The chair that you are sitting on in your office, who made it? How was it made? Ten chances to one, this is probably something that you do not waste time thinking about. I have discovered the importance of talking to others and learning their stories. You will be amazed by what you discover some of the times. I have written two articles about blue collar jobs and always thought there was more to tell. In talking to Joseph Van Harsel, a friend from Australia, I learned more about robots and got a glimpse into the the day in the life of a new collar worker.
Have you read?
Learn What New Collar Jobs Are! Perhaps You Have the Skills for One of These Roles
Ready For A Career Makeover? These Skills Will Land You A New Collar Job
When you think of innovative countries, many people will assume that most innovation comes from North American countries, but that is not necessarily the case. Joseph Van Harsel used to work for Zenith Interiors, an Australian manufacturer of office furniture. The entire factory is automated, and it is a great example of man and machine working in harmony.
At that job, Joseph was Night Shift Supervisor and a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Operator. Part of his job was to give his direct reports instructions on what to do at work. Before exploring the day in the life of Joseph Van Harsel, a new collar worker, I want to show you some of the inner workings of an innovative office furniture manufacturer.
Robot vs Man: The Making of Office Furniture
Let’s take a look at a new collar job in relationship to the workflow at an innovative office furniture manufacturer.
A truck drops off the raw materials to make the office furniture that Zenith Interiors manufactures and sells. The Bargstedt, a crane, brings in the wood and organizes them into piles. The crane also places the wood into a robotic saw, the Homag HPP 300. Someone operates the robotic saw. The way the process works, the worker has the job planned out and the programming instructions are sent to the robotic saw. The operator makes sure that the saw is cutting the wood properly.
Joseph Van Harsel managed the next step of the process. The office sent him the shape of the table and his job was to give the Homag Baz 322 robot step-by-step instructions on how to cut the wood and do the drilling. Zenith Interiors uses a computer program called woodWOP, which made Joseph’s role much easier.
After Joseph did his part in the process, he sent off the furniture to be cleaned and polished.
I do not know what I was expecting, but after I interviewed Joseph Van Harsel, I wanted to see what the Homag 322 robot looked like and I was very disappointed to discover that it did not look human. When you think about it, the machine looked exactly the way it should considering its function.
Risks of a Computer Numerical Control Operator Job
It took Joseph about a week to learn his new collar job. This supports the point that new collar jobs do not require a college degree. You may be thinking that if you can learn the job in a week, you may be at risk and can easily be replaced. Although it is easy to learn the job that Joseph did, there is a lot of room for improving the skills in the CNC trade. This allows workers to make themselves more valuable to the companies they work for, particularly as different companies specialize in different products, which may require different processes, tooling and so on. It is important to create a niche that you can dominate and make yourself indispensable.
There are also varying degrees of specialization. For example, Joseph was almost exclusively a Homag programmer, although he knew basic commands for other brands of machines. While this is beneficial to a worker’s job security, this is somewhat countered by the fact that the software that acts as a middle-man between the operator and the raw code continues to improve in usability and technical ability. This makes the job easier and by extension, makes the worker more easily replaceable. This is something worth thinking about.
In light of what you just read, what are some things you could do to make yourself and your role more relevant to the organization that you work for? Would learning the key skills the World Economic Forum says you need to thrive in 2020 make you more marketable and in-demand?
Have you read?
The Skills You Need To Succeed In 2020
New Collar Jobs and the Older Worker
Joseph Van Harsel observed that middle aged and older workers were adverse to learning how to use the computer. None of them knew how the robots worked and what they could or could not do. This is similar to some of the accounts I have read. On the other hand, this attitude creates opportunities for the younger workers who know how to embrace technology.
One setback is that the manufacturing industry suffers from an image problem. The younger generation view the work in factories as blue collar, labor intensive work. Many do not realize that disruption is taking place in manufacturing. Big data, nano tech, drone tech, wearable tech, and 3D printing are leading the way in manufacturing technologies. These technologies create many new collar jobs. As you can see from the example above, someone has to program the robots. It is up to manufacturers to educate prospective workers and one way to do that is to have a blog with relevant articles, presenting many case studies..
Growth of Robots and Impact of Automation on the Workforce
The International Federation of Robotics in its latest report, shows that:
“A new record high of 381,000 units were shipped globally in 2017 – an increase of 30 percent compared to the previous year. This means that the annual sales volume of industrial robots increased by 114 percent over the last five years (2013-2017).”
Source: World Robotics – Industrial Robot Report 2018
McKinsey Global Institute conducted a study of 46 countries and 800 occupations. Here are highlights from the results of the study. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42170100) .
- Twenty percent of the global workforce will be affected.
- Richer countries like Germany and the US may need to retrain one-third of their workforce for other jobs.
- Poorer countries with less money to invest in automation will not be affected as much.
- Machine operators and food workers are the most vulnerable.
- In the US alone, 39 to 73 million jobs may be eliminated by 2030, but about 20 million of those displaced workers may be able to easily transfer to other industries.
- New technology will always yield new types of jobs.
There is often a lot of fear mongering about robots and automation taking jobs. Although there is some truth to it, keep in mind that new technology will always create new jobs. With adversity comes related opportunities, so it is important to adopt a growth mindset and be open to learning new skills.
Conclusion
I showed you what a day is like for one type of new collar job, but there are many new collar jobs that are available. Please read the two articles that I wrote because they have a lot of useful information. If you are looking for a change in career, a new collar job could be the way to go.
