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Fabricators, manufacturers, educators weigh in with solutions for skills gap

Better collaboration between training programs and manufacturing companies is key

Fabricators, manufacturers, educators weigh in with solutions for skills gap

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The battle to solve manufacturing’s mounting skills gap rages on. One solution? Better transparency in collaboration between companies and educators.

Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA) recently held a small forum at its Elgin, Ill., headquarters, featuring various Chicago-area fabrication/manufacturing business leaders and representatives from surrounding high schools, colleges, and trade schools. The point of the forum was straight forward: Address what all parties involved need to do to better prepare the industry’s future workforce.

Two key questions emerged during the forum: Are educators properly training students before they enter the industry? Are companies properly engaging potential workers to draw interest in the industry?

Yes, two very loaded questions that were never going to be fully addressed in the forum’s two-hour timeframe. But the dialogue opened the door for better partnerships and more internship opportunities between the two sides so nothing is lost in translation for those training to become a skilled worker. That means learning not only technical skills but soft skills like time management and communication as well.

Addressing this concern in the Chicago area makes complete sense. According to data from FMA, Illinois accounts for $9.9 billion of fabricated metal products in the U.S. And that becomes obvious to anyone driving along I-90 around Chicago, where you’ll see fabrication facilities for, among others, Trumpf, Amada, Bystronic, Mazak, DMG Mori, and Mitsubishi.

And the discussion about solving the increasing skilled worker shortage is equally prevalent nationwide.

Data from The FABRICATOR’s 2019 “What Keeps You Up At Night?” survey shows that the No. 1 worry fabricators have is the unavailability of skilled workers. In fact, of the 100 companies surveyed, 45 percent listed it as their primary concern – the highest in the survey’s history.

In response to the survey results, I asked fabricators and manufacturers in the most recent Fabricating Update e-newsletter what they thought could help develop more skilled workers.

Here’s what some had to say:

Douglas Shuda, AZZ Industrial: Yes, the growing sills gap in manufacturing is a subject that has been batted around for more than the past couple of years. I recall driving market surveys in 2017-18 when I was marketing on the cutting side of the fabrication market with Hypertherm.

Fabricators, manufacturers, educators weigh in with solutions for skills gap

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The survey results came back clearly that operator skillset was the greatest concern for company owners. The older more seasoned/experienced operators were retiring or coming up on retirement and the younger operators could not consistently and confidently produce the same results. This data drove us to aggressively pursue the path of higher levels of process integration and automation (plasma hole cutting, CNC nesting, robotics, etc.).

The corresponding consequence to only addressing the skillset gap and not the rate of attrition leads us to where we are today with not only a lack of craft skills but a serious lack of actual craft bodies.

A similar but broader market condition occurred in the 1990s when the high-tech market realized it had to address the lack of qualified candidates for high-tech jobs. The U.S. was not putting out the numbers of scientists, engineers, and technically skilled folks that would keep up with the market needs. This was the root of the recent adaptation of the STEM education program, which, in turn, has become commonplace in education discussions as a reference to the shortage of skilled workers and inadequate education in these areas.

Unfortunately, the term and programs tend not to refer to the non-professional and less visible skilled sectors (welders, machinists, plumbers, etc).

I believe the respondent that stated that what needs to be done to fix the depleted skilled workforce has a valid point. ("Revamp of our nation's education focus, which would need to include a change in our culture so that skilled factory jobs become desirable again for young people.")

However, to address the broader condition, we need to go beyond better training and/or better pay. In addition, we need to think like those folks at the beginning of the career decision funnel. Why would our sons and daughters want to be a welder or a machine operator when they could be working as a computer engineer, software engineer, or social media manager for Apple, Microsoft, or Disney?

Capture their interest. Then adequately train and fairly compensate them. Food for thought.

Nate Gould, Qualified Industrial LLC: I think the solutions are those that your magazine and other sources have already articulated.

In the U.S., fabricators must continue to automate. We see this trend in other industries as well, even those not buffeted as much by foreign competition, such as grocery stores. Grocery stores are moving quickly to replace or reduce human workers in the checkout process and utilize automated self-checkout stands instead. While this behavior is portrayed by some as harmful to lower-income workers, there is no viable alternative.

Some industries will continue to rely on human workers for some time, such as welders for large-scale, custom metal fabrications. That welding process is hard to automate, due to low part volume and high complexity of the fixtures and machinery, which greatly reduces the business case for automation. In those industries, companies must be willing to offer training and other perquisites to attract and retain employees. And, of course, customers must ultimately be willing and able to bear the costs for training and other employee benefits.

Part of the answer here lies in specialization and industry focus. I believe that purpose-built production lines for complex products are a way that fabricators can earn a payback on automation while still being competitive with low-cost countries. To succeed in that approach, however, requires that companies can secure longer-term customer commitments.

Maryann Hajduk, H&H Industrial Corporation: I wholeheartedly agree that our entire education system needs to be revamped & attention paid to manufacturing skills. Even the local vocational schools are deficient for our type of manufacturing: we have tried to bring attention to the opportunities available for those willing to learn. We place ads on their job boards & receive little feedback. It seems construction welding, automotive/auto body, and basic machine shop is where the vocational-technical schools’ attention is focused. We have also been in touch with the local junior college, which has a 2-year manufacturing program. We posted on their job board and even hired a graduate from their program, but ultimately the experience was a disappointment.

We are discovering that basic math skills are missing, ability to read measuring tools is lacking, and just showing up on time every day is a challenge among the younger people we have brought on and let go. In 2018, we had the need for several spots and selected hard-working 30- and 40-year-olds who had familiarity with hand tools and were recommended by current employees. We are training these people in a metal manufacturing environment. The main positive is that they show up every day on time and sober. What we haven’t been able to locate, and this has been going on for months, is a turret press set-up operator as well as a good brake person. Finding a person to shear square is a solid challenge – although we finally located a guy who can do that.

I don’t have a solution – you asked what keeps me up at night, and this situation is a big headache. New Jersey wants to help pay to train people in manufacturing but much of the course work is geared toward food production manufacturing, not really what we do. If I keep having my trained people instructing new workers on top of needing to get production out (and limited time to do so), it just keeps the merry-go-round circling.

Adam Jacobs, Powerblanket: Regarding the most recent newsletter, we've seen the same situation here in Utah. Skilled workers are uncommon, but we're planning ahead to change that.

Powerblanket offers several scholarships every year to high school seniors and juniors who plan to attend college in preparation for a career in manufacturing. We do this to encourage manufacturing career paths and to give those interested a financial boost. We also offer training certificates to our employees in whatever skills they feel they could improve upon. It's been a huge success in both raising the skill level of our average worker and employee retainment. And even if they do leave Powerblanket, they're still using their skills in the industry.

Frank A. Rocanello, West Palm Beach, Fla.: A primary need is to once again have pride in being able to make something. If you are born J. Worthington Farnsworth III with a silver spoon in your mouth, you can afford to get a degree in medieval travel literature just because you enjoy that type of learning. For the rest of us, who will at some point have to get a job to support ourselves, saddling yourself with $100K of debt so you can have a degree in literature but can’t find a job to pay the massive debt is a prescription for failure. There was a time when a man with a trade could always support himself and a family. There was a pride in being a craftsman. We need to return to good solid honest days and pay for a good honest day of work. When the welder and fabricator can proudly say “I built that,” then we will be on the way to prosperity.

Douglas Bergeson, Minnetonka, Minn.: I served 26 years in the Minnesota National Guard on weekends, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. During the weeks, I spent decades in the precision machine tool, sheet-metal, and welding trades.

Currently, I work for the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a civilian heavy equipment operator. However, I still work on my inventions in my home model shop using my past 25 years of experience in the skilled metals/plastics trades.

My skilled worker solution is as follows: I would cherish the opportunity to train military veterans, homeless vets, and disabled vets on basic machine tool set-ups and welding skills! The challenge is to get our local VA medical center to support my idea.

Tim Thompson, SWS Warning Lights Inc.: Once upon a time when you got into manufacturing you would be set for life. Good pay, benefits, security, and a retirement plan. I do not believe that that is the case anymore. Maybe I have selective memory!