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It’s not your father’s manufacturing, but …

Manufacturing’s image has improved a lot in recent years. Rarely a month goes by when I don’t see an article like this one, which touches on the fact that “it’s not your father’s manufacturing industry,” full of grubby plants with loud machines.

I agree wholeheartedly that, yes, it’s not your father’s manufacturing industry, but not just because of what the plants look like. And just like not all jobs in retail, food service, or finance are alike, so it is with manufacturing.

The popular manufacturing “stock photo” these days shows a guy in a hardhat in nice clothes looking on a clean plant full of machines and a spotless floor. I’ve seen plants like that in precision sheet metal fabrication. Anoka, Minn.-based Micron Metalworks is a prime example.

But the message I get from these stock photos doesn’t match reality: These plants work with sophisticated machines, and you need personal protective equipment, but you don’t need to get your hands dirty anymore.

But as most people who work in metal fabrication and in most sectors of manufacturing know, of course you will get your hands dirty. How dirty depends on shop practices and what the shop produces.

Consider plants that specialize in heavy welding and structural fabrication, or heavy stamping? What about a heat treatment facility, or a forging plant? These environments are certainly safer these days. But you still need PPE. Things still get loud and hot. And you may need to deal with lubrication, slag, welding fume, and other “dirty stuff.” It’s better than it was, but not every plant has guys in lab coats working in cleanrooms. The work dictates how clean a plant can reasonably be expected to be.

That said, manufacturing has indeed changed. With so many previously manual tasks now automated, the nature of the work has changed. It requires less lifting (ideally, at least) and different thinking. It also requires engagement and concentration. Automation doesn’t mean people can check out mentally.

For instance, in a highly automated structural fabrication plant, a machine operator needs to ensure the right program and the right material reach the work envelope at the right time. If they don’t, a sophisticated machine can produce a lot of scrap in a hurry.

But metal still has rust. It still needs to be blast-cleaned, and welding arcs still produce fume. All of that “dirtiness” can be managed and minimized, but due to the nature of this type of manufacturing, you just can’t avoid it. People will get their hands dirty.

Thanks to modern software and sophisticated equipment, the nature of the work has changed dramatically. Many machines have straightforward user interfaces, so machine operation isn’t as opaque as it once was. The difference now is that jobs move so fast. Pull up the wrong job on the beam line, or fixture an assembly in a robot cell incorrectly, and an operator can lose a lot of money for a shop very quickly.

Considering all this, I think manufacturing’s image problem has less to do with what actual plants look like and more to do with the actual work employees perform.

About the Author
The Fabricator

Tim Heston

Senior Editor

2135 Point Blvd

Elgin, IL 60123

815-381-1314

Tim Heston, The Fabricator's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal. Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The Fabricator's staff in October 2007.