Skilled Help

Last week I wrote about the shortage of skilled help and it was intended to stir up some creative thoughts on alternative products for manufacturing. The suggestion of injection molding of cabinets made from recycled plastic was with the intent that a complete box would be made and thereby eliminating cutting and assembling pieces which would transfer the skill level to a machine. In the short term and assuming that a shift in product development isn't in the offing for most shops the question remains how can one deal with a shortage of skilled help now? So to help out those that need help now, the following are some of the things that I have seen other shops do to cope with the issue of skilled help: 1/ shops are putting the priority on getting more CNC type of equipment which increases production with fewer people being needed; 2/ some shops that are introducing more computerized machinery are also partnering with local technical schools that are training people in how to operate the computer controlled equipment; 3/ one very successful shop on the east coast starting prospecting for employees in South America and help in sponsoring them to immigrate to the US. They had good success with finding qualified people; 4/ engineering people are at a premium and some shops are going off shore to get their shop drawings. This may take some exploration but there are some highly qualified people doing shop drawings in other countries. I'm aware of companies from Poland, Ukraine, and India; 5/ and, finally, one shop owner told me recently that the reason a lot of shops have trouble finding people is because they don't pay enough. He advised that when he raised the pay rates that the people came. Probably one of the reasons that shops don't raise their pay rates is because they don't have a tight enough control and understanding of their costs which brings me to software. I'm a rep for Crows Nest software and one of the 'huge' benefits of the software is that it allows for micro-managing a company and revealing all the hidden costs, etc in the projects as they flow thru a shop. Let me know if you would like to find out more about what Crows Nest software can do for your organization.