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Building a nation of makers* Expand technology and engineering certifications to help employers know worker skills* Government-backed talent investment loans to hire needed workers* Commerce department and state programs to diffuse latest technologis to small manufacturers* National supply chain initiative to map manufacturing ecosystemsSource: Milller Center Milstein Syposium ideas to acceleration innovative capacity of manufacturers
A panel of scholars from the University of Virginia's Miller Center on Friday returned to what the leaders often call the center's birthplace in Chattanooga to outline their recommendations for making America's small and midsized manufacturers stronger in the global marketplace.
Their ideas for making America great may not be getting the headlines and TV air time of those suggested by Donald Trump in his presidential campaign. But the suggestions to improve worker training and the sharing of information and technology reflect the bipartisan and scholarly approach the Miller Center has employed over the past 40 years to develop what its leaders insist are practical and effective plans.
Dan Frierson, the CEO of Dixie Group who served on the Miller Center board for 29 years, said the late Chattanooga attorney Burkett Miller wanted a center that would encourage a thoughtful, research-based approach to contemporary problems. Miller was a partner in the Chattanooga law firm of Miller and Martin, which still supports the center housed at the University of Virginia where Miller graduated.
"In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Burkett Miller wanted a place for civil discourse between parties and he wanted an institution that would be nonpartisan to do research and to look at present day issues to inform the public," said Frierson, who recalls Miller being a scholarly and thoughtful gentlemen who helped his hometown in a multitude of ways. "The Miller Center has been a great balance to the hyper partisanship we see today in Washington."
The center is perhaps best known as the repository for oral histories and recordings of recent presidents. But with panels of political, academic, business and media leaders, the Miller Center also develops reports and recommendations on numerous public policy challenges for America.
The center's manufacturing report - developed by a 10-member panel co-chaired by former Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gerald Baililes of Virginia - found smaller manufacturers are grabbing a bigger share of the goods produced in America. With better support for worker training, business financing and technology access, small U.S. manufacturers should help power the global economy.
Miller and Martin brought some of the report's authors to Chattanooga on Friday to talk with business leaders about their findings.
According to the 2010 Census, the more than 258,000 manufacturers with less than 500 employees represent more than 98 percent of all manufacturing firms and employ 4.9 million workers. In Tennessee, 6,300 manufacturing firms employ a total of 317,000 workers, or an average of 50 employees per company.
While overall manufacturing employment declined from 21 million in 1972 to 10 million in 2010, the share of jobs provided by small manufacturers grew from 29 percent to 45 percent.
"Small manufacturers are usually close to their customers, they adapt quickly and well and they are often in network situations that build a supply chain that continues to make America the most competitive place for production in the world," said Bernard Carlson, chairman of the engineering school at the University of Virginia and the lead scholar for the Miller Center study.
But as manufacturing has rebounded and the slack in the labor market has been absorbed from the rubble of the Great Recession, factories and mills are finding it harder to get workers with the skills needed for 21st century manufacturing. The Miller Center study suggests that federal and state governments should do more to finance, certify and educate students for the jobs of the future. High schools and colleges also need to do more to align training with workplace needs and provide students with skill certificates beyond just four-year degrees.
"There is a tightness in the labor market we're seeing all over the country," Frierson said.
Too many workers have not been trained or directed into fields with job opportunities, he said.
Jennifer Clark, a professor at Georgia Tech, also said the U.S. Department of Commerce, universities and other groups need to work to better distribute information and training about new technologies for small manufacturers.
"Diffusion of the latest trends back to the nation's small manufacturing base is critical," she said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com.