How to Bolster the Future of Manufacturing

When I was 19, I spent a summer working at a kibbutz that bordered a gorgeous beach on the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, I spent most of my days in a factory making ladder rungs for the Israeli army. I would stuff a block of wood in a machine and watch it grind a notch. Turn, repeat. Start again. The task was simple but boring. Cookie and tea breaks were the high points of the day.

Most manufacturing jobs in developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s were low-skilled positions. Many were deathly boring. Thats no longer true. The most repetitive tasks have been shifted to developing countries to take advantage of low-cost wages. Manufacturers who have survived in developing countries have learned to use sophisticated tools to build products that are often customized to the needs of particular clients. Factory work requires smarter, more versatile workers and the jobs are more interesting and varied.

The good news is that each American manufacturing worker is now responsible, on average, for creating about $150,000 worth of product, double the level of 1997. Last year, output grew by an astounding 11 percent to total nearly $5 trillion. The bad news is that the sector, over the long term, has been hiring fewer workers. And the workers who are hired require more skills.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers are having trouble finding those skilled workers. We need to do a better job of training people to fill these jobs. But there is another important concern. In outsourcing more and more of our production overseas, we have made it difficult to manufacture many products locally and competitively. In consumer electronics, for example, manufacturers in China have easier and cheaper access to the necessary components than United States-based manufacturers.

It may be too late to reverse that trend in consumer electronics, but in areas like machinery and aerospace, we still have a strong industrial base. We have to make sure we protect that industrial base because thats where the future lies.

Nike, for example, recently figured out a way to make sneakers using a manufacturing process that requires very little labor because most of the shoe is woven in a single process, like a sock. That change means low-cost labor isnt required to snap the parts together. Consequently, manufacturing likely will take place in every major market where the manufacturer can customize its products to local needs.

In Washington state, we should be thinking about how we can position ourselves to develop and produce machines like those. We need to ensure that we have the training, the research and the tax system in place to become competitive in the business of creating the factory of the future.