Critical Costs in Modern Manufacturing
October 17th, 2009 at 06:00am Bob Trojan
The United States manufacturing industry is still the largest in the world, but today it faces a set of increasing challenges to its global competitiveness, a new report claims.
The manufacturing sector has long played a major role in the economic health of the United States, but many of the conditions that made it a successful industry in the past are being offset by a new series of challenges, according to a new report. Follow it here.. Costs
Entry Filed under: Productivity, Education & Training, Economy
5 Comments Add your own
1. Defector | October 17th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I\\\’d challenge that we are still the largest manufacture, with the auto industry tanked what are we producing here? China should be ranked as number one. The keystone to our manufacturing base is the defense industry, this is our economy. Regan did two things to get our economy redirected after Carter, turn the defense budget back on and reduce taxes. We are doing the exact opposite today, does anybody in the country remember Jimmy Carter, what\\\’s our unemployment rate? The dollar keeps falling so interest rates should be next, Welcome Back Carter!!!!!!!
2. Jim Phelps | October 17th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I would also think that reliance on a decaying transportation infrastructure & obsolete communication infrastructure, a slow depreciation structure for Capital Equipment, and generally, a highly under trained/educated & inefficient workforce (in some industries, in some instances imo) are significant impediments to Modern Manufacturing here in the First World.
3. Defector | October 17th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Jim, not picking a fight but I would like to find out some more detail of your thoughts. Where are we under trained? I agree about our manufacturing inefficiencies, but how did we get here? The unions? Greed rather than reinvestment in technology?
4. Jim Phelps | October 17th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
@ Defector: I don’t believe you are trying to pick a fight.
Here is just an example of what I mean. Locally we have a heavy reliance on manual setup of machines in some of our industries.
An automated process relies less on manual setups and much more on a skilled operator that has an electo/mehanical /automation understanding of the process and how the a automated process/machine operates. A multi-skilled operator that can use a machine like this can be much more efficient than many semi-skilled or non-skill employees combined.
So, on an output metric, a much better trained worker with a more expensive skill set can out produce the other workers.
Sure, there is a higher cost to having that one worker on your staff in terms of wages, but it is offset by not having many workers producing the same level of output in terms of combined wages/benefits.
Secondly, there is an advantage to the highly skilled electo/mechanically trained worker in your factory.
They are able to move to other machines/processes with ease because of highly educated nature of their manufacturing background.
This is especially valuable to the employer in a Lean Manufacturing environment.
Thirdly, on an Organizational Behavior Metric, a skilled employee tends to use, or employ, his/her education background in a different way than a non-skilled or semi-skilled wage earner. A Skilled Automation Technician/Machine Operator is interested in furthering their skilled sets in” job enlargement” situations.
An example I am directly familiar with is the situation I experienced at Allen Bradley’s Focus Factory in Eau Claire. The idea was to employ multi-skilled employees that not only could repair/operate the machine a an technician level but also produce parts and do quality control and statistical analysis to a level a CMM op would normally do.
By combining all these functions together with highly skilled employees huge cost savings could be achieved with high production rates and reduced scrapage.
I’d rather not comment on Union vs. Non-Union because this is not a question of Employment Structure, rather it is a opinion on Employment of the Skilled vs. Non-Skilled Labor and its impact on efficiencies in an Automated Lean Manufacturing Environment.
My impression of some Union Shops, e.g. Boeing, is that they have highly skilled & highly educated workers that just happen to be unionized.
Just so you know my backgound - I grew up in a small family machine shop environenment and was a CMfgT (Certified Manufacturing Technician) through the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
5. Defector | October 18th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Jim, curious on why you think General Motors had to file bankruptcy? Was it due to under trained workers? Lack of reinvestment? Corporate greed? Honestly, what is your opinion?
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed