The article says:
“Two million manufacturing jobs were lost in the last recession, yet the National Association of Manufacturers forecasts a shortage of 10 million skilled manufacturing workers by 2020, largely because students in middle school through college describe such jobs as ‘repetitious,' ‘tedious,' ‘boring,' ‘dark' and ‘dirty.' That career would be like serving a life sentence or being on a chain gang, they say, according to a report called ‘Keeping America Competitive: How a talent shortage threatens U.S. manufacturing.'“
I know manufacturing isn't an especially glamorous profession, even for engineers. I know many engineers who went into consulting or found product development “the place to be.” We don't have any TV dramas about engineers (compared to the endless police/law/medical/CSI shows), but then again, who would watch that? Is American manufacturing doomed by a poor image and lack of new talent as much or more so than global wage/cost competition? Why did/do you work in manufacturing? Click on “Comments” to chime in (no registration or name required).
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Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation.
He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean.
Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.