Dreaming of the future

Ray Connor is the future of manufacturing. Eight years ago, his final interview to be among the first employees at Kansas City's new Harley Davidson assembly plant coincided with his honeymoon. He called back to tell Harley he'd postpone the honeymoon.

Eight years and three children later, Connor, 30, is a quality auditor for Harley, a poised professional with an encyclopedic knowledge of the plant's operation and an obvious pride in his job. Oh yes, and with a Hog out front.

"I didn't know what I was going to do in high school. I don't think this is what I thought I would do, but even in high school, I would have been more than happy to do this," he said. "I look at everything that goes into manufacturing. People think we get out here and put a lot of parts together. It's more than putting parts on a bike. That's just a portion of it."

Chris Cochran is the future of manufacturing.

He lives in Union City, MO. The 60 miles he drives from his home each weekday to Kansas City's Business and Technical College seems like a long way to come to learn about his chosen trade, but Connor, 21, figures it's a short distance to travel for his future.

"I wanted to further my education, so this was the closest place I could find. I wanted to get a hands-on experience, and it's helped out quite a bit," said Cochran of his experience at BTC. "I want to get out as quick as I can and get to work. You can't really get a good job now without a college degree. I'll have a better idea when I start to go about things. There are still things I need to learn."

Dave Barner is the future of manufacturing.

A launch engineer for Intier Automotive's Excelsior Springs, MO Seating System facility, Barner has a degree in industrial engineering from Central Missouri State and an MBA is in his future. At 26, Barner sees his work hit the road each year on 272,000 Ford and Mazda SUVs. His plant does the seat assembly for the vehicles.

"People think manufacturing is a dirty job. Well, if you don't enjoy getting your hands dirty, then you won't enjoy it," said Barner. "I've enjoyed it from the get-go. We've got a big Erector set out there."

The future of U.S. manufacturing has been in debate in the New Millennium, but for those committed to its revival and growth, it will take workers like these to forge a new perception of manufacturing as a diverse, dynamic and secure future. It's a tough sell in an environment of multiple career choices, let alone in an environment that has lost jobs.

There is a new story being told, and the birth for that new story is in Kansas City, MO. It is where the National Association of Manufacturers has launched a pilot program to refine the story about the new manufacturing reality in America — one where young workers can find secure, well-paying and challenging jobs that capitalize on their interests in technology and their talent in a new manufacturing world.

The Dream It. Do It. campaign sprung from the economic and demographic realities facing American manufacturing. A 2003 white paper commissioned by NAM and produced by Deloitte and Touche highlights a looming job shortage in manufacturing in all areas — from engineer to IT technician, from entry level production engineer to accounting and sales.

"The U.S. economy, as a whole, will face a growing shortage of skilled workers in the coming decade," notes the report, called Keeping America Competitive. "The shortage of jobs requiring at least some degree of post-secondary education or training will exceed 10 million in the second decade of this millennium."

The report also notes a persistent perception of what a job in manufacturing details — dark, hot assembly plants, repetitive motion, low wages and a life spent in a rigid, uncreative environment.

While the report paints a grim picture of the present, it paints a more hopeful one for the future. With a Baby Boomer workforce nearing retirement age, replacement workers are in demand to keep U.S. manufacturing moving forward. The growth in the manufacturing sector is expected to be strong in the coming decade. The need for a diverse workforce means that jobs from the plant floor to the corner office will be needed — and that there is a path to get from one to the other.

"Manufacturing stands at a crossroads," the report concludes. "Will U.S. manufacturers join together to launch a program that engages young people's imaginations and helps them see the enormous potential that this sector offers. Will they successfully advocate for ways to realign this country's education and training programs to better meet the needs of both individuals and manufacturers?"

Smack in the middle of the heartland, Kansas City seems both an odd and inspired choice for the launch of Dream It. Do It. Well outside the Rust Belt, it is not the first place most consider as a manufacturing hub. It is well away from America's steel mills and auto plants, where much of the manufacturing job loss has been acutely felt — not to mention half a country away from elected officials.

Yet that may be one of Kansas City's great strengths as this experiment unfolds. Out of the glare, Dream It. Do It. can experiment with new ideas and build new alliances. It is free from the bureaucracy of a federally-funded effort. It is a grass roots campaign, planted in what is truly one of the nation's richest manufacturing regions.

Besides the Harley-Davidson facility, Kansas City is home to assembly plants for Ford and General Motors, both of which are working on hybrid vehicles. The region has 1.8 million residents, a strong community college system and an affordable housing market. Kansas City supports growth, and it is an area with room to grow. The move to bring the Dream It. Do It. campaign to Kansas City is driven because the existing manufacturing base looks to grow, and they look to do it with home-grown talent. It is talent that has looked to other regions or other career paths.

It has attracted the support of business leaders such as Bill Downey, president and CEO of Kansas City Power & Light. "My skilled craftsman, electricians — people who make things — are nearing retirement age," said Downey. "I'm on the NAM Board, and we've talked long and hard about this issue. I've also just finished two years as co-chair of the Kansas City Area Development Council, and part of our overall effort is to make the community an attractive place to locate."

Downey said his company is not unique. Skilled labor is a precious commodity, and a failure to begin to develop that labor base now puts continued productivity at risk when the current workforce begins to retire. "When you look at manufacturing overall, yes, there truly have been some hits," he said, "but the percentage of GDP from manufacturing has remained fairly constant."

With the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor, the initial effort to launch Dream It. Do It. in Kansas City began in February. Much of the initial work is focused on benchmarking the resources and the needs in the Kansas City area, reaching out to area businesses and educators to find where the gaps in knowledge may be, and to begin to organize an action plan to change the perception of manufacturing in the region.

The goal of Dream It. Do It. is multifaceted:

• To attract and retain young workers looking to build a career in all facets of manufacturing, from assembly and skilled labor to marketing and sales
• To raise manufacturing's reputation as a sound, exciting career choice for high school students looking to decide on a career
• To create a link between manufacturing and education that helps manufacturers identify training needs and educational requirements and schools ready to adapt curriculum to help meet those needs
• To convince companies interested in building manufacturing facilities that there is a ready supply of skilled labor available to meet all the hiring needs of new businesses.

It is a matter of economic development on both a personal and regional basis. Dream It. Do It. seeks to explain the benefits (salaries, career and educational advancement, personal satisfaction and a secure future) of a career in manufacturing. To do that, program leaders concede, they must change the way manufacturing is viewed by students, parents and even educators, and they must create a cohesive effort that explains the career benefits in tangible ways.

A manufacturers council meets regularly, as does the region's various economic development groups. While each constituency has parochial interests, they also work together to create the right mix of training, support and outreach. That's been an important change in thinking, Downey noted.

"As we've pulled together, there were a lot of interests competing with each other," he said. "But people in those meetings have told me we've provided a forum that's been needed, and we're all benefiting from it."

One of the real keys is to show manufacturing as more than assembly and process management, but as a diverse, technologically advanced career choice.

Karl Eberle has been one of the earliest boosters for Dream It. Do It. in Kansas City. His motivation is as altruistic as one can be when you're vice-president and general manager for Harley Davidson's Kansas City plant. "Selfishly, we're always looking for good employees," he said. "If I can get local, experienced talent, they're going to stay.

"Our name helps a lot. Our image gets us more candidates. But we still search a long time," Eberle said. "We had 10-plus salaried openings in the last 18 months. Now we've gotten that down to five, but it's definitely been difficult."

Part of that difficulty, Eberle concedes, is in the perception his industry has among young people and among the educators who advise them on career choices. "I'm probably more vocal about it than most people. There are a lot of bad mental models that exist."

"Manufacturing has changed a lot faster than we've been able to sell the change," he said. "When we talk about what our fathers and grandfathers did, it's like talking about the Ice Age.

"The other thing that's different is that the opportunities exist. That's not an issue any more. There are whole platters of opportunities out there. That really wasn't true in the past," he added.

While the news media talks of layoffs and the popular media continues to portray manufacturing in a less-flattering light (think Laverne & Shirley), Eberle notes the fault also lies within the manufacturing sector itself.

"We need to start younger, and we've got to go to them. They're not going to come to us," he said. "Manufacturing has got to reach out now and demonstrate things are different. We've got to take some of our own ambassadors and tell people what we do."

Telling that story means listing the new way manufacturing is done — better ergonomics, more diverse work rules, a stronger benefits package and a chance to grow a career. The manufacturing sector is also attracting a diverse workforce, which management leaders are pleased to see.

"The more diversified the employee, the better leaders they make," Eberle said. "The opportunities that exist today with things like tuition reimbursement, didn't exist before. We talk a lot about career paths and their development as leaders."

"Clearly, we've got a group of workers who have been with us 25, 35 years, and at that time, it was largely an all-white workforce," Downey said. "We want to recruit people with talent, but we also want to responsibly represent the community."

Even with those goals, the challenge is to find the right message for their target audience. "The key is getting the young people's interest," said Downey. "We need to talk to the educational institutions and find out what they can supply. We want a strong relationship with them."

That's a message Connor would have appreciated. "If I had it to do over again, seeing the programs Harley has, I would have worked harder at math to get my engineering degree," said Connor. "I didn't have the dream of being an engineer. I'm just a few credits short of my bachelor's degree in business. I plan to retire at Harley, if fate lets that be."

Beyond recruitment and training, Eberle believes there needs to be a realization that new employees entering the workforce will bring with them new needs and new expectations of their relationship with the company.

"Our average employee is younger. We have a lot of single parents, and that's created certain issues," Eberle said of his staff at Harley. "I think those things will be resolved as they get more seniority. Now, I do a lot of walking and talking. The aggressive employees always do well. They show an interest. We see the employees who step up and volunteer.

"Once an employee gets the appetite, it fuels itself," Eberle added. "Potential employees need to understand what is available. These future employees need to see that."

Barner saw it early in his career. "I think I was more prepared than most, and that helped my progression," he said. "I'm not real old, but I knew a lot of stuff. Every company is different."

For more information, go to the Dream It. Do It. Website at www.dreamit-doit.com. The Alliance for Innovation in Manufacturing — Kansas City Website is www.thinkKC.com.