What to Do With the Skills Gap?





A recent survey revealed that only 37 percent of respondents

said they would encourage their child to seek a career in

manufacturing. (Photo—Rotor Clip Press Room)





Out of all the elephants in the room that is “American Manufacturing”, perhaps the biggest one is not the economy, nor unemployment, but something that directly ties to both:  the lack of skilled American workers needed to meet the demand of the new global manufacturing standard.  After a full decade of outsourcing patterns as well as a university system focusing its recruitment around  “knowledge jobs” in areas of finance, service and academia, most business communities in the country are discovering that even when they want to pursue labor options at home, the pool is not very impressive at all.  Consider a recent study done by Manufacturing Institute.  Excerpts include:

                        “Overall, our survey findings are remarkably consistent with previous Skills Gap     studies, with 67% of respondents reporting a moderate to severe shortage of available,             qualified workers and 56% anticipating the shortage to grow worse in the next three to five     years. In addition, our survey indicates that 5% of current jobs at respondent manufacturers are             unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates. These results underscore the tenacity of a     worsening talent shortage that threatens the future effectiveness of the U.S. manufacturing   industry.” - Manufacturing Institute, 2011 Skills Gap Report.

Yowsers.  That last part makes an economist want to shove a pencil in his eye.  All the stimulus programs, tax cuts and incentives in the world can't really make up for the fact that if not enough people know the trade, the trade is left undone.

So, in my opinion, we're back to education.  This subject surfaces in mainstream media once a year as everyone blitzes in with their input on how to fix the system, or reform the system, or throw the system away and get all you need to know from Old Fashioned Guy.  Then, after we all realize that real changes to education would mean putting investment into programs and learning development that wouldn't show results for years, we realize our good ol' American instant gratification itch ain't gonna get scratched anytime soon and we move on to bashing Snooki.

But as we see here with a study like this, kicking the can down the street is having a real effect on solving multiple problems in this country right now.  Manufacturing is doing better than anyone else right now, and yet it will not be able to meet its full potential not because some other country is getting unfair advantages, or because our government is squabbling.  No, potential will not be met because none of us are really pushing to pass on the trades.  Consider another report done by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte on the public perception of Manufacturing: 

            “While Americans believe manufacturing is of vital importance to the country, they are        reluctant to pursue jobs in the industry.”

                                    -Public View on Manufacturing Report, 2011, Manufacturing Institute, Deloitte

The report goes onto show that in surveys that asked whether they would encourage their child to seek a career in manufacturing, 37 percent of respondents said “Yes”.  More telling is how many respondents state that their local school system encourages its students to pursue manufacturing, 19 percent.

Now we're getting to the root of this.

Perception is always established by the previous generation, and it seems we're back to the same stigma that I've written about on here before. Only according to studies such as this, it seems the stigma has been institutionalized.

If you're asking me for solutions to this, go get me a good publisher and I'll work on a good five years of research to do so.  The truth is there are tons of pathways to take.  One that did interest me somewhat lies in what Korea is doing to address issues in their much-ballyhooed school system.  Consider this article from Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post:

                        “South Korea’s government has decided that too many people are going to college. It is      working to restore the luster of a high school diploma as a stopping point for some and to         establish a vocational track for others.”

                                    -Fred Hiatt, Washington Post

Obviously different cultures call for different measures, but as the article goes onto state, huge investment by families into their children learning “knowledge occupations” when trade jobs are in demand not only puts a wear on the family's income, but it also greatly diminishes the priorities that culture puts on trade jobs altogether.  If this is an issue we're dealing with as a nation, perhaps the solution lies in closer cooperation between corporate communities and their local technical and vocational schools.  I always thought the Army did such a good job recruiting off campuses and neighborhoods because an ROTC program has a direct result it can point to:  if you do this, you will end up like that guy you see on the commercial, or saluting the President as he walks into the Rose Garden.  If manufacturers can find a way to make their livelihoods more apparent and attractive as an alternative to the kinds of jobs a BA, MFA or MBA demand, they may find themselves tapping into an undiscovered demographic.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Spider Silk Still Has Us Beat



What substance has the greatest tensile strength

on the planet? Ask a spider.

 Recently I wrote about UC Irvine and HTL Labs researchers’ unveiling of a new metal composed 99.9 percent of air with the capacity to absorb half its mass in force.  This is just the tip of the iceberg in utilizing the fairly new wave of nanotechnology, which seems to be all the rage these days. 

The promise of nanotechnology entails more than just even faster software, or turning all of us into miniature Dennis Quaids.  It could also, ironically, contribute to discovering methods for stronger, denser construction materials, resulting in even bigger, longer, stronger buildings and bridges as well as armor capable of resisting the most horrific assaults imagined and unimagined.

While there are already breakthroughs out there for venture capitalists to chuck checkbooks at, the Holy Grail of micromaterial potential is, in my opinion, still the one that’s been around the longest.  Longer than carbon nanotubes, longer than Dow Chemical, longer than even Mickey Rooney.

I’m talking about spider silk.  That ol’mainstay of your overstuffed basement.  The stuff you shriek like a girl at when you run into it.  After a few hundred thousand years of mankind discovering tools, building with them, fighting each other with them, then building with them some more, then fighting each other some more, then finding oil and making each other rich, then fighting each other over oil, then discovering the internet and dropping everything to Google why they were fighting in the first place, we still have not developed a substance with as much diversity and potential as spider silk.  Breaking it down, its tensile strength beats steel and rivals Kevlar (although one type made by Darwin’s bark spider is ten times tougher than what our Marines wear in battlefield scenarios).  Carbon nanotubing stretches longer but is not nearly as flexible, and spider silk stays solvent in both extreme freezing and boiling temperatures.

The idea to mass produce Charlotte’s web has been kicking around for quite awhile.  The problem of course is the amount of spiders one would need to compose enough silk for anything significant.  Back in ’08-09, a textile research team successfully wove an 11 x 4 foot cloth derived from 80 feet worth of silk firmament.  That cloth alone took roughly one million, two hundred thousand Madagascar golden orb spiders to produce.  Now, despite those numbers seeming rather astronomical when applied to manufacturing and construction, I have faith the US could make something like this happen.  Certainly there’s a scenario where we could sign a trade pact with Madagascar and spend billions of dollars building spider farms, raising spider colonies to maximal health and training them to spin their silk cost-efficiently through measurable certifications such as vocational school and graduate programs. 

OR, we could just make it ourselves.

AMSilk is a German biopolymer company clearly devoted to the latter.  They’ve already come up with a way to grow spider silk by feeding its proteins to E.coli bacteria (if that was all we needed to do I could’ve made spider silk out of my fridge years ago).  Although this gets the spiders out of the way, it doesn’t quite amount to a system conducive to mass production.  So they’re teaming up with Fraunhofer IAP, a company that specializes in spin processes for biopolymer materials, to put their methods on a grander scale.

It’s not like the US doesn’t have groups developing their own method of harnessing natural silk.  Nexia Biotechnologies has been funding research at the University of Wyoming to derive spider silk from goat milk, and Clemson University believes they can cultivate it from plants.

This is the kind of breakthrough that merges many different kinds of imaginations.  Think of how lighter bulletproof material could be. How far could we build a suspension bridge?  Could cars bounce off each other when they crash?  Remember, toughness and strength is only one aspect that goes into choosing materials that need to hold up over a long period time in a harsh environment.  Flexibility, as any architect will tell you, is key in finding material that will last.  I suppose synthetic metals and nanotubes hold their own promise, but natural substances like spider silk have another advantage; they’re confirmed as not toxic.  The same can’t be said for stuff that hasn’t been around long enough for adequate testing.  If you snapped your Achilles tendon in two, what would you want replacing it, material made from spider silk or a lab beaker?  Yeah, me too.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Light as a (Synthetic Micro-Latticed Metal) Feather



Researchers have developed a metal that is strong yet as light as styrofoam

 Southern California's “light and airy” reputation may give the perception it isn't the most industrious region in America. Of course, the perception of “light and airy” as non-industrious may have just been proven wrong altogether.

Researchers at UC Irvine, along with help from HTL Laboratories and the California Technology Institute of Technology recently announced the development of a metal (ish) material 99.9 percent composed of air and 100 times lighter than styrofoam. The project was funded by the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

You can read the rest of the details in Product Design and Development's article. It goes onto delve into the secret of the material's light weight (a “micro-lattice” cellular makeup) as well as its intended use (battery electrodes, shock absorption).

William Carter of HTL is also quoted as saying this:

“Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight- efficient by virtue of their architecture. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales.” -William Carter, manager, HTL Labs

I'm under the suspicion this quote in particular was a juicy one to cite because of the inference that a synthetic material like this may one day be used to build future generations of skyscrapers and bridges. While the thought of how many resources a nearly-lighter-than-air building material could save global supplies, it's probably wise to keep a few things in mind:

PC World released its own take on the new material; highlighting, for one, the material's incredible compressive strength and noting that “[if] you were to squash the material more than halfway it would just rebound back into its original shape.” Okay that may be true and it's an excellent quality if we're thinking along the lines of software protection or more durable electronics. Certainly, I'd sleep safer at night knowing my smartphone had some sort of synthetic material in it to prevent my clumsy self from dropping it into permanent slumber mode. Shock absorption, however, does not translate into tensile strength, which is what we're really after here.

Yes, this stuff is lighter than carbon nanotubes, which you can read about here. But while being able to recover from high energy impact of over 50 percent is very noteworthy, nobody speaks of how this material holds up if you pull it apart with an equal amount of force (although to be fair, carbon nanotubes have the opposite problem in that they have tremendous tensile strength but buckle easily under compression). And what about its toughness? Does its strength on the nano level translate into durability with the right amount of flexibility on the macro? Moreover, just how expensive was it to make that tiny amount and is there a prayer of mass-producing it cost-efficiently?

I don't mean to rain on the ridiculously tiny, super-dense parade over here. It's just that I'd like news like this- that gets coverage from the internet to NPR to MSNBC- to come with details that bridge the gap between our ambitions and the real world just a liiiiitle more.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Basketball Player Involuntarily Demonstrates Texas’ Cryotherapy Potential

Basketball player Manny Harris gets Cryogenic therapy from

US made Cryon-X machine.

I watched Manny Harris play his rookie season as a professional basketball player last year and thought he was decent.  Not exactly star material, but could definitely develop over a few years into a solid NBA player.  He had a smooth stroke, pretty decent hops, couldn’t really play defense (Although who does anymore?) and was a tad bit undersized to deal with the grind at the Pro level. The Cleveland Cavaliers recently decided to part ways with Manny and sign someone else to round out the bottom of their roster.  Harris will most likely bounce back with another team, and most experts usually frame getting cut as a learning lesson for young athletes.

 The reason why he was cut, however, is not exactly a lesson he could have prepared for, in any reasonable way.

Apparently, Harris has been slow to recover from a severe burn on his foot he received in Cleveland’s brand new cryogenic chamber.  Darren Rovell from CNBC.com explains:

“In November, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Manny Harris got into a Cryon-X machine on Nike's campus in Beaverton, Ore. When he came out, he had a nasty freezer burn on the side of his right foot…

The machine is the new age version of an ice bath and is the latest in athlete recovery methods. In just three minutes, the company that makes it, Millennium ICE, says the machine cranks the temperature inside to minus 166 degrees Fahrenheit, thus oxygenating the blood, helping to reduce fatigue and muscle soreness. 

But the waiver that each athlete has to sign before getting into the stand-up tank specifically says that the briefs and socks that are worn while in the machine cannot be wet. Sources told CNBC that Harris got in with wet socks, which resulted in the freezer-type burn. It's not the first time this has happened. Sprinter Justin Gatlin also got in with the socks he had just worked out in when he entered the Cryon-X machine at ESPN's Wide World of Sports in Orlando.”

                        -Darren Rovell, CNBC.com, Yahoo!Sports The PostGame
Ow.
 I mean, when I was a kid I fell into an icy puddle in January and ran back inside howling in pain as I felt my legs being jabbed with what must have been a thousand needles.  Poor Manny Harris wore wet socks in temperatures one hundred times colder than a puddle in winter.  At that point, it’s like you don’t know where the sock ends and your flesh begins.  Like one big merged clump of fabric and skin meshed togeth- okay, I’ll stop with the grossness.  Just watch what happens to Jeff Goldblum in the last scene of The Fly.  You’ll get the idea.

Freak accidents with wet socks aside, technology like the Cryon-X is being used more and more in pro-sports. That’s because of a new method called “whole body cryotherapy” clinics are now developing.  The method involves immersing a person’s whole body in a chamber cooled with liquid nitrogen at temperatures around -120 C (-220 F) for a quick three minutes; any longer and the cryogenic chamber turns into a human icicle machine.  Cryotherapy specialists claim the effect causes the body to work a number of mechanisms in chemical release that boosts the immune system, oxygenates the blood and speeds up fatigue recovery.  So far, the pro sporting world is buying into the hype: the Dallas Mavericks apparently used cryotherapy last season when they won the championship, as well as rugby players preparing for the World Cup. 

Texas seems to be a favorite location of cryotherapy believers, as several labs and clinics who deliver the process are located there.  Cryo-USA is a new company based out of Texas Sports Medicine in Dallas and seem to focus mainly on athlete recovery.  Perhaps the most interesting story of development comes out of Cryo-Studio in Austin, founded by former Soviet track coach Galina Bukharina.  After coaching at Texas State University, Bukharina, who was a fan of cryotherapy even when she was coaching the USSR national team, opened Cryo-Studio with her children in April of 2011.  She’s been working with athletes since and she believes enough in cryogenics as physical therapy to make it her later-life legacy.

So what does the future hold?  The science is very new but if it holds up, the broad application of cryogenic hardware could be very promising and lucrative.  Cryotherapy chambers could come in handy anywhere fast recovery is necessary, not just in pro sports, but in the military, construction, firefighting, law enforcement and occasional baby-sitting job (because some children are literally going to drain your life energy; this should be taken as fact).  The demand for keeping up with today’s fast-paced work schedule could pose the kind of opportunity for this kind of technology to be produced on a large-scale.

And it’s all thanks to Manny Harris forgetting to change his socks.  Even if his career in hoops only lasts as long as Clay Aiken’s in American Idol-ing,  that’s an accomplishment to hang your  hat/footwear on.
                    

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

Manufacturing Gives Arkansas a Reason to Celebrate this Holiday Season



New Millennium Building Systems, a maker

of steel joists, is one of several companies

adding employees to factories in Arkansas.

 It hasn't been the best of times for “The Natural State.”   Unemployment officially hit 8.3 percent back in August and like most Americans, its residents list the economy as the chief source of concern right now.

Look, I'm not going to sit here and profess some long-lasting bond with Arkansas.  Truth is the only connection I share with the state is that I used to room with a former Razorback drop-out who never cleaned the kitchen. 

However, I am very heartened to read about the local manufacturing there, which is showing some very promising signs of generating much needed jobs and revenue for the state.  Some important developments:

            -Unilever, maker of food, home care and personal products, announced it will spend $40 million to expand its plant based in Jonesboro, Ark, adding 125 jobs to the 400 already in place. 

            -After acquiring facilities from Commercial Metals in Hope, Arkansas last September, New Millennium Building Systems, which builds steel joists, has installed $4 million worth of equipment and hired 58 employees at its new location.  It hopes to hire 120 more as it reaches full capacity.

            -Arez LLC, an Irish-based printing ink resin company, is only a month away from completing construction of its new headquarters in Crossett, Arkansas.  Announced last year, the company is expected to create 121 jobs and receive a 3 percent payroll income tax credit for its employees the first five years.  

            -Last month, American Railcar announced it would hire 700 workers throughout Marmaduke and Paragould, Arkansas, as well as Kennett, Missouri.  The company needs more workers to construct around 1,000 completely new freight cars for the expanding natural gas industry in the region, as well as 30, 000 cars overall for the year.

            -The Fed's annual “Beige Book” economic report listed Arkansas as part of the key regions where manufacturing output increased.

Okay, so even with four companies moving to set up shop and the Fed listing Arkansas as a manufacturing hot spot, we've only knocked that unemployment number down to 8.27 percent. 

However, this story may be the best news yet for Arkansas:

            “Four students from the University of Arkansas have launched a startup company around technology developed by University of Minnesota biochemist Simo Sarkanen that would produce biodegradable plastic shopping bags.

            ..."Our product will biodegrade in 150 days," says [Nhiem Cao, president and CEO of       cycleWood Solutions]. "Instead of having a growing problem, the problem will gradually go away."

–                    Daily News, Oct. 17, 2011

A homegrown start-up that wants to stay home, is environmental friendly, and has potential to skyrocket in demand (I can literally pull off the internet hundreds of community retail businesses in the city of Los Angeles that would order something like this in a heartbeat) is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

It may only be as bright as a match, and that tunnel may be the Bobby Hopper, but if it takes off, it bodes well for Arkansas's future employment opportunities.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.

‘TIS THE SEASON FOR US MANUFACTURING



Rotor Clip plans to export retaining rings to China.


Rotor Clip Gears up to Export; Other Companies Bring Jobs Home

It sounds like a cliché to say we should be thankful for what we have this holiday season. But it happens to be true for US manufacturing. 2011 was truly a turning point for a once beleaguered sector of our economy many saw as down for the count.

Rotor Clip, a manufacturer of retaining rings and related products (and the creator of this blog) is poised to begin exporting to China. You heard it right…exporting.  It appears there is a need for a volume producer of retaining rings who can also guarantee quality. That’s where we come in and we are looking forward to shipping full container loads of our products East for a change.

Here are some other notable events that have taken place in 2011 for the US manufacturing sector:

·         Ford Motor Company recently announced it will invest $128 million in a northeast Ohio assembly plant, and by 2013 medium-duty truck production will be moved here from General Escobedo, Mexico, near Monterrey. "What's a better Christmas present than hearing about this,” said Ohio Governor John Kasich. He said Ford's announcement showed a positive trend for manufacturing.—Manufacturing. Net—12/6/11

       

·         The State of Maine is open for business and is actively rebuilding its manufacturing base. This conclusion was reached as hundreds of former millworkers in northern Penobscot County recently learned they will have mill jobs once again. The mill was resurrected through the collaborative effort of government, organized labor and business, an operation that will have a significant positive impact on Penobscot County’s regional economy--Bangor Daily News—9/26/11

·         The good times for "Made in America" are just getting started, according to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG predicts 2015 will be a tipping point of sorts, when global manufacturers will view the U.S. as equal to if not better-than China. According to BCG senior partner, Harold Sirkin, “We’re not saying the world's going to suddenly change and U.S. companies are going to manufacture here for shipment to China. But the U.S. will be a very important place if you're going to sell into the U.S."—Yahoo! Finance—5/13/11

·         Welding supplier ESAB supplies core materials for a range of industries, and is expanding its operations in the US rather than abroad. The company has been manufacturing in China, but when it decided to replace a plant in Ohio, it settled on South Carolina rather than China-- Manufacturing Economy Daily—5/6/11

·         Boathouse Sports in Philadelphia, PA got a large apparel order from the Dartmouth College Rugby team last spring. The team usually purchased its requirements from a garment factory in Asia, but the typical eight week wait was unacceptable to the team’s coach. Boathouse Sports delivered in four weeks at the same price.—Bloomberg Business Week—4/11/11

 

Here’s to an even more successful year in 2012 for US manufacturing!

Joe Cappello is Director of Global Marketing for Rotor Clip Company.

Mississippi Site of New Clean Energy Factory



"Smart" windows by Soladigm change color to adjust to light

 making it possible to cool or warm a room.


In the fight to entice green manufacturing jobs to set up shop in their corner of America, I always thought it'd be Texas that was going to give California the biggest run for its money.  The race to lock down budding cleantech companies of the future was, for a pretty long time, between these two heavyweights. 

And while Rick Perry and UCLA duke out how much damage the Lone Star really did in Cali job loss, the more interesting story lies in clean start-ups heading off to a state not usually noted for embracing these types of companies.

That'd be Mississippi.  From Dana Hull of San Jose Mercury News:

          “Soladigm [a company that makes “smart windows”] chose to locate its manufacturing    in Olive Branch, Miss., after Mississippi offered an enticing package that included a $4        million grant and a $40 million long-term, low-interest loan. The upshot is that 300        manufacturing jobs are being created in Mississippi instead of California. Mississippi has also lured San Jose solar startup Stion, which will build manufacturing facilities in     Hattiesburg..” - Dana Hull, Silicon Valley, Mercury News.com

(Note: The technical term for smart windows is “Electrochromic windows,” which, according to Soladigm’s web site, are so called because they change colors to reflect or absorb light when a low-voltage electrical current is applied. The ability makes it possible to cool or warm up a room and thereby save energy costs).

As Ms. Hull's article goes onto state here, Mississippi is not the only one successfully peeling off new green businesses from the Golden State, which still has a fourth of the nation's solar industry.  That being said, it's pretty interesting to me that a state currently ranking 41^st in total renewable electricity generation per year  just grabbed two, count 'em, two clean companies right out from under the state with the highest energy standards, as well as a clean energy public investment fund worth $30 million.

Still, I love this story for two reasons: one, a competitive public investment environment is beginning to develop around the clean industry, and two, states that weren't even on the map a couple years ago are putting enough capital behind their interest to make the frontrunners have to change their game a little.  It may be annoying for California in the short run, but it could absolutely serve their clean energy policies well in the long term.

And hey, I'd rather read about jobs going from Silicon Valley to Olive Branch than from Massachusetts to Wuhan.

Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip Company.