It looked like we would finally fill our open machine operator position. The applicant not only showed up for the job interview but showed up on time. He’d said he had experience as a machine operator. Our management team was silently high fiving each other. We’d invested in new laser cutting, welding, bending, and other metalworking equipment and were still keeping ahead of our metal fabrication orders, but with great effort from all of our staff.
“So, which machines do you know how to use?”
“I’ve used the ice cream machine at Dairy Queen.”
“Oh.”
If this had been the first disappointing hiring experience of late, or even the worst experience, then we might have simply moved on to another candidate. But this was exceptionally deflating since the pool of job applicants interested or even willing to work in industry has dwindled to barely a trickle. Then consider the sad level of talent and experience remaining in the labor pool and it seems nearly empty.
It isn’t that we’re surprised. We, just like many of our colleagues in manufacturing, saw this coming years ago. It’s easy to blame Covid and the government response to the pandemic for gutting small business and for fundamentally changing how younger workers envision their futures in the workplace.
But the Covid experience didn’t create this employment situation; rather it exposed challenges that had been brewing under the surface for years well before 2019 and forced us as employers to confront the situation sooner than most of us had been anticipating.
The fact remains that even if everyone unemployed in America who’s physically able to work were to accept jobs tomorrow, the number of jobs left unfilled might still reach into the millions. Our situation is structural and demographic, and cannot be solved simply by offering higher wages, expanding flexible hours, or installing a foosball table in a break room. It seems we are approaching the great “sansdemic” – working without people.
Train, Retain, and Automate
Our strategy to continue growing in profitability demands increasing production capacity and expanding our range of services while maintaining our strict quality control program. In a world without easy access to skilled labor, we’re focusing on training and retaining our skilled, experienced staff – the people who show up every day and have helped us grow into the manufacturer we are today. As they grow and develop into veteran machinists, managers, and leaders, we would traditionally hire younger workers to take over the entry level tasks.
But since there aren’t very many younger workers available, we’re using technology and automation to fill the void. Automated machinery can take on many of the repetitive and entry level tasks that few workers look forward to doing. And these machines offer an impressive track record for repeatable quality. Our recent equipment investments include laser cutting machines, laser welding equipment, an automatic operation hydraulic metal cutting saw, automated fastener installation machinery, and a CNC press brake, among other additions. With our cross-training program, any of our experienced operators can use any of our machines, and this also helps keeps their workday interesting.
Efficiency in the shop is vital but any gains from streamlining and automating production can be nullified if the office staff refuses to embrace technology. We’ve upgraded all of our administrative processes with both CRM and ERP software and the resulting improvements in efficiency are significant. It turns out that digitally integrating departments and reducing paper steps yield real improvements in communication, efficiency, scheduling, and lead times. We’re tracking and monitoring and delivering more jobs more quickly without feeling a crunch to hire more administrative staff. We’re helping our good people get better with the best metalworking technology.
What Our Metalfab Customers Say
Many of our customers face the same hiring challenges that we face and some are turning to automation to fill the void. Many of our metal fabrication customers, for example, use our TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital stretch wrapper to automate the pallet wrapping process. One worker can use it to stretch wrap a pallet load in 30 seconds or less by remote control from the seat of a forklift. In this case, automation allows one worker to do a job that typically takes two or three workers, and it gets done better, faster, and safer.
Other OEM manufacturing customers are solving the issue by outsourcing production to us at TAB Industries. They’re finding it’s just easier to work with our experienced team in Reading, Pennsylvania on everything from product design to manufacturing, assembly, packaging, and delivery than it is to recruit, train, and retain a capable staff in today’s “sansdemic” environment.
Learn more about TAB turnkey manufacturing services here.
For a free quote on your project, call (610) 921-0012, info@tabindustries.com.