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October 11. 2012 11:38PM
Manufacturers struggle with young workers
MANCHESTER — The biggest challenge facing manufacturers isn’t competition from China, government regulation, new technology or tight credit. The real problem is that a career in manufacturing just isn’t seen as a cool job choice by the best and the brightest among American youth.
“If we don’t solve the workforce issue, if we don’t bring young people into the manufacturing market at a much higher clip than we are today, all else will fall aside,” said David Brousell, keynote speaker at a manufacturing conference in Manchester. “If we solve that, we can solve anything else.”
Brousell, vice president and editorial director of Manufacturing Executive, addressed a crowd of nearly 200 manufacturing managers, employees and consultants at the 10th annual Governor’s Advanced Manufacturing and High Technology Summit on Tuesday at the Center of New Hampshire.
He focused on eight critical issues that he said would shape the future of industry worldwide, but one theme was consistent — manufacturing needs to adapt to rapid change and needs a more youthful, plugged-in workforce to do it.
Brousell’s organization produces publications, hosts online forums, conducts research and through its Manufacturing Leadership Council, shares best practices and recognizes excellence in manufacturing throughout the country.
He told the audience that manufacturers need to use every tool at their disposal to close the skills gap that separates young workers from thousands of good jobs that are going unfilled even as the jobless rate among 18- to 25-year-olds hits historic highs.
“Job availability isn’t the problem right now in our industry,” he said. “The problem is finding the people with the level of skill for these increasingly sophisticated jobs.” There are 600,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. that could be filled tomorrow if applicants had the right education, he said. That means far more math and science graduates than we currently produce.
Collaboration between industry and academia to close that skills gap was the underlying theme of the conference, which opened with a morning presentation on “Connecting Manufacturing to Education.”
While the title of the conference was “Moving Forward — Becoming the Next Generation of Manufacturers,” it could well have been titled, “Moving Forward — Attracting the Next Generation of Manufacturing Employees.”
“There couldn’t be a more hot-button issue,” said Brousell, pointing to major manufacturers like Lockheed-Martin, which he said would need to replace 100,000 out of 132,000 employees in the near future, due to retirement and what he called “changing business conditions.”
Brousell suggested that training initiatives, built on partnerships among industry, government and education, are only part of the solution.
Manufacturing needs a marketing push to convince young workers that a career with GE can be just as promising as a job with Google.
“The image of manufacturing needs a major update,” he said. “If only young people could see and understand the high-tech marvels that many of our plants have become, they would have a different emotional reaction to the idea of manufacturing as a career.”
Beyond training and marketing, the behavior of manufacturing organizations has to change as well, to prosper in a global economy with social networks emerging as a dominant force.
Command and control management is falling by the wayside in favor of more collaborative methods of running a business, he said. New systems for customer feedback are being built around social media.
Environmental concerns are no longer just a political issue but an economic imperative, with companies like Walmart and Proctor & Gamble requiring more than 100,000 different suppliers to report on their sustainability efforts.
“A Johnson Controls study showed that 96 percent of people ages 18 to 25 want their employer to be environmentally friendly,” he said.
Brousell said manufacturing is getting more attention than ever in political and academic circles.
He cited innovative practices by manufacturers around the country, and sounded optimistic about the industry’s ability to transform for the digital age.
“There is a new industrial revolution in the making,” he said. “It’s about taking the next leap forward in improving the way we source, make and distribute products and services in the 21st century.”
dsolomon@unionleader.com
“If we don’t solve the workforce issue, if we don’t bring young people into the manufacturing market at a much higher clip than we are today, all else will fall aside,” said David Brousell, keynote speaker at a manufacturing conference in Manchester. “If we solve that, we can solve anything else.”
Brousell, vice president and editorial director of Manufacturing Executive, addressed a crowd of nearly 200 manufacturing managers, employees and consultants at the 10th annual Governor’s Advanced Manufacturing and High Technology Summit on Tuesday at the Center of New Hampshire.
He focused on eight critical issues that he said would shape the future of industry worldwide, but one theme was consistent — manufacturing needs to adapt to rapid change and needs a more youthful, plugged-in workforce to do it.
Brousell’s organization produces publications, hosts online forums, conducts research and through its Manufacturing Leadership Council, shares best practices and recognizes excellence in manufacturing throughout the country.
He told the audience that manufacturers need to use every tool at their disposal to close the skills gap that separates young workers from thousands of good jobs that are going unfilled even as the jobless rate among 18- to 25-year-olds hits historic highs.
“Job availability isn’t the problem right now in our industry,” he said. “The problem is finding the people with the level of skill for these increasingly sophisticated jobs.” There are 600,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. that could be filled tomorrow if applicants had the right education, he said. That means far more math and science graduates than we currently produce.
Collaboration between industry and academia to close that skills gap was the underlying theme of the conference, which opened with a morning presentation on “Connecting Manufacturing to Education.”
While the title of the conference was “Moving Forward — Becoming the Next Generation of Manufacturers,” it could well have been titled, “Moving Forward — Attracting the Next Generation of Manufacturing Employees.”
“There couldn’t be a more hot-button issue,” said Brousell, pointing to major manufacturers like Lockheed-Martin, which he said would need to replace 100,000 out of 132,000 employees in the near future, due to retirement and what he called “changing business conditions.”
Brousell suggested that training initiatives, built on partnerships among industry, government and education, are only part of the solution.
Manufacturing needs a marketing push to convince young workers that a career with GE can be just as promising as a job with Google.
“The image of manufacturing needs a major update,” he said. “If only young people could see and understand the high-tech marvels that many of our plants have become, they would have a different emotional reaction to the idea of manufacturing as a career.”
Beyond training and marketing, the behavior of manufacturing organizations has to change as well, to prosper in a global economy with social networks emerging as a dominant force.
Command and control management is falling by the wayside in favor of more collaborative methods of running a business, he said. New systems for customer feedback are being built around social media.
Environmental concerns are no longer just a political issue but an economic imperative, with companies like Walmart and Proctor & Gamble requiring more than 100,000 different suppliers to report on their sustainability efforts.
“A Johnson Controls study showed that 96 percent of people ages 18 to 25 want their employer to be environmentally friendly,” he said.
Brousell said manufacturing is getting more attention than ever in political and academic circles.
He cited innovative practices by manufacturers around the country, and sounded optimistic about the industry’s ability to transform for the digital age.
“There is a new industrial revolution in the making,” he said. “It’s about taking the next leap forward in improving the way we source, make and distribute products and services in the 21st century.”
dsolomon@unionleader.com
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