My last article with this same title was posted on Dec. 1, 2011. That story claimed that the current lack of enough technically competent new employees could be lessened if corporations were willing to provide on-the-job training. That article solicited a perfect storm of replies to the Editor. Fortunately the majority agreed with my conclusions.
However, many rightfully pointed out that corporate greed was only one of many factors contributing to this problem. I was chided for not sharing the blame with universities that refuse to modify their curriculum to adapt to the changing needs of industry. Government regulations and taxes were sited by several readers. Some claim that trade unions have unnecessarily driven wages and benefits to a non-competitive level.
At the same time others believe the plastics industry refuses to pay high enough wages to compete with other industries in securing and retaining the level of employees required by the increasingly complicated processes and equipment. Another pointed out that American corporations are actually spending money to train people in low-labor-rate countries, but not in the U.S.
Many of the replies, but notably S.D.'s, were well thought out. All of these comments coming with different points of view combined to expand my little article into a much more interesting and useful discussion of a topic that was obviously of interest to PlasticsToday readers. It may be presumptuous of me, but I would like to believe that all of these different comments represent the opinions and concerns of what I call the "man-in-the-street" of our part of the plastics industry. I am only sorry that I don't have a vehicle for presenting these opinions and concerns to our politicians and industry leaders.
I sincerely appreciate these replies. Regrettably I don't have the knowledge or time to individually respond to everyone. As a substitute let me leave you with three real-life short stories that address three of your comments.
I owned and ran a company called Glenn Beall Engineering (GBE) for 25 years. That company did plastic product design and development including model making, prototype moldmaking, and the injection molding of preproduction components. That company gave me experience not only in managing people but in selling to keep 13 moldmakers, six designers,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, and 11 other employees busy. I had to learn how to go deeply in debt purchasing capital equipment.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. I also learned to think ahead in order to make payroll, and what to do that one payday when there wasn't enough money in the bank.
Paying high wages
With regard to the plastics industry not paying competitive wages, GBE was located close to and half-way between Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL. In order to hire employees it was necessary to pay slightly more than the high wages being paid in those two industrialized cities. The company was also half-way between Abbott Laboratories and Baxter Laboratories. Both paid average wages while providing excellent fringe benefits. My little company had a choice. We could have limited our growth and blamed that on not being able to hire enough technically competent people. Or, we could have paid higher wages and provided generous fringe benefits. We chose the later approach and the company prospered. In all fairness, I have to acknowledge that we were not competing with low-labor-rate international companies back in those days.
With regard to universities' failure to prepare their graduates for the available jobs, I once hired a mechanical engineer to work as a product designer.Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, He had no experience in designing plastic products, but agreed to learn that technology on the job. After several frustrating weeks he revealed that he had never had a course in drafting. This was well before everything was done by computer-aided design. In retrospect I never asked him if he had been taught drafting.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. It was inconceivable to me that anyone could get a ME degree without at least one course in drafting and blueprint reading. Then, as now, there is a mismatch between what universities teach and what industry needs.
With regard to corporations' failure to provide on-the-job training, GBE quickly learned that we had to spend time and money training new employees. In the design department we found that the education received by degreed industrial designers allowed them to quickly become productive. We hired graduate engineers with some plastics industry experience; however, it took them much longer to master plastic product design. Our molding technicians became productive almost immediately and their value to the company grew as they gained experience.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.
However, many rightfully pointed out that corporate greed was only one of many factors contributing to this problem. I was chided for not sharing the blame with universities that refuse to modify their curriculum to adapt to the changing needs of industry. Government regulations and taxes were sited by several readers. Some claim that trade unions have unnecessarily driven wages and benefits to a non-competitive level.
At the same time others believe the plastics industry refuses to pay high enough wages to compete with other industries in securing and retaining the level of employees required by the increasingly complicated processes and equipment. Another pointed out that American corporations are actually spending money to train people in low-labor-rate countries, but not in the U.S.
Many of the replies, but notably S.D.'s, were well thought out. All of these comments coming with different points of view combined to expand my little article into a much more interesting and useful discussion of a topic that was obviously of interest to PlasticsToday readers. It may be presumptuous of me, but I would like to believe that all of these different comments represent the opinions and concerns of what I call the "man-in-the-street" of our part of the plastics industry. I am only sorry that I don't have a vehicle for presenting these opinions and concerns to our politicians and industry leaders.
I sincerely appreciate these replies. Regrettably I don't have the knowledge or time to individually respond to everyone. As a substitute let me leave you with three real-life short stories that address three of your comments.
I owned and ran a company called Glenn Beall Engineering (GBE) for 25 years. That company did plastic product design and development including model making, prototype moldmaking, and the injection molding of preproduction components. That company gave me experience not only in managing people but in selling to keep 13 moldmakers, six designers,Get information on Air purifier from the unbiased, and 11 other employees busy. I had to learn how to go deeply in debt purchasing capital equipment.My advice on what to consider before you buy oil painting supplies so your money is well spent. I also learned to think ahead in order to make payroll, and what to do that one payday when there wasn't enough money in the bank.
Paying high wages
With regard to the plastics industry not paying competitive wages, GBE was located close to and half-way between Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL. In order to hire employees it was necessary to pay slightly more than the high wages being paid in those two industrialized cities. The company was also half-way between Abbott Laboratories and Baxter Laboratories. Both paid average wages while providing excellent fringe benefits. My little company had a choice. We could have limited our growth and blamed that on not being able to hire enough technically competent people. Or, we could have paid higher wages and provided generous fringe benefits. We chose the later approach and the company prospered. In all fairness, I have to acknowledge that we were not competing with low-labor-rate international companies back in those days.
With regard to universities' failure to prepare their graduates for the available jobs, I once hired a mechanical engineer to work as a product designer.Shop at Lowe's for garage Ceramic tile, He had no experience in designing plastic products, but agreed to learn that technology on the job. After several frustrating weeks he revealed that he had never had a course in drafting. This was well before everything was done by computer-aided design. In retrospect I never asked him if he had been taught drafting.Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. It was inconceivable to me that anyone could get a ME degree without at least one course in drafting and blueprint reading. Then, as now, there is a mismatch between what universities teach and what industry needs.
With regard to corporations' failure to provide on-the-job training, GBE quickly learned that we had to spend time and money training new employees. In the design department we found that the education received by degreed industrial designers allowed them to quickly become productive. We hired graduate engineers with some plastics industry experience; however, it took them much longer to master plastic product design. Our molding technicians became productive almost immediately and their value to the company grew as they gained experience.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.
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