Page 37 - MetalForming July 2009

afloat? Why are our leaders in Wash- ington ignoring the earthshaking loses of our best and brightest automation and lean implementation minds?
What types of skilled labor will help us out of the recession? Unlike the so called “knowledge and finance workers” that were supposed to take our econo- my to new heights and wound up instead diving the whole ship to the bottom, manufacturing experts have been the traditional individuals we turned to in the past to help us out of recessions. Automation in assembly lines helped our country develop better and more productive methods for the manufacture of products that in turn were sold worldwide and thus, time after time, pulled us out of economic quagmires.
There must be a serious discussion launched in Washington, D.C. about the establishment of a pool of funds to sustain American leading-edge manu- facturing expertise. These funds would be distributed to the manufacturing sector and its suppliers to be used for the preservation of highly skilled man- ufacturing, automation and lean imple- mentation employees. We cannot jetti- son all manufacturing labor. There are gradations to take into account. Skilled toolmakers, sensor applications special- ists, robotics technicians, automated assembly process experts and the like need to be buffered from the wholesale severance of labor from our factories.
I know of several metalforming com- panies that are doing their best to keep their best and brightest skilled person- nel employed, but it is beyond com- prehension to me that these compa- nies have no one to turn to for help with preserving these positions. Why tril- lions of dollars for the preservation of finance experts and nothing for the sus- tainment of skilled manufacturing labor? MF
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