By Paul V. Arnold

As a forward thinker, I plan the articles for a given issue of MRO Today well in advance. That way I feel in control and ahead of the game. Three weeks before my deadline for this issue, I wrote a column for this page on supplier relations. But outside forces (be it fate, destiny or whatnot) wanted me to scrap that piece and write about a different topic. The following took place over the course of one week at the end of April:

• An industry friend faxed me an article from The Business Journal titled “Tackling skills shortage in manufacturing.” The article painted a grim picture for industry. “(The past few years) conceals a longer-term shortage of highly skilled workers that could undercut manufacturing competitiveness and weaken the U.S. economy,” the article stated. “This trend is the result of a convergence of factors, including demographic shifts, failures of the educational system and an outdated image of manufacturing tied to negative stereotypes.”

• The next day, I visited Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corporation in Port Washington, Wis., for this issue’s cover story. During interviews, president John Stollenwerk brought up the skills shortage topic. “The great challenge we have in America is finding intelligent people who are interested in working hard,” he said. “We aren’t finding people — 22- or 23-year-olds, USA-born — that want to make shoes. The workforce at our plant in Maine must have an average age of 55. We can’t find that next generation of skilled workers. What are we going to do there? I don’t know. Many young people go to college today, but these are nothing but glorified high schools. Then these kids go sell airline tickets for low wages when they could be making double that in manufacturing.”

• A few days later, my eldest son’s fifth-grade teacher asked me to chaperone for a class tour of the General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis. With the fax and the Stollenwerk quotes fresh in my brain, I decided to use the field trip as an experiment. What do kids just a few years away from high school think about manufacturing? The tour was an eye-opener for me and the kids, nearly all of whom never had visited a plant before. Riding a tram through GM, the kids oohed and aahed at the sight of things being put together. They were awed by robots and welding sparks. They waved at and high-fived production workers.

How can we solve the skills shortage problem? Perhaps it’s cultivating the curiosity and interest of kids and exposing them to the industrial world at a young age. If you agree, solicit schools to tour your plant, and explain to these kids the variety of careers and benefits available in manufacturing. Forward thinking may help the industry be in control and ahead of the game.

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