Closing the Skills Gap in Manufacturing

I recently read an article inside "Foundry Management & Technology", that explained the severity of the troubling skills gap inside U.S. manufacturing.  As the baby boomers are retiring at an alarming rate, approximately 10,000 workers a day, it can be a challenge for almost all industries to find appropriate replacements.  The solution that was offered in this eye-opening article? Training, training, and more training.

As a production supervisor for one of the fastest growing manufactures in my hometown, I can really relate to this article.  As I look around my shop, the average working age of our employees is 48 years of age and 25% of the employees are 60 or older.  Michigan’s percentage of workers between 55-64 is 53.6%, and the average age of the workforce is 45.  In some manufacturing industries, no prior experience is really needed, but supervisors often deal with individuals that lack basic math and problem solving skills, some cannot operate a computer confidently, or they may even have difficulty showing up to work on time.  Why is this an issue in manufacturing?  Because we simply do not have the necessary talent and skills necessary for the thousands of positions that need to be filled.

Training is no doubt expensive for a company, but worth it in the long run.  When you have those baby boomers that have been with your company for 35 years, even less at 25 years, they offer a lot of knowledge.  With new and younger hires or personal that are in there 30-40’s, they are the future of your company and many do not bring the same skills to the plate as your veterans do.  That may be hard to swallow, but it’s the facts!  I hear quite frequently from many baby boomers within the community that Generation Y has horrible work ethics, their always on their phones, they want flexible work schedules, etc.  Well, what are we doing to ensure that when these baby boomers retire their positions are adequately filled?  Incorporating today’s contrasting society with the proper training from these boomers, is a must.

Offering relevant ongoing education from employers is imperative.  Companies need to work closely with their local community colleges and high schools, utilize continuing education programs like Fred Pryor or SkillPath, and incorporate their own in house experts as well as outside local tradesman and business professionals into their training programs.  Figure 1 represents the important concept of what companies essentially need to be doing.  On the job training for a company’s technology advances and refresher courses for those systematic approaches in your manufacturing processes, must always be up to date and ongoing.

Companies need to remain competitive.  To do this, you must have the properly skilled employees working for you.  To ensure you have those proficient workers, you must invest into them.  It’s more important now than ever because of the volume of baby boomers retiring each day.  Some may argue that we don’t have enough manufacturing work in our areas to remain competitive.  I say that we do!  We just need to discover these future employees and retain the current employees, while properly training all so that we can close the skills gap and remain competitive. 

Figure 1

Photo credit: https://www.paychex.com/articles/employee-benefits/importance-of-workforce-training

Link to article:

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.ferris.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE|A459804050&v=2.1&u=lom_ferrissu&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w#

Resources:
Carlson, S. (2016, November 30). FloraCraft Workforce. (C. Harrison, Interviewer)

Wardrop, T. M., Barrett, J., McClelland, J., & Swanson, R. W. (2016). AnnualWorkforce Report Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2015-2016. Civil Service Commission. Lansing: Michigan Civil Service Commission. Retrieved from http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcs/WF_2016_3rd_Quarter_Complete_528226_7.pdf

Weber, Jeff. "Here's how training can close the manufacturing Skills Gap: the problem is acute, but it can be addressed by defining the issue and delivering resources more effectively." Foundry Management & Technology, July 2016, p. 28+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=lom_ferrissu&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA459804050&it=r&asid=8c69a9b3006e7a94c5ed405f0894d884. Accessed 27 Mar. 2017.