Manufacturing's new problem: Finding workers
BYLINE: Richard Ryman
The manufacturing industry, imperiled by outsourcing, downsizing and alleged irrelevance, is doing well in Wisconsin, thank you.
It would do better if it could find workers to meet the demand.
"That's a pretty amazing thing, isn't it, for an industry that's supposed to be dying," said Michael Klonsinski, executive director of Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
Wisconsin continues to be one of the top manufacturing states in the nation. Like many states, it has seen many more businesses than it would like close or move overseas, but that's only part of the story.
Klonsinski said companies that did not want to change with the times — or in the case of outsourcing, did — are gone.
"The ones that were left saw what was coming and they started figuring it out," he said.
Figuring it out meant finding ways to be more efficient — Lean processes, for instance — more flexible and more value-added. A look at the list of 39 companies nominated for this year's Manufacturer of the Year Awards are examples.
According to the 2006 Wisconsin Manufacturers Register, published by Manufacturers' News Inc. of Evanston, Ill., the state added 11,652 manufacturing jobs in the 12 months before the register was published. By their accounting, the state was home to 12,884 manufacturers supporting 695,602 jobs as of mid-2005.
Klonsinski said manufacturing worth continues to rise, from $41 billion to $44.5 billion at the last year-to-year accounting.
"It is interesting that for all the doom and gloom, there is still a big chunk of manufacturers in the state that are doing pretty well," Klonsinski said. "One of the things holding them back is access to skilled labor."
Pam Mazur, associate dean of the Trades and Technical Department at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, said the school is training welders as fast as it can — not fast enough for demand — and has openings in other high-need manufacturing areas, such as machine tooling, tool and die making, CNC operation, mechanical design, prototype and design, and electronics. The school has between 175 and 200 students in manufacturing-related programs.
"We could do twice that," Mazur said. "We have more job opportunities than we have students coming in."
Mazur said manufacturing proponents are battling several perceptions.
"One of the fears is, with some of the bigger companies having had downturns, people are afraid to go into manufacturing," she said. "The other thing we are fighting is 'everything is being outsourced to China or India.' There is some of that going on ... however, a lot of that type of work is the lower-skilled, lower-end of the manufacturing sector. The more boring stuff, if you will."
Lower-skilled workers are not in demand.
"Sixty percent of jobs will require a two-year degree," said Ann Franz of the N.E.W. Manufacturing Alliance. "It's imperative people have a post-high school education, but they don't always have to get a four-year degree."
A variety of methods are being tried to address the shortage. NWTC representatives visit high schools, hold open houses and invite high school students to participate in manufacturing projects.
New North, the regional economic development organization, recently advertised in a Detroit newspaper for skilled labor and manufacturing employees, targeting the increasingly available Michigan auto workers.
And the Manufacturing Alliance created a Web site that allows manufacturing workers to post their profiles for employers to see.
"For individuals that have been dislocated, we've made the transition easier. Fill out the profile of skills; employers check the profile and call," Franz said.
Klonsinski said demographics are working against companies, too.
"The proportion of welders 50 and older ... there is a lot of them. They've developed a set of skills that are hard to replicate," he said. "They are disappearing faster than we are able to replace them in the short-term."
Whatever image "welder" brings to mind for most people, it's probably wrong.
"Employers are expecting more out of employees than handing them the welder and two pieces of metal and saying put them together," Mazur said. "They expect them to be problem-solvers. They don't need 'what do I need to do today, boss?'"
Mazur said manufacturing jobs continue to pay well. NWTC graduates last year had a starting median salaries of $37,000 in electromechanical fields, $36,600 in electronics-related manufacturing, $32,200 in machine tooling and $32,800 in mechanical design.
Franz said a recent survey by the Boy Scouts in Brown County found that most respondents wanted to be teachers and nurses.
"Only five kids in Brown County put down they wanted to be machinists," she said. "They want to do the things they see. There is no television show about CNC machinists."
Manufacturing job resources
* {}N.E.W. Manufacturing Alliance, www.newmfgalliance .org
* {}Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, www.nwtc.edu
* {}The New North economic development agency, www.thenewnorth.com
Manufacturing job resources
* {}N.E.W. Manufacturing Alliance, www.newmfgalliance .org
* {}Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, www.nwtc.edu
* {}The New North economic development agency, www.thenewnorth.com