New skillsets are emerging that will play a significant role in the digital manufacturing future. Are they in great enough supply in the US?

When you think about Industry 4.0 and the digitalization of Manufacturing, that does play to the strengths of millennials and the younger workforce.

There is this idea that it must be one or the other – jobs or automation, but that’s a media narrative that does not reflect the reality on the factory floor. When you look at the story of Tesla and Elon Musk, Tesla is an extraordinary automobile produced in a factory in a high-cost area of California, nestled right on the San Francisco Bay in Fremont. It houses some of the most advanced industrial robotics you’ll ever find, but there’s still a workforce of 6,000.

Similarly, at the Tesla Gigafactory being built in Nevada – there will be perhaps 6,000 or more workers there, along with incredibly advanced automated and robotic processes. So, again, it’s not one or the other. It’s a strong indication that if you’re looking for the future of manufacturing, it seems to be that combination of people and robotics..

Foxconn announed it’s making a big investment in Wisconsin, which, although I don’t know if it will happen or not, means potentially thousands of workers making advanced consumable electronics. The theory is that automation takes all the jobs away, while the reality is slightly different.

Where robots do replace humans on the production line, is there is enough in place to re-skill those people to work with robotics?

This underlines why it’s so important to get the policy and transition right. In the US, we have a demographic bulge in manufacturing, with an out-sized workforce who are in their mid-50s. This wave of automation coincides with that. Whether or not there would be automation or robotics, we would need a new generation of workers. So I would argue that this is reasonably well timed, to the extent that you can time any of these factors.

It’s largely unpredictable so I don’t want to pretend there is any single method that makes this puzzle fit perfectly. We crossed the threshold about a decade ago, where most manufacturing  jobs required something beyond a high-school degree. They require some technical aspect of education that doesn’t necessarily require a four-year college degree, but it does require some enhanced skills, classroom learning, work-based or technical training. We have a long way to go, but people’s eyes are open and they are aware of what needs doing.

The Automotive Sector Plays such an out-sized role in the overall scope of American manufacturing

Which sectors and organisations are leading the way in setting examples for other organisations to learn from?

We have spent time profiling a lot companies and their efforts to manufacture in America. It has been very broad based, from apparel and footwear to complex machines. Among companies that are doing the right thing, there are many auto makers that, while they are still globally sourced, have reaffirmed a commitment to manufacturing in the US. To me that is extraordinarily important because the automotive sector plays such an out-sized role in the overall scope of American manufacturing. One out of every nine manufacturing jobs is touched by the auto sector in some way. If you think about Detroit, the more than century-long history, then it’s something in our DNA. It’s never gone away.

We largely saw consumer electronics and computers move overseas. I would love to see some pioneers bring it back. That is why I’m rooting for the Foxconn factory to happen.

Read More: The Innovations Powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution – a Timeline

For the companies that have weathered the storm, they’re doing a great job. For the companies that changed their sourcing models to go overseas but have later decided to come back, my hat’s off to them too. Everyone from Master Lock in Milwaukee to some of the appliance makers. That to me has been extraordinarily satisfying. We just want to see more of it.

I never cast blame on consumers, because everybody loves a deal

The Made in America concept is growing in popularity, but are government and consumers following up the rhetoric with actions?

Consumption drives a big portion of our economy. Americans, like anywhere else, are very price driven and our economy is built that way to spur consumption. So I never cast blame on consumers, because everybody loves a deal.

Public opinion certainly shows that something being made in America is an increasingly important factor for a number of consumers. It can sway someone in one direction or another. It’s one of the reasons why, if something is made in America, it’s usually very prominently displayed as a selling point. We have seen many successful examples of that. Even retailers such as Walmart think it’s important to have a Made in America programme. That really says something, because who is more price conscious than a Walmart customer? There is always more room for improvement, but we’ve made good progress there.

From a business perspective, there is much more awareness about the benefits of producing in the US, strengthening supply chains in the US, based on both economic and risk mitigation factors. I am not someone who believes we need a literal or figurative wall around the United States, whether it’s tariffs or something similar, but at the same time, I do think there should be a rebalancing and a two-way street, as opposed to a largely one-way street in terms of jobs moving out. There are lots of reasons why decision makers are considering it more seriously than they have in the past.

What should President Trump’s administration be doing to support American manufacturing and inward investment?

This is an important part of policy. If we have a better tax code and we make the right type of investments in things that matter for companies like innovation, skills, training and infrastructure, that will help. If we are able to protect intellectual property and maintain an energy advantage, those are all extraordinarily helpful in bringing investment and jobs to the United States.

We also believe – and this gets more controversial with the larger business audience – that all’s not well with China. There is an extraordinary amount of work that needs to be done to ensure that China is playing by the rules that it said it would. There are consequences for not playing by the rules that show American businesses that we have their back. That’s also an important piece of the puzzle that has certainly been laid rhetorically by the President, but substantively, it’s still something that is very much in progress.

There are important lessons here in our country’s beginnings. The idea that America should pursue manufacturing excellence has been around since Alexander Hamilton. It is a reminder that the seeds of this were planted a couple of centuries ago. Hamilton and folks like him really believed that to be a successful nation, we had to make, build and compete. It’s both a philosophy and policy that took a while to gather support, but was a very consistent thread among many of our most amazing leaders in this country, from Lincoln to the Roosevelts, to Eisenhower.

It’s not a partisan point of view either and I always impress upon the fact that that’s one of the ideas that was hatched in 1791 and still makes a lot of sense today. We are talking about different things, we are not just talking about nails and wooden goods, we are talking about complex digital machinery, but the philosophy is still incredibly sound.

Scott Paul is President of The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) the non-profit partnership that aims to strengthen American manufacturing and create jobs through public policies.

Scott will be speaking at Manucore’s Manufacturing Leadership Forum USA in Atlanta, GA on May 15-16 2018