The Economist quotes Howard Wial, executive director of the Center for Urban Economic Development in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, in an Intelligence Unit report on networked manufacturing. Wial spoke on the need to educate a workforce for networked manufacturing, the relative ease with which small firms can now enter global supply chains, and the question of whether greater productivity will mean more jobs.
Skills are also critical in enabling networked production, say experts. “One of the preconditions is a skilled workforce that is capable of effectively controlling very sophisticated computer systems,” points out Michael Jackson, special advisor for manufacturing to the US Secretary of Commerce. Networked manufacturing has the potential to create attractive jobs in manufacturing, especially for those production workers who have well developed information technology skills. But more must be done to develop these skills. “If the new technologies are going to result in a larger number of good jobs in manufacturing in the US,” warns Howard Wial, director of the Centre for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, “we really need to bridge the gap between the formal education system and the skills needs of manufacturing.”
