As the new president of the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), Bob Simpson not only presides over one of the oldest trade organizations in the country (AMT was founded in 1902), but one of the biggest industrial trade shows as well -- the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), which drew more than 90,000 attendees this past fall to see machine tools and cutting equipment, robotic and automation systems, software and solutions, and an up-close look at the future of manufacturing technology.
Simpson brings 25 years of manufacturing operations experience to his new role, having previously served as corporate vice president and president, Global Plastics Machinery, for Milacron Inc. Prior to that, he served as president of Siegel-Robert Automotive Inc. (a 2006 IW Best Plants winner) and held executive positions within Textron and TRW.
The following conversation took place at the IMTS 2008 show in Chicago.
IW: Is it inevitable that, as the country's productivity and our ability to do more with automation and technology gets better, that the number of people required to use the machinery itself is going to keep decreasing?
Bob Simpson: First and foremost our members believe that our top priority, one in which they need AMT's help on, is getting qualified workers in the future. So there's not a shortage. If anything, we need to cultivate more young people to rise to an interest in manufacturing.
Some jobs that we lose shift more or less geographically. Take a look at automotive. The Big Three is no longer really the Big Three. Geographically look at where they're located. Just in the state of Michigan there are a lot of people looking for work. When a company says they have a job available in the southern parts of the United States or the western parts of the United States, there is some reluctance [by workers] to move there. I realize they have families there, they have kids, it's where they've been their entire lives. In some degrees I can understand why there's some reluctance. But the point is, there are jobs available.
Now how do we help teach, how do we help demonstrate or show people where the jobs are so we can continue on and be the industrial power that we have been? No matter what, if you look over history, the super-economic powers have all had a strong manufacturing base. Every one of them, with the United States being at the top.
IW: So how do you get more people involved in manufacturing as a career?
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