"The future of U.S. manufacturing hinges upon the ability of metalworking companies to employ the appropriate metalworking technology and processes and, more importantly, to attract trained individuals to operate the machine tools used in production."

With those words, Greg Safko, senior director of member resources for the American Machine Tool Distributors Assn., sums up the dilemma facing many engineered industries today.

How can they continue to lead the world, or regain such status, if the pool of skilled workers and the people to teach them continues to dwindle? On the horns of the dilemma lies the fact that while fewer people are entering fields like machine tool engineering, the technical aspects of the business become more complex every year.

Without calling it a crisis, Safko said that "certainly it is severe in nature. No new blood is entering the industry of original intention, [and it] seems to be the result of other industries' downsizing. Retraining is the key issue that takes time. The learning curve is steep due to the technological nature of the industry," he said.

Most critically needed by machine tool distributors are sales, applications and service engineers, Safko said. "As machine tools become more complex, or for those distributors that represent non-commodity product lines, the applications engineering has a much greater role in the sales process."

Manufacturers have a shortage of skilled machine builders and service and repair technicians, as well.

AMTDA continues to update its Certified Machine Tool Sales Engineer program. Safko says the program has seen dramatic changes in the last few years.

"The entire job analysis has been updated from the original study in 1992. This was the result of extensive industry input including a joint task force with the Ass. For Manufacturing Technology ... The training and preparation materials have also been revised and expanded," Safko said.

Over 1,100 individuals from 150 distributors and 95 machine builders have participated in the program, according to Safko, but more needs to be done. Students need to become interested in metalworking earlier and be encouraged.

As far as high schools and colleges are concerned, Safko sees parents and educators turning children away from careers in metalworking.

"The general perception of the industry is not the reality. The technical and engineering components actually provide very substantial and rewarding careers. We have been making a concerted effort to raise the visibility of the industry through member and association involvement in Student Summits at tradeshows, both nationally and regionally," Safko said.

Schools have not had a focus on this type of industry at all, he added. They train in computers and computers are a big part of the CAD/CAM operation of machine tools. But, Safko says, schools do not include that kind of computer learning in the opportunities they afford students.

But the association is working harder at that aspect, as well. AMTDA held a student fair at the University of Industrial Distribution sessions at Texas A&M in February.

AMTDA also works closely with the National Institute of Metalworking Skills, whose goal is to support the development of a skilled workforce for the metalworking industry. NIMS was started in 1995 and was instrumental in creating standards for the various metal-forming and metal-cutting operations in the industry.