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66 SMT Magazine • September 2016 Employers too easily become captive in doing things a certain way. Why? Because we've al- ways done them that way. Having been educat- ed in a leading edge, world class environment, recent graduates could act as a counterweight to this natural company inertia. So, if that's our strategic objective, what is a tactical plan that provides a path to achieve that strategic goal? Here are the critical elements I would suggest need to be part of that tactical plan: 1. Our industry requires a highly educated, direct labor, engineering workforce—not a min - imum wage labor force with a sprinkling of en- gineering support. 2. Each engineer in the workforce must be multifunctional. The days of specialization are over. It costs too much. Each skilled engineer must be fluent in all technical and "soft" dis- ciplines from chemistry to motion control to team dynamics to physics to conflict resolution. 3. These super engineers must be self-man- aged. 4. The traditional hierarchal organizational model build on collecting employees of com- mon skills into separately managed depart- ments (i.e., M.E.s, E.E.s, I.E.s, procurement, program management, etc.) must be replaced by just two groups: product teams and a lead- ership group. The leadership group acts as a check and balance to the product team, and serves as the enabling support function, ensur- ing the product team has the resources needed to be successful. 5. Engineering students need to be educat- ed in a real world, world class, for-profit envi- ronment, for a full four-year undergraduate pro- gram, experiencing and learning every aspect of leading edge technical and business practices. 6. For educating students going into the high tech electronic product assembly industry, this environment should be provided by wrapping a college around a for-profit contract manufactur- ing (EMS) operation. The EMS being an essential part of the student's classroom for all four years. In summary, for industries characterized by rapid change that are faced with ever increasing global competition, the solution calls for a radi- cal departure from a traditional post-secondary education. Educating in one community (aca- demia) and sending the "educated" to work in another community (the real world) has not, and will not work. To be competitive in high la- bor rate regions, industry needs to focus on re- ducing assembly labor content and maximizing assembly yields. In addition, a new industry or- ganizational model must be adopted that mini- mizes indirect and overhead costs. The current post-secondary educational ap- proach has created a gap between academic preparation and industry need—a gap that con- tinues to widen. What is needed to close this gap and prevent it from forming in the future is Concurrent Education—educating the stu- dent in a world-class, real-world business envi- ronment for a full four-year undergraduate pro- gram. [7] Hey, what do YOU say? I'd like to hear your thoughts. SMT References 1. Measuring America, by Andro Linklater, Walker Books, 2002, pp. 22. 2. Ibid., pp. 16. 3. VII. Final State of the Report on Weights and Measures, [4 July 1790], Founders Online, National Archives, last modified July 12, 2016, [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jeffer - son, vol. 16, 30 November 1789–4 July 1790, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961, pp. 650–674.] 4. Linklater, op. cit., Measuring America, pp. 125. 5. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter, 1979, Basic Books. 6. Pearson's Global Education Index, 2014. 7. "Concurrent Education: A Learning Ap - proach to Serve Electronic Product Manufactur- ing," by Tom Borkes, Proceedings of SMT Inter- national, San Jose, CA, 1994. Tom Borkes is the founder of The Jefferson Project and the forthcom- ing Jefferson Institute of Technology. To reach Borkes, click here. THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN