Photos by Juan Carlo / Star staff John Ratzenberger, left, gets a tour of Haas Automation by Peter Zierhut, public relations director for the Oxnard company. Ratzenberger is featuring the company on his Travel Channel show.

Haas Automation, a company that does the work behind the scenes, is getting front-stage treatment on an upcoming episode of "John Ratzenberger's Made in America" on the Travel Channel.

Started 23 years ago, the Oxnard firm makes machines used to create precision metal parts, used in everything from cell phones to airplane landing gear.

Ratzenberger, known for playing Cliff on "Cheers" and being the voice behind Pixar characters, chose to feature the company on his show because of the work it does.

"My favorite shows are the shows that tell us how the machines that build the machines are made," he said while on break from filming at the company's 1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility Tuesday. "Companies like Haas are critical to civilization."

The show will air later this year.

"Made in America" highlights companies that manufacture in the United States, profiling about 40 businesses each year.

"Without them, everything is gone," Ratzenberger said.

Without the components manufactured for a camera, the pictures it takes could never be enjoyed, he noted, calling what goes on in factories the foundation of America.

As companies increasingly seek to send manufacturing abroad, Haas Automation maintains its assembly lines on 86 acres in Oxnard, employing 1,350 people in the U.S.

The company made more than $700 million in revenue last year and is expected to bring in about $850 million this year, said Peter Zierhut, the company's public relations director. It is on track to meet its revenue goal of $1 billion a year by 2010.

To stay competitive, the company is always looking at labor savings, Zierhut said. By automating some parts of the process and refining how work is done, a handful of employees can work on several machines at once, rather than a team working on a single machine. Zierhut said some lines in China would have about 10 workers for every person on the line at Haas.

To compete globally, "it's absolutely critical that you be highly efficient," he said. Quality is equally important. Machines are meticulously tested to be accurate within dimensions smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

About two months ago, the company shipped its 75,000th machine since it started building large machining centers in 1988, Zierhut said. Haas Automation makes about 100 different kinds of machines, ranging in size from one that can be pushed around on wheels to one the size of a house.

Ratzenberger said he was impressed by the variety.

"That surprised me," he said. "It's very impressive."

Zierhut said it is an honor to be selected for the show, which has highlighted companies behind top American products, such as Scotch Tape, Airstream, Gatorade, Harvey Davidson Motorcycles and Twinkies.

"It's not a natural to pick a company like us," Zierhut said. "It is an honor being identified as being part of that."

The company's customers are made up of businesses that make metal parts, including aerospace, automotive, medical and recreational industries. Parts made on Haas machines can be found in car engines, soft drink bottle molds and even heart stents.

"Anytime at all you need a precision metal part made, you need a machine to make that part," Zierhut said.

Ratzenberger said companies such as Haas Automation are vital to their communities. Losing work and jobs to other countries helps build up the middle class there, but risks turning the United States into a nation of the very rich and very poor, he said.

"You're never going to see the name of a Chinese manufacturer on your kid's Little League uniform," he said.

He admonishes leaders worried about pollution but who don't address the issue of lax pollution controls in other countries and the pollution created shipping products to the United States. He advocates taxes and tariffs on foreign goods so the purchase is not based on price, but quality.

Ratzenberger's work to draw attention to trade skills moves beyond the "Made in America" program to other efforts, including his "Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation," a nonprofit. This November, a "Tinkering Day" will be held at Limoniera to expose children to things such as building a birdhouse or seeing the inner workings of a robot. The event is part of a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Santa Clara Valley and The Education for Children with Diabetes Foundation.

Ratzenberger said trade education is becoming the new graduate school, where those with bachelor's degrees go to get the skills they need to make a living.

Zierhut said a mechanist can earn $60,000 to $80,000 a year.

Haas does its own work to encourage more technical education, including its Haas Technical Education Centers, found at 636 schools in the U.S. and Canada, including Ventura College.

The schools have Haas machines that can be used to teach skills needed to work the machines or turn out an engineering design to examine how it is as a working part.

Locally, the company also supports robotics teams and competitions.

"The whole intent is to get kids interested and motivated in these sorts of things," Zierhut said.

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