編按：為重振制造業(yè)，美國正在嘗試多種方法，包括提升員工的設(shè)計技能，以及從教育著手，推動全新的教學(xué)方法在內(nèi)。制造業(yè)一直是維持經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的關(guān)鍵，美國所采取的行動和想法，或許有可借鑒之處。 重振制造業(yè)成為美國今年度振興經(jīng)濟(jì)的主要議題之一。美國政府已開始著手探討如何解決美國境內(nèi)制造產(chǎn)業(yè)所面臨的困境，以及再培訓(xùn)美國制造業(yè)工人所面對的關(guān)鍵挑戰(zhàn)。 在稍早前于美國華盛頓舉行的能源部會議中，專家們一致認(rèn)同，新一代的制造業(yè)從業(yè)人員必須具備能符合現(xiàn)代制造業(yè)要求的設(shè)計技能，包括許多所謂的“軟性技能”(soft skills)在內(nèi)，如批判性的思考能力(critical thinking)、領(lǐng)導(dǎo)能力、協(xié)作能力等。 企業(yè)管理階層、教育工作者、現(xiàn)任和前任政府官員，以及前國會議員等，都對于現(xiàn)階段美國制造業(yè)基地嚴(yán)重遭受侵蝕，以及如何讓美國重新獲得全球競爭力而憂心忡忡。許多人認(rèn)為，勞力成本和能源消耗并不是主要障礙，美國需要的是重新創(chuàng)造出一種靈活、可由設(shè)計驅(qū)動的制造業(yè)模式，以及用于訓(xùn)練下一代機(jī)械、工程和技術(shù)經(jīng)理人員的嶄新、模塊化的培訓(xùn)方法。 縱觀兩世紀(jì)以來，美國一直引領(lǐng)全球部署各種創(chuàng)新技術(shù)，從鐵路到電報網(wǎng)絡(luò)，從電網(wǎng)到通訊網(wǎng)絡(luò)都包含在內(nèi)。然而，麥肯錫(McKinsey & Co.)的市場研究員Stefan Heck卻直截了當(dāng)?shù)刂赋觯拔覀兡壳叭狈Σ渴鹦录夹g(shù)的膽量。” Heck 用了“膽量”(guts)這個字，不僅是指為了從新能源或其它創(chuàng)新技術(shù)中獲得更多優(yōu)勢，因而愿意承擔(dān)風(fēng)險，部署創(chuàng)新技術(shù)所需的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施。他認(rèn)為，許多半導(dǎo)體產(chǎn)業(yè)實際上早已離開美國了，主要原因就是勞動成本──僅占每片芯片生產(chǎn)成本2%的勞動成本。然而，正由于大多數(shù)美國芯片制造商“不愿意投資”制造更先進(jìn)芯片生產(chǎn)設(shè)施所需的資本與設(shè)備，才造成此一結(jié)果。 在專注于潔凈能源的研究以前，Heck曾經(jīng)與全球主要的芯片公司密切合作。 他曾經(jīng)是參與能源部研究計劃署-能源計劃高峰會，致力于生解決產(chǎn)和勞動力問題專家之一。美國能源部先進(jìn)制造辦公室項目經(jīng)理Leo Christodoulou指出，制造業(yè)目前約占美國生產(chǎn)總值的11%，占美國勞動人口12%，同時，全美大約有60%的科學(xué)家和工程師分布在制造業(yè)相關(guān)領(lǐng)域。

要提升制造業(yè)，就必須強(qiáng)化設(shè)計專業(yè)能力WrBesmc

美國能源部正在尋求能促成當(dāng)?shù)刂圃鞓I(yè)聚落發(fā)展的途徑，他們希望利用美國當(dāng)?shù)睾蛥^(qū)域制造業(yè)的特點來推動制造業(yè)的發(fā)展，包括位于美國中西部的耐用消費品制造業(yè)，以及集中在西南部的高科技產(chǎn)業(yè)等。未來，Christodoulous的辦公室還將試圖定義能幫助美國振興制造業(yè)的“基石以及基礎(chǔ)技術(shù)”。另外，還包括了優(yōu)良的通訊基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施和一流的大學(xué)，他表示。 定義發(fā)展制造業(yè)所需的基礎(chǔ)技術(shù)，以及研發(fā)新材料和制造方法，是推動美國境內(nèi)形成區(qū)域性和國家集產(chǎn)業(yè)聚落的下一個步驟，他說。而所有這些努力，都可幫助美國制造業(yè)轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)楦`活、設(shè)計驅(qū)動型的產(chǎn)業(yè)，在全球競爭激烈的科技產(chǎn)業(yè)中以創(chuàng)新產(chǎn)品脫穎而出。 然而，勞力密集型的制造業(yè)已經(jīng)不可能再回到美國了。麥肯錫的Heck認(rèn)為，未來制造業(yè)涉及的層面非常廣泛，包括了科技、自動化、工程技能，以及更多復(fù)雜的任務(wù)……這些都需要設(shè)計，需要3D CAD繪圖，更需要特別的技能以確保高品質(zhì)。他以噴射機(jī)和火箭引擎為例，這些設(shè)備不僅具有高度的策略性意義，而且需要極精密的制造和加工技術(shù)。 本文下一頁：制造業(yè)的生態(tài)系統(tǒng) 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載

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{pagination} 通用電氣(GE)全球研究中心的Christine Furstoss呼吁更多中小企業(yè)加入制造業(yè)供應(yīng)鏈，因為這個產(chǎn)業(yè)“需要全新的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)”。例如使用薄膜沉積的“添加制造法”(additive manufacturing)等新途徑，將有助于建構(gòu)一個全新的制造業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，F(xiàn)urstoss說。 “今天，我們的產(chǎn)品都以一貫的流程制造，”她說?！拔覀儽仨毟淖?，去建立另一種非連續(xù)的制造流程?！?其它的高階企業(yè)主管，如波音(Boeing Research and Technology)的Matthew Ganz承認(rèn)，飛機(jī)制造商已經(jīng)面臨著設(shè)計與制造業(yè)務(wù)分離所帶來的阻礙。波音目前正在凝聚其設(shè)計和制造流程，并激勵年輕的工程師不斷精進(jìn)其設(shè)計能力。 更多專業(yè)證照 振興制造業(yè)的另一項關(guān)鍵，是教育下一代的勞動人口，使其能勝任未來以設(shè)計為導(dǎo)向的產(chǎn)業(yè)。目前，許多企業(yè)管理階層和教育工作者都同意，連結(jié)企業(yè)、工會和大學(xué)院校的“全體總動員”(all-hands-on-deck)模式，是重振制造業(yè)的最佳途徑之一。 大學(xué)院校已經(jīng)開始尋求策略聯(lián)盟，希望培育出下一代優(yōu)良的勞動人口，陶氏化學(xué)(Dow Chemical Co.)公共政策經(jīng)理Carrie Houtman說。陶氏化學(xué) CEO Andrew Liveris和麻省理工學(xué)院(MIT)董事長Susan Hockfield也于去年六月在白宮揭示了雙方將就先進(jìn)制造展開策略合作。 現(xiàn)在，美國加州的大學(xué)院校系統(tǒng) (community college system)已經(jīng)開始推行一種用來培訓(xùn)制造業(yè)勞動人口的新做法──“stackable credentials”(獲得更多專業(yè)證照)。該系統(tǒng)的名譽副校長Van Ton-Quinlivan長期致力于推動勞動人口的發(fā)展，他指出，為了滿足制造商的需求，這種方法能幫助新一代的制造業(yè)從業(yè)人員獲得更多專業(yè)證照。每一張證照，即代表一項專業(yè)技能。 例如，Ton-Quinlivan解釋道，一個希望投身能源科技產(chǎn)業(yè)的工程系學(xué)生，可以先取得銷售前與售后(pre- and post-sales)證書，這將能讓新出爐的工程師得以了解一家企業(yè)的最新項目。這種模塊化的教育和培訓(xùn)計劃旨在讓學(xué)生具備雇主要求的技能，同時也能讓學(xué)生具備更多其它領(lǐng)域的知識。 加州的官員們也指出，企業(yè)必須在人才培訓(xùn)上發(fā)揮更積極的作用。她表示，大學(xué)院校系統(tǒng)的主要目標(biāo)是為企業(yè)提供具備所需技能的人才，但企業(yè)在應(yīng)征新員工時，必須更明確地提出他們的需求。 而談到業(yè)者對政府的繁瑣監(jiān)管機(jī)制和缺乏推動制造業(yè)所需之租稅優(yōu)惠方案的普遍抱怨時，前美國國會科學(xué)委員會主席表示，要推動美國制造業(yè)復(fù)蘇，最終仍將回歸到培育更多技術(shù)勞動人口層面?！澳憧梢愿母锒愔坪凸芾碚?，”Bart Gordon對許多企高階主管表示，“但你仍然需要擁有熟練技能的工作人員”，才能在全球市場競爭。 編譯： Joy Teng 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 參考英文原文：： Manufacturing by design: New skills needed to compete，by George Leopold

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{pagination} Manufacturing by design: New skills needed to compete George Leopold OXON HILL Md. – Reviving U.S. manufacturing has emerged as such a hot election-year issue that an entire afternoon of an energy technology conference was devoted to the barriers to domestic manufacturing and obstacles to retraining the U.S. manufacturing workforce. Those new workers will require design skills that are integral to modern manufacturing along with “soft skills” like critical thinking, leadership and collaborative abilities, experts agreed during an Energy Department conference this week across the Potomac River from Washington. Corporate executives, educators, current and former bureaucrats and an ex-congressman all weighed in on the erosion of the American manufacturing base and how to return it to global competitiveness. Most argued that labor costs and energy usage aren’t the key barriers; what is needed is a revival of flexible, design-driven manufacturing and a new, modular approach to training the next generation of machinists, engineers and technical managers. Throughout the preceding two centuries, the U.S. led the world in deploying disruptive technologies ranging from railroads and the telegraph to an electrical grid and communications networks. No more, argued market researcher Stefan Heck of McKinsey & Co. “Where we are lacking is the guts to deploy new technologies.” Heck’s use of the word “guts” refers not only to the infrastructure needed to roll out new technologies by the willingness to take risks in order to reap the benefits of new energy and other innovations. He argued that much of the semiconductor industry has left the U.S. not because of labor costs - which account for only about 2 percent of the chip production costs - but because most U.S. chip makers “haven’t been willing to make the investment” in the capital equipment needed to operate advanced chips plants. Heck, who worked closely with global chip companies before shifting his focus to cleantech, was among a range of experts addressing manufacturing and workforce issues during an Energy Department summit sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy. Leo Christodoulou, program manager for DoE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, noted that manufacturing currently accounts for 11 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, employs about 12 U.S. million workers and about 60 percent of U.S. scientists and engineers work in manufacturing-related fields. Factory floor skills must be augmented by design expertise. The Energy Department office is looking for ways to promote manufacturing clusters that leverage the local and regional characteristics of U.S. manufacturing (durable goods in the Midwest, high-tech in the Southwest). Further, Christodoulou’s office is attempting to identify the “keystone, foundational technologies” that the U.S. can exploit to revive manufacturing. Two, he noted, are a superior communications infrastructure and first-rate universities. Identifying and developing new materials and manufacturing methods are among the next steps in forming regional and state clusters focused on value-added manufacturing, he added. Together, these advances could help transform American manufacturing into an agile, design-driven sector capable of thriving in a global technology competition that places a premium on being the first to deliver innovative products. With labor-intensive manufacturing unlikely to return to the U.S., McKinsey’s Heck argued: “What we have to shift to is the kind of manufacturing that involves technology, involves automation, involves engineering skill sets, involves more complicated kinds of tasks…things that actually require design, require looking at 3-D CAD drawings, require particular skills to make sure the quality is high.” He offered as examples jet and rocket engines, products that are not only strategically important but require precise tolerances, very exact machining and control of temperature cycles during design and manufacturing. Manufacturing ecosystems Christine Furstoss of General Electric’s Global Research Center called for integrating more small and medium-sized manufacturers into industry supply chains since a manufacturing revival “will require a new kind of ecosystem.” A greater focus in new approaches like “additive manufacturing” using thin-film deposition, for example, will help in scaling up a new manufacturing ecosystem, Furstoss said. “Today, we’re very sequential” in how products are manufactured,” she added. “We need to change that paradigm to make it a non-sequential process.” Other corporate executives here like Boeing Research and Technology’s Matthew Ganz acknowledged that the aircraft maker has been “hindered” by separating its design and manufacturing operations. Boeing is now in the process of reuniting design and manufacturing while promoting younger engineers with strong design skills. “We grab them by the arm and pull them up the [organizational] chart,” Ganz stressed. ‘Stackable credentials’ The other part of the manufacturing equation is educating a new generation of skilled workers capable of driving a design-oriented manufacturing sector. An “all-hands-on-deck” approach that links companies, trade unions and community colleges is seen as one of the best approaches to reinvigorating the sector, corporate executives and educators agreed. Community colleges “have been excellent partners and a critical cog” in training the next generation of manufacturing workers, said Carrie Houtman, public policy manager at Dow Chemical Co. Dow CEO Andrew Liveris along with MIT President Susan Hockfield head an Advanced Manufacturing Partnership unveiled by the White House last June. A new approach to training manufacturing workers called “stackable credentials” is being pioneered by California’s community college system. Van Ton-Quinlivan, the system’s vice chancellor for workforce development, described the approach as earning course certificates that can be “stacked” in order meet manufacturer’s requirements for new employees. Each stack represents an individual skill. For example, Ton-Quinlivan explained, an engineering student hoping to work in the energy technology market could gain both pre- and post-sales certificates, allowing the newly minted engineer to implement an energy program that a company has just sold. The modular education and training program is designed to provide students with the skills employers want now, while allowing students to “stack” other courses that would lead to undergraduate or graduate degrees. The California official also put the onus on manufacturers to play a more active role in training future workers. She said community colleges are motivated to deliver the skills companies need, but companies must be more specific about what required and desired skills they are seeking in new employees. Responding to widespread complaints here about regulatory red tape and the lack of tax incentives needed to promote manufacturing, the former chairman of the House Science Committee said the revival of U.S. manufacturing ultimately comes down to training more skilled workers. “You can have all the tax and regulatory reform you want,” Bart Gordon told an audience of technology company executives, “but you still have to have a skilled workforce” to compete in global markets.