a Cape Girardeau teacher who is a volunteer with the CVB during the summer. "From there, we visited the downtown Cape Girardeau area."