In the future, who you gonna call?

I had an interesting conversation the other day with Steve Simmerman, who is a good friend of ours at **{DC Velocity.} Steve is the senior director of North American sales at JDA Software. He is among those in the supply chain who see a looming talent shortage—namely, a shortfall of technicians to keep complex automated systems running.

"Maintaining today's automated systems takes mechanical skills as well as computer skills," Simmerman said. "It is a skill set that a lot of people don't have." He adds that nearly every customer he talks to is looking to automate. He spoke with one recently about the problem of finding good technicians. The customer said it had really underestimated how difficult it would be to recruit and train these knowledge workers.

It is a growing problem. Steve Harrington, the industry liaison for the National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education, reports that there are currently 200,000 technicians working in the supply chain industry, but another 60,000 will be needed within the next two years alone. He says that reshoring is among the factors adding to the crunch, as these skills are needed both in manufacturing and in distribution centers.

Part of the problem is the stigma of being a technician. When I went to high school back in the '70s, technical programs were mainly geared to students who couldn't cut it academically. Society also looked down on jobs where people worked more with their hands than with their brains. But tech jobs are different now. Today's technicians require both mechanical skills and brainpower. And if you're very good in both areas, you end up working at Microsoft or Google—not at a distribution center in the middle of nowhere.

Another factor is that the Department of Labor does not even have a classification for a supply chain technician. It's kind of hard to get people to enter a field that the government doesn't even recognize as existing.

So where do we find the people to keep our automated systems running?

Last year, I attended a meeting at Baldor Electric Co. in Fort Smith, Ark., that included a tour of a tech center the company helped build at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. Baldor also donated $1 million for a scholarship fund in 2011. Baldor continues to work with the university to assure that it has a constant stream of engineers and technicians entering the job market. Prospective students are more eager to sign up for programs if they know that graduates have a high probability of landing jobs.

Other companies should follow its example by working with local technical schools and colleges to recognize—and meet—the growing needs of the supply chain profession.