Weight watcher works for scales.

• Position: James Seanor of John Chatillon & Sons - People

Sometimes, James Seanor just has to shake his head at the weighty responsibilities of his job. "It's kind of mind-boggling," he says. "The average citizen has no idea what goes into the manufacturing of scales."

Seanor, 54, does. He's president of Greensboro-based John Chatillon & Sons, which makes scales for such commercial customers as retaurants, groceries and hardware stores and for light industry. It also manufactures scales for fishing tournaments.

Unlike the bathroom variety, scales weighing items for sale can't fudge an ounce. It's the heavy duty of the Scale Manufacturers Association to make sure its approximately 28 members meet strict federal standards. Seanor recently became vice president of the national group.

At Chatillon, a subsidiary of Wyndmoor, Pa.-based Technitrol, scale technology extends beyond providing a way to weigh tomatoes at the supermarket. The company also makes devices that can test the strength of a tomato's skin by piercing it. "This could tell a grower things like the ripeness of the fruit," Seanor says, "and wether or not the skin is strong enough to stand certain types of packaging."

Chatillon is one of the country's largest manufacturers of force-measurement devices, Seanor says. Besides fruit growers, other customers include toy makers, which test what it would take to topple high...