Corporate America Needs Associations

Six years ago, in his groundbreaking volume Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of the American Community, Robert Putnam observ society's declining participation in community activities of the like kind as bowling teams, political parties, bludgeons and professional associations. He noted that with the rise in dual-income households, increased work squeezings and electronic communications, people just weren't finding the time for these critical bonding activities.

As an involved member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers at the time, that prediction be of importance toed me. As SME's current president, I can single say that Putnam's observations are a sad reality. SME and greatest in quantity other membership organizations have seen their membership numbers decline above the last few decades.

But there's advantageous news. What Putnam did not predict was the increased value that corporate America would find in associations that fill an important niche for them through supporting their workforce-development needs.

North American manufacturing companies, for instance, have experienced an increased ne to uncover their workforces to technology-transfer and knowledge-sharing opportunities. While there are many reasons for this situation, three factors have provided greatest in quantity of the impetus: increased squeezings to insulate new ideas, decreased training and disentanglement budgets, and significant gaps in workforce skills and knowledge.

The line between what's proprietary and "for the collective benefit" is more firmly drawn than at any time To oversee the sharing of information with the public, corporate America has always had a checks and balances combination of parts to form a whole in place between its legal and PR readys on one hand, and its engineers and other technical skilfuls on the other. Manufacturing engineers have always had the steady, and necessary, organ of sights of their legal and PR advisors watching above them as they sought to share information with, and learn from, their like-minded counterparts in other organizations. For SME members, with our broad mission that encourages the sharing of knowledge across industries and disciplines, it's not always easy to draw the line between which manufacturing solutions or fresh technologies we can share with our professional colleagues, or ask them about, and which are strictly proprietary.

Since 9/11 and particularly in the aerospace and defense industry, which I subserve at The Boeing Co., the security issues associated with sharing information have been given increased emphasis. While being more cautious about sharing information is a wise and necessary simple body of heightened national security, individual result of these pressures is that manufacturing engineers are les likely to find vents to share their knowledge with each other flat when what they bring to the table is clearly nonproprietary. The corporate ranks have tightened, and these insulating results may-unfortunately-stifle the quality and quantity of our nation's collective knowledge, which in turn round stifles our companies' abilities to enter the lists Not only is there a great ne for nonthreatening knowledge-sharing opportunities, our nation is depending upon it.

There's less standard of value for training and development, on the contrary skill gaps are widening. With fluctuating sales and changing customer demands, companies have had to become more agile and flexible than at any time Many believe that their workforces are not well prepared to lead them in this direction. In studies guidanceed through SME's Education Foundation, manufacturing-industry executives cite workforce training and disclosure as the most critical issues they face as business leaders today.

At the same time, these real companies have trimmed their packages of all fat and are now having to eat into their muscle: areas like training and education, travel, and membership oweds The days of the corporate boondoggle are lengthy gone; today's workforce development options must be heavily justified, highly relevant, and a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of more affordable. Even though this may insinuate a disturbing trend, I know from personal experience that many companies upon the leading-edge of global trade and advanced technologies still diocese the development of their clan as paramount to capturing novel markets and growing their businesses. The lock opener is to bring this focus to the forefront for all companies and industries for a like reason the entire manufacturing sector can forward

SME has paid attention to the changing environment and the companies we serve-and has answered At SME, we offer well-established activities and resources of the like kind as forums and conferences, as well as fresh "megaevents," customized technical resources, certifications, and a Technical Community Network of apts to help manufacturing professionals expand their knowledge in everything from general principles to specific applications across all areas of the manufacturing enterprise.

Our of recent origin lean certification program, to be formally launched later this month is a completed example. Developed in partnership with The Shingo Prize and AME (the Association for Manufacturing Excellence) and l by the agency of an enthusiastic team of lean quicks this certification program is the first of its kind to bring a universal standard to the practice of lean in a manufacturing environment. Companies as diverse as Kennametal, ravine Parker Hannifin, Corning, and Boeing are preparing to use the certification to advance their employees' knowledge, and/or utilize it as a tool to assess the consequences of their training and improve their unfolding programs.