Manufacturing in the US is Dying as I See It

I have been working in the Tool and Die trade for the last 30 years. In this time I have seen many ups and downs in the business. There has always been plenty of people working in the Tool and Die trade that were very talented in the trade. Ever since the down turn of 2000 it has been a straight spiral down in the amount of work and also in the amount of people that know what they are doing.

The first industry to go was the plastic injection mold making industry. Where I work we used to do a lot of Wire Electrical Discharge Machine of big blocks. We also did some smaller parts on our Wire Electrical Discharge Machines. In the last three to four years this work has totally gone away. We see numerousness fliers coming in on our fax machine for machine auctions. Mold shops that have been in business for decades have been forced to shut their doors. No work and what little work was left was done at break even or at a loss money wise.

Now in the last two years it is starting to really hit the Tool and Die shops. Stamping die jobs are getting harder to get as time goes on. Tool and Die shops that have been in business for decades are closing at the same rate the mold shops did. People that know what they are doing in this field are disappearing also.

Most of the work we are seeing is repair work. We do get some new work coming in, but not near what we use to see by no means. We have to go through a dozen applicants to try to find one good tool and die maker. And most of the time they are only marginally good at best. As people go it is the very same thing with Computer Numerically Controlled ( CNC ) machine operators.

There are always exceptions to every thing and in the machining trades is no difference. The companies that are doing well are the ones that stayed on top the technology by buying the newest of equipment and have paid their top people top wages and kept top benefits for them. But most importantly they went out and found the customers that keep feeding them the work and they keep doing their customers the job they expect to see. There will always be some manufacturing going on in the USA. But the main base of it is going out of business very fast.

It use to be good to be a Tool and Die Maker or Machinist. It paid good wages and had good benefits. Now the benefits have to be payed for partially by the employee, in the old days it was totally paid for by the company. Health costs have gone up so much that the companies can no longer pay for it all by them selves. Were the good money was made was in the overtime work. Now the over time is not like it use to be. Even with over time you have to pay for part of your health insurance and you do not make the amount of money you use to.

With all this going on there are very few people even willing to come into this field any more. Schools that did the training are closing due to the fact that they can not get enough people to enroll in them to keep the doors open. Company's that use to sponsor apprenticeships in this no longer do so.

Now that we have all this going on the cost of every thing is going up at the fastest rate ever seen. Steel cost goes up so fast now that you have to check costs before excepting any purchase orders that you do get. If you do not do this you may be making parts at a lose. A sure way to close your doors fast.

What is the cause of all this? China! I really do not think so. Yes they play a small part in it. But to blame them, I do not think so. I believe it is a case of several things that have finely caught up to the US manufacturing industries together.

For small and large companies mismanagement and out right wasteful ways of doing things have taken there tole. You can no longer do things two and three times to get it right and make any money. You also have a lot of the original owners retiring and leaving good solid businesses to kids that have no clue of what it takes to keep the company going. In my area I know of this happening to several companies here. Greed by owners and corporate boards is playing the largest roll the the manufacturing decline now.

All I know is this country better do something to get manufacturing back. The war in Iraq has shown what happens when you can not make war supplies fast enough. Now what do you think will happen if we go to war with some one of some real strength and has the power to reach our shores. It will take years to train the people and get the manufacturing back to were it needs to be.