By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
A meeting of Kentucky manufacturers’ representatives and other stakeholders indicates the change of the calendar will not fix the industry’s most pressing need, but progress is being made.
The Manufacturing in Kentucky: 2016 Preview, at the Hilton Cincinnati Airport in Florence included a legislative session preview and an employment and labor update.
The session that resonated most strongly with Northern Kentucky manufacturers, however, was the advanced manufacturing update panel.
Mike Hirsch, vice president of operations at Robert Bosch Automotive Steering and Wade Williams, vice president business retention & expansion/manufacturing at NKY FAME, agreed that the biggest challenge remains the development of a quality workforce.
Hirsch, who is also president of Northern Kentucky FAME, said that while efforts have increased in recent years, the region, and the nation, are not making progress quickly enough.
“Times are changing, not only is the steering technology advancing, so is the assembly technology,” Hirsch said. “So we are not looking at a production operator or assembly operator the way we did 10 or 15 years ago because every one of them is interfacing with a piece of equipment. It’s not a matter of loading or unloading parts anymore, it’s way more than that.”
The event, sponsored by DBL Law, brought about 30 manufacturers reps and others from across the state to Northern Kentucky for an overview of the coming year in the industry.
Williams, senior vice-president of the Northern Kentucky Tri-county Economic Development Corporation (Tri-ED), said the workforce shortage is being tackled through a collaborative, but it is a tall order.
It is estimated that in the next 10 years at least 6,250 positions in the highly technical career fields will need to be filled in a Northern Kentucky region that is still developing a pipeline to accomplish the task.
“What we have found through our experience and our empirical data is that you need a foundation around a skilled workforce to compete,” Williams said. “Whether it’s attracting a new company or it’s helping you to get an expansion, workforce and skilled labor has become the number one issue.”
Proximity to customers and suppliers, and real estate costs are all factors in a company’s location or expansion decision, but pale in comparison to having a skilled workforce.
Williams said a 2014 survey indicates that skilled workforce was the number one factor among 98 percent of a group of top site selection consultants polled, when recommending a location.
In some ways, Northern Kentucky manufacturers are a victim of their own success. Hirsch pointed out that German-based Bosch (formerly ZF Steering) came to the region with a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Hebron seven years ago
Widespread demand within the automotive industry for the company’s electric power steering product, however, spurred exponential growth.
From 2012 to 2015, the company expanded from one building to three facilities, with 600,000 square feet of space in Northern Kentucky. A fourth building is currently in the planning stages.
Other Northern Kentucky manufacturers, including Mazak, Mubea, Hahn Automation and L’Oréal have also experienced strong growth during that period.
As a result, they collectively ran out of skilled talent and begin hiring qualified workers away from each other.
“A carousel started,” Hirsch said. “We came very quickly to the conclusion, not only at Bosch, but also at the other manufacturers, that we need to do something about this.”
In early 2014 Hirsch learned of the Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (KY FAME) during a visit to the Governor’s mansion.
KY FAME is a partnership of regional manufacturers whose purpose is to implement dual-track, apprenticeship-style training that will create a pipeline of highly skilled workers.
“(FAME) is dual credit and it’s very much tailored after the German trades system,” Hirsch said. “Two days school, three days work, and you basically get assigned a mentor that coaches a student at work…and they finish with an Associate’s degree.”
By the end of the year Bosch and seven other manufacturers had formed a local FAME chapter. The Northern Kentucky arm now has 18 members.
The Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development Coalition was also formed by manufacturers and other local organizations in 2014 to help address the issue. The coalition was developed in response to a call to action by the Northern Kentucky Industrial Park Partnership, one of the largest manufacturing complexes in the region.
The alliance was initiated by Tri-ED and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and initiated by Partners for a Competitive Workforce.
Community partners, including Gateway Community and Technical College, which tailored its curriculum to better accommodate regional manufacturing needs, have also come on board.
The school systems in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties are also promoting advanced manufacturing careers as never before and work with local companies to encourage students to attend career days at the facilities.
Outreach programs focus on the opportunity for students that pursue a career an advanced manufacturing to learn while they earn and expect to receive a salary in the range of $55,000 upon completion of an education program, with few expenses.
Despite these combined efforts, and the lucrative opportunities available, the pipeline is still not filling fast enough to accommodate the region’s need.
Williams said a primary reason continues to be the outdated perception among students, and their parents, of the advanced manufacturing industry. A “Made it in NKY, campaign over the summer that targeted high school students through TANK bus, Pandora and other mechanisms was successful in generating additional interest among students.
“We learned a lot through that campaign, but we need to work on a marketing campaign that changes the hearts and minds of parents as well,” Williams said. “I think by showing a career pathway and by showing that you have good careers and earning potential in two years or less, with no debt, we can be successful in doing that.”
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytribune.com