Yesterday, I visited my son’s plant in rural Kentucky.He runs a small business with about 20 employees making parts and assemblies for the medical and aerospace industries. He told me that in the past to produce the amount of parts he does now, it would have taken two or even three times the number of people.But because of the investments he has made in advanced CNC(Computer Numerical Control) machines, they can be produced by fewer than 5 people, the rest being support staff.The machines that produce these parts are,of course, made in Japan.They require people with sophisticated knowledge of Machine Programming.These people are hard to come by.
This quiet revolution in manufacturing technology has been going on for sometime.It is this kind of technology that is going to make it possible for us to compete against countries like India, China, Taiwan and Korea.
I hope more people learn about what is happening in manufacturing and gain hope for the Midwest’s economy.