Imagine that you’re 15 years old. You like new technology. You’re a whiz at strategy games. You built your own computer and set up a wireless network in your home. You’re yearning for your first car. You have fleeting thoughts about you might want to do when you grow up, including earn big bucks. As for going to college, why on earth would you want to do that? These days, everything in school seems to be centered around English, math, science, and political correctness. You, instead, really like to do things, make things, build things, solve puzzles and problems, figure things out, investigate. You’re simply not motivated or interested enough to pursue a job or career in some stodgy business that you know or care nothing about (except for what you hear on the news and through social media).
You want to work with your hands and mind. To do something productive. To make something that’s tangible. To be part of a team that makes things. So, you went ahead and joined a robotics-competition team at your school and learned that 3,898 teams from 34 countries competed in 2020. That’s exciting! (More on this in next week’s article.)
Lately, though, you’ve been hearing more and more in the news about the manufacturing industry’s woes: the meltdown across the industrial sector, supply-chain interruptions, temporary plant closings, labor shortages (because no one wants these jobs?). It’s all over the Internet and on TV. Is this real? Now, what to do when you grow up?
Maybe one or more of those global problems has hit close to home—your home. A relative, a neighbor, and/or, perhaps, a friend’s parent(s) might have lost/left their jobs as manufacturing slowed over the past few months and big unemployment bucks began flowing. So, would you still be interested in learning more about working in a “factory?” Nah, doesn’t register as an option with you.
So much for OUR future capacity assurance talent. . .
If there ever were a time when we needed to actively nurture and recruit young minds for manufacturing, maintenance, and other reliability-related careers, that time is NOW. Yet, the political/media machine keeps chugging along, doing everything possible (it seems) to send a “discouraging word” about one of our nation’s largest economic machines: manufacturing. The economic recovery is strong. Unbeknownst to the masses is that there is some really good and exciting stuff happening out there in our plants. But it often doesn’t make the news.
As RAM professionals, we must reach out to our schools, community colleges, teachers, and administrators to share the good news about what we’re doing in our local manufacturing facilities. At this point. community colleges and technical schools are the key to an interested and potentially willing workforce. Spark their students’ curiosity about what goes on in your manufacturing processes. High schools are also fair game, but right now, many of them seem to be fighting various social and health issues.
The good news we can share is about much more than BIG companies that make cars and trucks, appliances, and widgets. Look at all of the jobs in the supply chain.
Look beyond all of the direct suppliers (first, second, and third tier). Look past the chemical plants that supply feedstocks for paints and plastics. Look upstream to the mines and processes that supply ore, limestone, kaolin, and other minerals that go into steel, copper, aluminum, paints, composites and plastics. Look further upstream to the companies that produce oxygen, nitrogen, argon, CO2, chlorine, and other gases that go into making primary metals and plastics.Then look way upstream to petroleum products, another natural resource that is largely worthless until it is processed for use in plastics, composites, and metals. Consider, too, the oil and natural gas firing our boilers to generate steam, hot water, and gases to process metals that go into cars, trucks, and ever so much more. You’ll be looking and considering a long time.
The list of affected industries and businesses goes on and on and on. Keep in mind, from this point on, to remain viable and competitive, suppliers of every one of the above products will need increasingly reliable equipment and processes, along with well trained, motivated workers to operate and manage them.
Our economy depends on productive and reliable manufacturing processes found in thousands of different industries. And it’s rare that the auto-manufacturing supply chain, for example, would only affect—or only be affected by—the auto industry. The general population is still wondering how a shortage of “computer chips” can actually be interfering with auto and truck manufacturing. What’s not clear to many consumers is how interrelated manufacturing is today. The news media is missing that point and, quite possibly, sending the wrong message to our best and brightest young minds: future plant technicians.
The most successful businesses will continue to depend on the right people with the right skills and knowledge to assure competitive levels of equipment performance and reliability. Of course, most readers of The RAM Review will already know that. What is critically important is helping teachers, counselors, parents, politicians, and students understand that there will be plenty of jobs and careers in technical reliability-, availability-, and maintenance-related roles in a wide variety of business and industrial settings. This is the job that only we, as RAM insiders, can do.TRR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Williamson is a long-time contributor to the people-side of the world-class-maintenance and manufacturing body of knowledge across dozens of industry types. His background in maintenance, machine and tool design, and teaching has positioned his work with over 500 companies and plants, facilities, and equipment-oriented organizations. Contact him directly at 512-800-6031 or [email protected].
Tags: reliability, availability, maintenance, RAM, asset management, skills shortages, automation, workforce development
