Originally Posted by
M01
Hi Daephraim,
I am a manufacturing tech as well as a professional engineer. I am also a veteran at CNC programming (manual and CAM), CNC machine set up, fixture design and manufacturing, factory automation design, machinery procurement, machine component design and manufacture, etc. I have worked at small short run job shops and automated lights out manufacturing mass production machining facilities. I even partake in 'recreational' machining as I own a small lathe and knee mill.
Several years ago, I stopped working in manufacturing and began working in consulting engineering/project management in the energy resource industry. Despite loving working in manufacturing, the large wage discrepancy forced me into a career change. Even in Alberta Canada, where oil & gas exploitation has led to skilled labor shortages, driving wages up, a highly skilled CNC machinist does not make a wage equivalent to many other trades. If a graduate of a 2 year engineering diploma program starts work in a paper pushing role at an engineering consulting company, he/she will start at about the same wage as CNC machinist with several years work experience. As a professional engineer at an oil company, it’s not even comparable. A high school graduate searching for a career need only do a quick google search to learn that a plumber, electrician, welder, pipe fitter or carpenter will make significantly more money than a machinist. A few years after changing from manufacturing to energy facilities engineering, I went back to manufacturing work because I enjoy it so much, but after starting a family I again left manufacturing for the energy industry because the wage discrepancy was so great.
I've read dozens of articles in manufacturing journals over the years proposing reasons why young people are not pursuing careers in manufacturing. There is only one reason: pay rate. High schools and colleges can promote manufacturing programs all they want, but the brightest people will always go where the money is. If the industry wants the best people, it must pay the best wage.
To anyone who argues that the manufacturing industry cannot compete on wages due to competition from Asia, I suggest they take a plant tour of the Haas CNC machine factory in Oxnard California. This company has grown into one the world’s largest CNC machine tool builders in only 2 decades, and they make the machines entirely in USA (some casting come from Canada and some electronic components can only be sourced from Asia). Haas makes good quality machines so efficiently in USA that they actually sell machines into China!
The North American manufacturing industry is addicted to cheap labor. This must change if the industry hopes to attract good people and survive.
If I could make close to the same money in manufacturing that I do pushing paper in an oil company office, I'd be back in manufacturing in a flash.
