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Outsourced Manufacturing Plant Maintenance Creates IT Opportunities (Video)
American manufacturing plants are no longer necessarily dank, dirty places where large men without shirts sweat until they drop. Rather, most plants today are full of computer-driven machinery that takes strong skills to install and maintain. And since many manufacturers, especially small ones, can't afford to have high level IT and repair people on staff, their maintenance work is often outsourced. Obviously, this doesn't mean outsourcing to a company in China or India (that's offshoring), but to one right here in the USA. Today's interviewee, Chris LeBeau, is director of information technologies for Advanced Technology Services, which is one of many companies that have sprung up to help factories operate efficiently in a highly computerized world. Most of their techs have wrench-turning skills, but more and more, they also have strong IT skills and walk around carrying tablet computers. So what you have here is a whole set of IT-related careers for people who enjoy working with computers but would rather stay physical and move around than spend all day in front of a monitor at a desk. Chris's comments about why IT-based factory maintenance is more usful here than in China are interesting, too -- and may offer a clue as to why some types of industry are bringing their manufacturing operations back to the U.S. from low-wage countries in order to increase efficiency.
Seriously, many people left the family farm during industrialization to work in manufacturing plants just to avoid working having to be in the sun for 16/hours a day.
Still, technology that improves working conditions is generally a good thing all around.
An IT job where I can still hope to be mangled by heavy machinery.
Some manufacturing may be returning to the US but not the jobs or rather fewer, different jobs. A job that took 100 people in China is being replaced in the US by 10 machines and one engineer. Those labor intensive middle class manufacturing jobs are gone and are never coming back.
The good being that they do care and at least try to keep the same people on the same sites.
Bad is overloaded with temps, subs, roaming staff that can change all the time, and more.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CDkQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzYu1qW8Dctk&ei=It0oUomAKNDVigLEzYCIAw&usg=AFQjCNHAWI6XvUsavL57ZibSwaHTDDrgFw&bvm=bv.51773540,d.cGE
Replace "wars" with "manufacturing"
"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots."
So what you're saying is: American plants gain 5 IT workers because computers/robots are doing the work, but still have not gained back the hundreds of human workers laid off when the plants shipped their labor overseas.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
"American manufacturing plants are no longer necessarily dank, dirty places where large men without shirts sweat until they drop."
Really did anyone believe this?
love is just extroverted narcissism
American laborers can't compete with labor from China, India, Vietnam, etc. The only way for American manufacturers to keep their doors open at all is to replace unskilled laborers with automated machinery. If they didn't do that then all of the jobs (including the higher end jobs) would be gone. This has greatly reduced the need for unskilled labor and greatly increases demand for people who can design and maintain this type of equipment. Fortunately my job is to program these types of machines, integrate different machine into production lines, and design the underlying infrastructure that supports them. So far it's been a fun unintentional career path.
Scott
unlink healthcare from jobs and then we can compete or at least do better vs others.
Fortunately my job is to program these types of machines, integrate different machine into production lines, and design the underlying infrastructure that supports them. So far it's been a fun unintentional career path.
Since your current success is evidently the result of serendipity and not the result of wise planning, it only stands to reason that you would convince yourself that the world can not possibly change in a way that would leave you shit outta' luck.
In fact, whether we accomplish the tasks that our society needs done with human or automated labor, and where that labor is located and how much it is paid are largely political and to a lesser extent philosophical decisions.
We can pay people a baseline wage to build widgets and thus enable them to feed and house themselves. Or, we can pay them welfare to do the same. Or we can spend that money instead on security to keep the desperate masses at bay. Philosophy's small role is in limiting the available options to those that are at least somewhat civilized.
What we choose in a capitalist society tends to depend on whether there is more money to be made selling widgets, selling outsourcing services or selling security services at any given time, and priorities will switch as those values change relative to each other.
Much the same with your field. We had un-automated factories, so the sales opportunity lay in automation. Eventually, we will have automated factories and people who call the shots will find a way to make it profitable to re-integrate human labor, deprecate your work and, if you are still working, render your experience worthless.
The money is ALWAYS to be made in sloshing resources from one place to another.
I am an engineer at a fairly modern furniture plant.
ATS hires desperate displaced maintenance workers who have acquired years of PLC and high-speed machine skills, and works them like temps at temp wages. Their lack of "ownership", i.e. giving a damn about the plant, unfamiliarity, and constant turnover lead to much higher downtime. No one blames the workers for moving on to greener pastures at the first chance.
I defy you to find one non-managerial ATS technician who has been with them for more than two years. The revolving door never stops spinning.
After our 3-year contract with ATS expired, we re-hired an in-house crew again. Lesson learned.
Around 2000, I was in an auto parts plant.
There was literally a line on the floor ... on one side could have been a scene from the 1950s (or maybe even the 1930s): everything was dirty, crowded, dense with machinery and workers who looked pretty much as Roblimo described.
On the other side of the line, everything was new, clean, the machines were spaced farther apart, and there were eerily few workers, just a few techs calmly standing at control panels tweaking or monitoring things.
I never did find out what the deal was ... I was only there to give training on a piece of equipment on the new side. Was weird and a stark contrast, though. Had to be pretty demoralizing in more ways than one for the guys on the "old" side, too.
The idea that "sure, robotics put dozens of people out of work, but robots need technicians to maintain them" is absurd. Not that machines don't need maintenance, but that the number of people displaced approaches the number of people needed to maintain machines. And even if that WERE the case (which is most certainly isn't) then surely we have to face that most people should realize that being a tech isn't something everyone can do effectively. This leaves people who are not technically inclined and not lucky enough to be trained and/or have talent in other areas, to do what? Career criminal? Lifetime welfare recipient? Both?
Bottom line? The more people out of work, the bigger the tax burden on those remaining who have income or have a job. I don't quite advocate not modernizing or anything like that, so this rant is actually more about outsourcing labor than new labor for in-sourced robotics. But I think there is a lot going on here that is harming good people who just don't have ability. That's kind of sad. Some could call it evolution except that we're doing it in reverse -- the people who don't have jobs and stuff end up having more babies than those with ability and jobs and money.
So what are we breeding here?
then the Morlocks eat the last Eloi and the cycle starts over again.
Don't worry I'm sure the US social support net will keep everything in...
Well I'm sure that the people still working won't end up crippled by high tax....
And that the really wealthy won't just emigrate elsewh...
Huh
Manna, by Marshall Brain. The article description is kind of a point-in-time description, but this story gives a good idea of a couple possible futures for increased robot involvement in businesses.
Easy, we're making cars / parts more affordable. Shut up and take my money!
More seriously I'm glad that the above story draws the difference b/w 'outsourcing' and 'offshoring'. Unfortunately, LinkedIn conflates the 2, but as the above summary points out, they are very different. Outsourcing simply means that work that is not central to the company's line of business, but needs to be done, is handed over to another company, rather than have an in-house department in the company run it. Like having Administaff run all the Admin needs of an organization, since most companies are not in the business of running benefits for their employees. Offshoring is the term that means outsourcing work to China or India.
So what are we breeding here?
Do you believe in eugenics?
If enough people do it, or get the skills to, the US could become more attractive for manufacturing once again.
Pursuing skills that are "in demand" is just falling for a shell game. By the time you acquire those skills, the market will be flooded by other people doing the same and you will be stuck with the latest job to become low paying. Increasingly, you will also be stuck with the crushing debt required to obtain said skills, and thus be even further compelled to take whatever crumbs are scattered at your feet.
BTW, what makes the US unattractive for manufacturing is its relatively high standard of living. Great for selling, lousy for employing. Eventually, its relatively affluent consumer base will become another tragedy of the commons, as every producer just assumes that someone else will pay people enough to by their products. Then it will be game over.
> and may offer a clue as to why some types of industry are bringing their manufacturing operations back to the U.S. from low-wage countries in order to increase efficiency.
From what I've seen, how could it not? Price, efficiency, quality, pick two.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
When most of the advocates you find on the Internet are obese, socially retarded people? No, not really.
This leaves people who are not technically inclined and not lucky enough to be trained and/or have talent in other areas, to do what? Career criminal? Lifetime welfare recipient? Both?
We seem to find things to do even when all needs are met, some possible examples are
-Farming gold in WoW, etc
-Farming IRL for locally grown food using outdated non-industrial methods
-Organising concerts and other entertainment events
-Theme parks (could be greatly expanded)
Even so, the economic system should be adjusted when appropriate, and the extra jobs above are just a transition period. This will happen when it's blindingly obvious that not everyone has to do a full day's work to sustain humanity. There still needs to be a way to motivate the techs, but it's quite possible that they would do it for free.
The idea that the majority can't contribute anything significant to society, and may just as well do nothing, is a psychological challenge. The economics can be worked out, but we may indeed see a wave of crime just so people have something to do
I came over to Industrial IT after spending 8 years working in 2 NOC's at 2 different ISP's. This kind of work is very fulfilling no matter where I've been and anyone who wants to find stable, but admittedly much harder work, will love this field of IT. The big upsides are this:
- Starting at 3:30pm most people leave. This means that the last 1.5hrs of my day to get work done with no one contacting me. This has been the case at multiple jobs.
- My pay and vacation time are amazingly better than any other industry. My onsite schedule and hours are completely under my control.
- People who do physical labor all day are more apt to be solution driven. I've noticed that office people tend to do a lot of busy work and if they have a problem they freak out but people on the floor use there computers like any other tool so when it breaks they just shrug it off and say i'll write it down on this notepad till you get it fixed and they go back to work.
- I've never had problems with getting respect from management. When I've worked on larger IT staffs I've been underpaid, overworked, and woken up all hours of the night from oncall because my employers knew they had other parts of the staff they could elevate into my job if I ever left.
- It's much more hands on with a wider range of hardware. I've rebuilt 30yr old line printers, updated Twin-ax networks, soldered 3d holographic scanners, helped troubleshoot plc's and allen bradley networking equiment, CNC management systems, the list goes on. This is on top of the the easy stuff like Cisco, Windows Server, AS/400, Exchange and Linux.
The downside is this. I've had to work in freezers that were -10 degrees, food processing plants that have so much chlorine on the walls you have to wear gloves or you'll mess your hands up, stinky plastic/rubber recycling plants, and into hot oily factories that manufacture metal parts. So the range of environments can get pretty nasty and in some cases can be a bit of a nightmare for your computers but the challenge is worth the effort.
Remember your Fountainhead:
Once all the "Takers" are gone, then the "Producers" can frolic in unabashed glory in their new utopia as their products are no longer taken (or consumed) by people who want them.
And THEN the Morlocks will kill and eat all the Eloi.
Yeah, right.