Finding skilled workers key to industry's success

In Wallingford, creative and highly skilled people employ cuttingedge technologies to invent and manufacture alternative energy products. Rising demand for their hydrogen generators and regenerative fuel-cell systems has propelled their employer, Proton Energy Systems, a division of Distributed Energy

In Windsor, comparably skilled and capable people use technology, ingenuity and advanced manufacturing techniques to craft gears and gearboxes for the aerospace industry. Their employer, Aero Gear Inc., has grown from one worker in 1982 to 90.

A similar story is playing out in Middlefield. There, employees of Zygo Corp. design and manufacture sophisticated, noncontact, precision measurement systems. Now in its fourth decade, Zygo has about 390 employees. Companies like these belie the impression left by news stories that manufacturing has a waning future in Connecticut. "High-tech, modern manufacturing is alive and well," says Acro Gear President Douglas Rose.

Indeed it is, across the state in places like:

* Farmington, where Trumpf Inc. makes lasers and laser systems.

* Canaan, where BD Corp. produces biomedical devices.

* Bristol, where Eastern Plastics employees use precision equipment to make custom-machined plastic parts for various industries.

And it's not just in Connecticut that manufacturers are doing well. "In 2004 the level of U.S. manufacturing production output broke all the records," John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), told the National Press Club in February. "Last year, while the overall economy grew 4.4 percent, manufacturing grew 5.1 percent - the first time in five years manufacturing has grown faster than the overall economy. Manufacturing productivity raced ahead last year at 4.9 percent, versus 4.1 percent for the overall economy," he said.

There's no denying that we have lost manufacturing jobs in recent years. However, according to James Abromaitis, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), "manufacturing continues to be a major economic driver for Connecticut's economy.

Connecticut is home to over 5,000 manufacturers, which employ nearly 200,000 workers and generate hundreds of thousands of spin-off jobs."

Yet misconceptions and other problems are preventing these companies from creating even more jobs - good jobs.

"Star Trek Stuff"

"Manufacturing today is not your father's factory floor. It is Star Trek stuff," according to Engler.

"If you go into a successful shop, they're clean, high-tech, well paying," adds Aero Gear's Rose.

In Connecticut the average weekly production wage as of February was $785. Higher-level positions such as engineering, of course, pay even better.

In many manufacturers, "there's a clear career path to engineering and manufacturing support positions that can increase an employee's earning potential," says Allen Samuel, executive director of Aerospace Components Manufacturers (ACM), the state's aerospace "cluster" organization.

Today's factories also operate in a totally different way than in the past. A way that makes working there more psychologically rewarding.

"We have a 100,000-sq.-ft. factory with clean manufacturing space. It's a medium-volume prototype manufacturing environment, not a highly automated assembly line where people just stand around watching a machine do something," says Walter "Chip" Schroeder, president of Distributed Energy Systems and a co-founder of Proton Energy Systems.

"About half of our people are degreed engineers; the rest are relatively well-paid assembly people and technicians," he says. "But the distinction between engineer and technician here is sometimes pretty fuzzy: Our engineers do a combination of design and manufacturing, allowing them to have hands-on work. And they like that. An engineer might spend half the day at a desk and half a day bolting something together. It's a nice combination of practical and theoretical activities."

Rose adds, "The old-style manufacturing environment of a foreman looking over your shoulder - those days are gone. Now it's much more of a team-based, self-directed work environment that's a lot more fun, more stimulating."

'Jobs Going Begging'

Interesting work. Good pay A dynamic Star Trek-like environment. Opportunities for advancement. With all that going for it, why aren't people beating down the doors to get these jobs?

"It may seem odd to speak of a manufacturing labor shortage when we have lost millions of manufacturing jobs in recent years. But the reality is that our members are telling us they have jobs going begging because they cannot find qualified workers," said NAM's Engler.

The Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) has been hearing the same thing. "Many of our manufacturing members who responded to a survey we did last year said they had current job openings they couldn't fill because they couldn't find people with the right skills," says John Rathgeber, CBIA executive vice president and chief operating officer. "And 80 percent of them said they expect to need even more workers by 2009 to handle increased sales or the expansion of their companies."

Part of the problem is that people hear about the loss of certain types of 0 manufacturing jobs and assume that all manufacturing jobs will be leaving.

"Low-skilled, commodity work is probably a dead-end career here," says Rose. But, he adds, "We have highly capable, very intelligent people; manufacturing engineers, design engineers, highly skilled manufacturing personnel using computer-driven equipment."

Schroeder agrees that many "assembly-line processes with lowskilled workers have gone elsewhere."

Next Generation Manufacturers

Rose's and Schroeder's companies are typical of the types of manufacturers that are succeeding in Connecticut: socalled "next generation" manufacturers that use brains, ingenuity, sophisticated technologies, collaborative relationships with suppliers and customers, and lean manufacturing processes to create high value added products in demand around the world.

Connecticut manufacturing used to be dominated by large companies that made entire products here, Rose notes. For example, he says, "Jet engines used to be made mostly in Connecticut. Now the process is broken into modules that are being made all over the world." That has resulted in global competition for even the smallest of manufacturers.

"Most small and midsize manufacturers are adapting to an evolving marketplace," he says. "Lean manufacturing is key to survival for manufacturing. It gives you better customer responsiveness at lower costs. We're getting better at making small quantities of parts, quickly. It's hard to get that kind of service overseas. We're also adding design capabilities so we become a knowledge-based company, rather than just a parts maker. We're tying to add value to customers. We don't provide just commodities, that typically goes to the lower labor cost places."

Schroeder adds, "Being in a high-cost state means we have to have a high value added product. Imagine you have two companies: one makes products with a 25 percent margin; the other makes products with a 50 percent margin. The one with the 25 percent margin will likely be located in a lower-cost place. If you make enough of a margin, you can cover a lot of costs and provide a good work environment."

Finding the right people to work in today's manufacturing environment, though, has been hard and not just because too few people are applying for these jobs.

According to Engler, "To work in manufacturing today, you need a solid background in science, math and computers. You must be able to communicate and constantly update your job skills."

Those skills are in short supply, manufacturers say.

"The skill level of applicants is a real issue," says Schroeder. "People are not getting trained in technical skills the way they need to. The average engineer and the average technician does not come in with the level of skills we need. We have to provide training. We also pay for education that advances an employee's knowledge."

ACM's Samuel says, "the general output of schools has been inadequate" to meet his industry's needs. "Many schools don't provide the right courses."

That is beginning to change, says Lauren Weisberg Kaufman, CBIA vice president for education and training, and executive director of the CBIA Education Foundation. The state is reforming the technical high schools to modernize their curricula and upgrade students' skills. It has also created an educational pathway program, called the College of Technology (COT), that links technical high school graduates to technical programs in the community colleges and to four-year colleges and engineering programs. And the COT recently created a Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing.

To persuade more students to take manufacturing-oriented programs, CBIA launched a next-generation manufacturing careers campaign in May. The association also has been providing industry-based professional development for technical educators.

State Lends Its Support

The state has been doing a number of things to help manufacturers. Last fall, Gov. M. Jodi Rell convened a manufacturing symposium at which business leaders discussed manufacturers' problems and potential. The governor pledged her administration's help in meeting the needs of manufacturers with a range of business services.

As DECD Commissioner Abromaitis notes: "It is critical that we continue to recognize manufacturing's role as an economic catalyst and take proactive measures to ensure that these companies can grow and create jobs over the long term.

"The creation of DECD's Small Manufacturers Competitiveness Fund and recent investment in the Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing clearly illustrate the state's commitment to the industry and its workers," he says.

DECD is pledging financial support for the regional center's marketing strategy. The agency will also provide technical support on several topics, such as marketing, public events and strategic planning.

According to CBIA's Rathgeber, the state's climate for manufacturing has improved a lot since the early 1990s, when, for example, Connecticut had some of the highest tax and workers' compensation costs in the country. But "the General Assembly is once again seriously considering raising taxes and other business costs," he says. "Our manufacturers, in fact, all Connecticut businesses, need to speak out against these antijobs proposals and urge legislators to focus on the need to make Connecticut a good place to do business and create jobs," says Rathgeber.

Still the Economy's Cornerstone

Why should the state care about nurturing manufacturing? "Manufacturing is still the cornerstone of our economy," says Rose. "I think the average person doesn't realize how important it is. You have to make things, that's where you add value. You can't just have everybody providing services."

"We have to have a productive part of the economy," agrees Schroeder.

Fortunately, Connecticut manufacturing employees are 13.3 percent more productive than the average U.S. manufacturing worker. And that's saying a lot, because the U.S. manufacturing productivity rate (5.2 percent in 2004) is the highest in the world.

"Manufacturing is a vital part of our communities," says Kent. "The jobs and services we provide are very important to the state because of the payrolls we pay, the taxes we pay and the services we provide to our customers."

Speaking about his industry's value, Samuel says, "the aerospace supply chain brings good-quality, high-paying jobs into the state, the kinds of jobs we all want in Connecticut."

As Rose notes, high-tech, modern manufacturing may be alive and well here, but we can't take it for granted. "We need to work at keeping it in our state."