Hot job: Keeping the robots humming
The most important skill in advanced manufacturing has a funny name, but those who master the field have their pick of 388,000 openings for well-paying American jobs.
U.S. manufacturing is no longer about using your hands to turn a chunk of steel into a spare part. Today’s jobs require knowing how to maintain the machines that turn raw materials into useful goods, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the number of open jobs grew in June.
“Automation does not do away with jobs. Automation simply makes the job easier,” said Mike Branch, the lead mechatronics instructor at Lone Star College. “We still need people to be able to troubleshoot and repair this automation, and automation is mechatronics.”
While the word will be new to many, it was invented 50 years ago by Japanese factory workers to describe the multidisciplinary knowledge needed to build and to maintain robotic factories. They combined the two main fields, mechanical engineering and electronics, to name it mechatronics.
Branch showed me around Lone Star’s Energy & Manufacturing Institute, where he teaches mechatronics and students learn electronics, pneumatics, hydraulics, motors, computer controls, and heating and air-conditioning equipment. All are needed to maintain a modern assembly line.
“It’s a big puzzle, and it all comes together at the end of the program,” Branch explained as he demonstrated a miniature assembly line that students disassemble and reassemble. About 75 percent of the training is hands-on.
One machine uses a claw to pick up a part and to position it
on an arm thats wings the part onto a convey or belt. Another machine picks up the part and screw sin a bolt before sending it to the next stage. The students must learn how each sorting tray, sensor, spring, motor and pneumatic arm operates and how to trouble shoot when something doesn’ t work.
The production line looks like a Ru be Goldberg machine, but similar assembly lines make most of the devices we use today. Problem-solving and technical skills are more important than brawn.
“When I started, it was busty our knuckles and work10-12 hours-aday .... It was maybe 15 percent automation ,” Branch said. “When I left there, we were about 89 percentit’ s push a button and make it happen.”
Anyone with me chat ronic straining is in high demand among Houston’ s major employers, including Daik in, HP, National Oil well Var co and Hal li burton, said Linda Head, associate vice chancellor at Lone Star Community College for workforce education. The college trains 160 students a year, but local companies need twice that number.
“Our employers have been adam ant that they want someone who can demonstrate these skills and have been trained on equipment ,” Head said. “They also want someone who has behavioral skills. Someone who comes to work on time, someone who is willing to work overtime, wear a work shirt, tuck in their shirt, respectunderstand how, when you make a mistake, that affects the business model.”
The entry-level pr ea pp rent ice course takes 10 weeks, studying eight hours a day, four days a week. The accelerated program is intended to put students into a job as quickly as possible.
“Some students who come in here have only flipped burgers ,” Branch said .“That’ s what it’ s about. Let’ s get you to work, and then you can continue your education.”
Erick Quinteros, a 29-year-old former airport security guard, was doing extra work after class when I visited. He’ s looking for a career to support his wife and three kids, but taking time away from a regular pay check and driving an hour each way from Brookshire to campus, were major challenges.
“I knew these two months were going to be really intense. I had to find something part time, at night, that would schedule ,” he said .“Of course, I got a lot of support from my family .”
Quinteros received a grant that paid for his tuition and books, so now he isn’ t wasting a single opportunity, including staying after class.
“The more practice I have, the more confidence I’ll have going into acompany and knowing what I’ m talking about ,” Quint er os said.
Lone Star College is expanding the Energy& Manufacturing Institute to include a full-sizemanufacturing line, making it one of the few schools outside Germany with such an advanced facility, Head said. Local employers are pitching in and asking for more graduates.
“We need students to come in. We’ re adding more sections, more programs. We’ re trying to get more money for students, and we’ re creatingshe said.
Automation and robots have eliminated thousands of rote, repetitive jobs. But replacing people with machines means we need people to build and to repair those machines.
Rather than dwell on losing the jobs of the past, we should be encouraging people to train for the good paying, long-lived jobs of the future.
Chris Tomlinson is the Chronicle’s business columnist. chris.tomlinson@chron.com twitter.com/cltomlinson www.houstonchronicle.com/ author/chris-tomlinson