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Will your manufacturing job exist in 15 years?

The metal forming industry needs new employees, new skills, and a new attitude

The sheet metal forming industry needs talented workers.

The sheet metal forming industry is undergoing a great amount of change. To remain relevant, it will need the best and the brightest to not only understand how things are done, but how new materials and technologies fit into the manufacturing puzzle. Getty Images

The sheet metal forming industry sits at a crossroad. We need new, young employees. We also need greater understanding of automation and technology innovation. Our available materials and technologies have changed dramatically over the past 25 years, but we remain an industry of the past.

If component suppliers are to thrive in the future, we must evaluate who we are and how we work. We must take advantage of the technologies available to us and motivate our current and prospective employees to pave the way to a successful future.

I recently spoke to a young lady studying civil engineering. When I mentioned sheet metal forming, she gave me a quizzical look and asked what I meant. It shouldn’t be like this. We need sharp minds to help us navigate the challenges we will continue to face. Our commercial and consumer goods depend on components formed in press shops, roll forming facilities, and forges. We should lead the way in building the knowledge and capability to form lighter, stronger components. We should lead the way in building safe workplaces with sustainable manufacturing practices.

Sheet metal forming is an old and critically important business. We are the people who build the components for efficient appliances, safer vehicles, corrosion-resistant pipe, and lighter buildings. If we are to advance and achieve our full potential, it’s time we work together to ensure our products continue to serve people efficiently and provide meaningful work for the next generation of employees.

It’s time we start promoting ourselves. Students should hear about the challenges we need them to help solve. We should promote the critical value of materials to building infrastructure and to everyday life. Mark Miodownik published a book in 2013 titled Stuff Matters offers a brief and entertaining overview of the materials that support our lives, from concrete to metals to chocolate. This book that taught readers about the many properties and values of materials ended up being a New York Times Best Seller.

We have a compelling story. Our story is also dynamic and challenging. New materials and technologies often push suppliers beyond their comfort zones. OEMs have an increased demand for advanced high-strength steels and aluminum components. Simulation technologies and the Internet of Things push many tier suppliers beyond their capabilities. Creative and knowledgeable insights are necessary for suppliers to capitalize on the many exciting advancements available in today’s marketplace.

Our challenge is to attract new people to the traditional skills in tool and die, as well as new skills in data management and engineering. We must understand the tensile properties of the materials we use, but we also must understand how those materials behave in our presses, with our lubricants, under our forming conditions. This demands continuous monitoring and communication. It requires that our managers and employees understand how to use technology as a team.

Add to this the recent increase in remote workers. Managers can resist it, but remote work is becoming a new standard. One advantage of remote work is that employees can no longer pretend to be productive. People with skills in management diplomacy, but inadequate hands-on skills, will stand out quickly. For remote employees, the only measure of performance is the quality of their production.

Sheet metal forming needs to embrace and adapt to change, whether it’s long-term changes in materials and technologies, or changes just in the past two years in how we work and interact with people. To do this, we need new employees, new skills, and a new attitude. We survived for more than 100 years with only a few grades of steel and old rules of thumb. Today’s world is new and exciting. Most of us need help. Let’s define our new reality and look for the right people to guide us through today’s and tomorrow’s changes.

About the Author
4M Partners LLC

Bill Frahm

President

P.O. Box 71191

Rochester Hills, MI 48307

248-506-5873