AEROSPACE INDUSTRY
Wanted:
People Skills
People Skills
At the same time globalization, sub-assembling and point-to-point service are opening the door for many communities to compete for projects, human resource needs are pulling the industry toward long-time aerospace centers like Wichita, Dayton and Seattle. Steve Martens, president of Grubb & Ellis | Martens Commercial Group in Wichita, has watched the emphasis of aerospace project requirements evolve from physical to human assets.
"The concern used to be having access to adequate expansion space so that when the company launches a new production line, they would have room to build," Martens says. "What we're finding now is that they're more interested in having access to a highly skilled work force."
Case in point: Embraer's Mauricio Botelho, who says his company looks hard at "educational infrastructure in the area, if you have technical schools, if you have craftsmanship in terms of mechanics and in terms of people with 'ambiance' with the aeronautical industry."
Steep cyclical moves within segments of the industry — as now, with defense orders up and commercial activity ailing — play to the benefit of traditional clusters like Wichita, where 38,229 were employed in aviation manufacturing in 2002. "This is a highly volatile industry with down cycles," Martens says. "A community needs to have opportunities for workers to work elsewhere during downtimes," instead of leaving the area or switching careers.
Many industry watchers, including AIAA's John Douglass, are concerned about a dearth of aerospace workers in the U.S. The average age of an American aerospace engineer, he says, is 54, and "only two percent of young engineering students enter aerospace." Equally alarming for the industry is a dramatic decline in its R&D work force. In the 1970s, aerospace employed 22 percent of all research scientists in the U.S. Today, the figure is six percent.
Similar challenges exist north of the border. In Nova Scotia, where over 9,000 work in aerospace and defense jobs, provincial leaders are partnering with high schools and community colleges to capture the attention of young people exploring career options. As many as 6,000 skilled workers will be needed in the province over the coming decade, according to the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Nova Scotia. The work force partnership is also attempting to spark interest among women, minorities and the disabled, groups traditionally under-represented in the industry.
Canada is home to the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer, Bombardier Aerospace. The company is a longtime leader in business aircraft and regional jets, those seating fewer than 100 passengers. Dogged by financial difficulties but now out of the red, Bombardier is eager to build a new class of jets that would be an economical alternative to 115- to 150-seat offerings from Airbus and Boeing. Bombardier envisions a jet that would have a transcontinental range, far greater than comparably sized aircraft made by chief rival Embraer.
In early 2004, Bombardier hired Gary Scott, a veteran of Boeing's 737 team, to lead its recently established New Commercial Aircraft Program. The Montreal-based group will consist of 300 engineers once fully staffed. "There is a huge potential customer base in the lower end of this segment, especially among existing main line and fast-growing low-cost carriers," Scott said upon assuming his new position. He reckons the segment represents a $250-billion market opportunity over the coming two decades — about 6,000 airplanes.
Bombardier currently maintains manufacturing sites in Montreal, Toronto, Wichita and Belfast. Its launch of a family of larger jets is expected to spark a global search for a new assembly site. In addition to the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, Japan is also believed to be a possibility.
Australia is showing success in growing its own aerospace cluster. Half of Boeing's non-U.S. workforce is based Down Under — about 3,000 people. An expansion unveiled by the company in August 2004 will add 500 to the headcount as Boeing expands its operations in the New South Wales community of Williamtown, north of Sydney. Local officials expect the project to spur another 400 support jobs in its wake. The site is home base for the Royal Australian Air Force's fleet of 71 F/A-18 "Hornets," now undergoing a major round of upgrades.
"The concern used to be having access to adequate expansion space so that when the company launches a new production line, they would have room to build," Martens says. "What we're finding now is that they're more interested in having access to a highly skilled work force."
Case in point: Embraer's Mauricio Botelho, who says his company looks hard at "educational infrastructure in the area, if you have technical schools, if you have craftsmanship in terms of mechanics and in terms of people with 'ambiance' with the aeronautical industry."
Steep cyclical moves within segments of the industry — as now, with defense orders up and commercial activity ailing — play to the benefit of traditional clusters like Wichita, where 38,229 were employed in aviation manufacturing in 2002. "This is a highly volatile industry with down cycles," Martens says. "A community needs to have opportunities for workers to work elsewhere during downtimes," instead of leaving the area or switching careers.
Many industry watchers, including AIAA's John Douglass, are concerned about a dearth of aerospace workers in the U.S. The average age of an American aerospace engineer, he says, is 54, and "only two percent of young engineering students enter aerospace." Equally alarming for the industry is a dramatic decline in its R&D work force. In the 1970s, aerospace employed 22 percent of all research scientists in the U.S. Today, the figure is six percent.
Similar challenges exist north of the border. In Nova Scotia, where over 9,000 work in aerospace and defense jobs, provincial leaders are partnering with high schools and community colleges to capture the attention of young people exploring career options. As many as 6,000 skilled workers will be needed in the province over the coming decade, according to the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Nova Scotia. The work force partnership is also attempting to spark interest among women, minorities and the disabled, groups traditionally under-represented in the industry.
Canada is home to the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer, Bombardier Aerospace. The company is a longtime leader in business aircraft and regional jets, those seating fewer than 100 passengers. Dogged by financial difficulties but now out of the red, Bombardier is eager to build a new class of jets that would be an economical alternative to 115- to 150-seat offerings from Airbus and Boeing. Bombardier envisions a jet that would have a transcontinental range, far greater than comparably sized aircraft made by chief rival Embraer.
In early 2004, Bombardier hired Gary Scott, a veteran of Boeing's 737 team, to lead its recently established New Commercial Aircraft Program. The Montreal-based group will consist of 300 engineers once fully staffed. "There is a huge potential customer base in the lower end of this segment, especially among existing main line and fast-growing low-cost carriers," Scott said upon assuming his new position. He reckons the segment represents a $250-billion market opportunity over the coming two decades — about 6,000 airplanes.
Bombardier currently maintains manufacturing sites in Montreal, Toronto, Wichita and Belfast. Its launch of a family of larger jets is expected to spark a global search for a new assembly site. In addition to the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, Japan is also believed to be a possibility.
Australia is showing success in growing its own aerospace cluster. Half of Boeing's non-U.S. workforce is based Down Under — about 3,000 people. An expansion unveiled by the company in August 2004 will add 500 to the headcount as Boeing expands its operations in the New South Wales community of Williamtown, north of Sydney. Local officials expect the project to spur another 400 support jobs in its wake. The site is home base for the Royal Australian Air Force's fleet of 71 F/A-18 "Hornets," now undergoing a major round of upgrades.
