(wrong) This topic doesn't fit anywhere else, so here it is.
I now have 25 years in the trade.
The machinist trade and manufacturing in general is dying off in this country. Sure there are a few locations that have seen a spurt of growth, but overall we are heading towards being a lost art.
There are a ton of factors that have led up to this point. And while we could argue over the finer points as to what contributed more to our demise we need to look at what is going on NOW, not mulling over history.
- The EPA needs to be shaken up such that it is more like the commerce dept than an adversarial .gov entity. They need to actively work with industry to promote cost effective processes that both work for industy and keep the tree huggers happy.
- I won't blame unions now, the damage they did is in the past and we are living with the fallout that doesn't have a halflife. Unions have there place. I just hope that in there goal to get a good deal for there members they don't negotiate us all out of our jobs.
- Fresh blood. The skills we have learned must be past on. There is little interest in our trade, it isn't considered a growth area or a stable one at that.
- The local Junior college dropped its machine shop program for lack of enrollment. Many of the engineering courses have likewise been dropped or scaled back so that a given course may only be offered once per year.
- Trade Shows - My first large scale exposure to machinery was when my uncle took me to WESTEC at the Los Angeles Convention Center when I was 14... Now they have it posted - No one under 18 admitted. OK, I understand the promoters are under the thumb of the insurance underwriters and there liability lawyers... But this is killing us.
I think that as part of each show they need to have a morning reserved for school tours, Get the high and jr high kids in there for a guided tour. True this isn't going to be a sales opertunity but you may be grooming your customers for ten years down the line.- Slap down the bean counters and adopt the long view. Quit obsessing over quarterly stats and stock values and worry about if your company will still be here in five years, or twentyfive.
- Overhaul the U.S. Tax structure on corporate or business assets.
- The company I work for is partly owned by BofA. And as such the clueless in the real world bean counters dictate much of the policy. One cell I work in has Okuma lathes from 1982. These machine have been run 24/7 for the last 15 years. They won't replace them because they would have to depreciate them over a min 5 years, but they will drop half the cost of a new machine to repair them without thought because it can be completely written off now as maintainence/repair.
Thats just wrong!- As much as I hate taxes and tarifs I think that the .gov needs to seriously address the issues of outsourcing outside the U.S. This applies to design and manufacturing as well as all the other domestic jobs which have departed this country.
When its so easy to email a concept offshore, get a quote in 24hrs and have FedX drop it on your dock in 30 days from asia... We have a uphill battle on our hands.
What say you?