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By Design News Staff -- Design News, February 6, 2006
THAT "GIANT SUCKING SOUND"
As we contemplate our "war" with China in how many engineers we can graduate every year (DN 12.05.05, http://rbi.ims.ca/4913-532), let's pause to remember the origin of the outsourcing problem. Sadly enough, it's the competition to squeeze a 10th of a penny out of every component that goes into an assembly. Research and design is important, intellectual property can make money, but actually making "stuff," right here at home to be exact, is the foundation of our GNP and our potential national security in this unsettled world.
Having sold industrial manufacturing automation products for almost 20 years, I have witnessed first hand the declining spiral of cost cutting in the industrial sector. I can't tell you of one engineering organization or an industrial customer that has not experienced tremendous manpower decline. Where there used to be 20 engineers, there are now only 10 to do that same amount of work, not because of engineering availability, rather because of cost-cutting measures.
Production corners are cut; vendors are pressed; reactionary rather than proactive engineering is rampant; projects that might have improved efficiency are never funded and die; stress levels and job dissatisfaction shoot through the roof and eventually production and/or good old fashioned American innovation suffers. It shouldn't be a shock to find out that in order to squeeze that last little bit of cost out of the widget, management is now sending a production line, a division, and eventually the entire plant, overseas where the labor is cheaper and the engineers will work for half the cost of good ol' Bob who is just three years shy of full retirement. I doubt that Bob will be advising his daughter to get that engineering degree any time soon.
It's no wonder that the "giant sucking sound" so wisely foretold by the crazy little presidential candidate from Texas a dozen or so years ago has finally caught up to us in such a manner to now garner this national attention. Just ask an engineer at GM what the new lower cost and employee pricing of a Chevy has gotten him or her. I guarantee that "job security" is not even on their top 10 list. Until we figure out how to stop the manufacturing bloodletting, our engineering deficit is a moot point. From the shareholder's perspective, why not hire the Chinese engineer? The plant is going to China anyway!
I only hope that we as Americans start putting our focus on the strategic importance of manufacturing. We can't rely on Washington, or even the "free" world market to save this sector of our national economic might. As long as China keeps printing money and formulating a national strategy to become a world manufacturing power, we could throw 2 million engineers at them, every day, to no effect. We can't hope to wait until their hollow economy collapses under the weight of their production vs. their consumption. They're working hard on their plan to be the world's #1 supplier of "stuff" and their own population is only the expendable fuel to power their enormous production machine. No matter how many engineers they graduate, no matter how many we don't, unless we wake up to the dangers of this manufacturing war of attrition, we may wake up one day and smell the green tea instead of the coffee.
Greg Midkiff
EVANSVILLE, IN
DEEP TROUBLE AHEAD
After reading the subject article with high interest, it became more and more apparent to me that the U.S. is in DEEP trouble, just like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. Here is the situation:
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The number of students in higher education in the engineering fields (applied and theoretical) are at unsustainably low levels — so much so that thousand of H1-B visas are required every year to fulfill employers' requirements.
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Engineers in the U.S. still believe that these foreign workers are stealing their jobs, when the problem is that competent engineers are hard to come by.
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Cost for this higher education is so high that only the more affluent can attend the good universities, or require others to become endebted, even before they have jobs, to pay for this education.
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The most valuable human asset in the country, being its professionals, is probably the biggest offset of the enormous debt this country has. The media hardly stresses that the trillion-dollar U.S. debt (which, by the way makes the U.S. the most endebted country in the globe) is owed to foreign countries/investors, who would not hesitate to cut the money supply to the U.S. and divert it to potentially more successful companies overseas. And this could happen a lot sooner than is thought, if the U.S. cannot attract more engineers or develop its own to maintain its worldwide technical leadership.
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The humor-lacking joke of the no-child-left-behind policy of the current administration shows how much more trouble we are in, since not only are we short engineers, but also there is no plan whatsoever to change the current state of affairs. There is no meaningful, implementable, pragmatic, affordable, thoughtful plan to foster better education for our young nor massive higher education for our youth.
Jose Grioni
NEED CITY, OH
THE 'QUIET CRISIS''
Great article about the loss of prestige and fate of U.S. engineering talent. I see very few young engineers entering the engineering workforce, especially in my field, manufacturing and industrial engineering. Most of us are in our 40s and older and there is no one to replace us, except in China and India. Articles need to appear in all the mainstream magazines and newspapers like Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, etc. alerting and educating the U.S. public and government that this is happening. Perhaps they wouldn't listen because the only acceptable careers to most parents and educators is that of a doctor, lawyer, or company CEO, CFO or COO. Where would these people and professions be without engineers to design products, processes, and services for them to use and market? Please keep spreading the word about the U.S.'s "quiet crisis" and know that most engineers are behind you 100 percent and that we are willing to speak up and be heard if people are willing to listen.
Glenn Whiteside
MONUMENT, CO
CORPORATE CULTURE AT FAULT
As an engineer it has been obvious that the typical corporate culture is anti-engineer and has been for some time. Engineers are seen as a liability, not an asset. When the balance sheet doesn't match the forecasted margins at the end of each quarter, who gets to play the part of the sacrificial lamb to help balance the books? Yes, it's the engineer. The business majors and accountants who now control the companies are charged with the long-range planning (approximately 3 months in today's environment) only see the short term numbers and place no value on experience. This lack of commitment to company knowledge from the corporate hierarchy leads to the endless circle of "there's never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over." The task of "doing it over" very often falls in the hands of inexperienced young engineers who must learn the lesson of their predecessors for themselves because those who have already learned them have been downsized. Additionally, the repetitive cycle of hiring and downsizing has severely eroded the work ethic, stifled creativity and nearly destroyed the company loyalty that existed thirty years ago. No amount of cajoling and promises will change the engineer's work environment. This must be completed within the corporate structure and until the pocketbook is significantly affected engineers will remain the sacrificial lambs to upper management.
Bradley O. Carlson
ST. PAUL, MN
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