Great executives of moldmaking firms are not necessarily effective human resource people. The ability to clearly discern which candidates are truly qualified is challenging. Increasingly moldmaking technicians must specialize in advanced machining, toolroom techniques and moldmaking processes unique to each project. Often there is a strong expectation that the new hire must have some knowledge of how to design and build a plastic injection mold. CNC precision manufacturing technicians are equally difficult to find. Those candidates with concentration on manual programming, computer-assisted programming, setup and operating CNC equipment, often lack the corresponding CAM required for more complex tooling and programming practices used in the industry. One would hope that students learning to be machining technicians would gain fundamental skills in everything from basic shop skills to CNC programming and CAM. Shops with fewer than a thousand employees report a limited supply of trained machining experts. A fundamental understanding that numerical control machine operators run computer-controlled machines is absent; the inexperienced worker only knows that these machines cut, shape, drill or otherwise modify metal or plastic parts. These new workforce graduates are only able to recite that the computer program tells the machine which tools to use and how to use them. Even rudimentary knowledge of operator functionality (mainly set up, tend and maintain the machines) is lacking. Once the programs are entered, operators select, measure, install and secure the tools and attachments the machines will use; some of these processes require knowledge and expertise and greatly impact product accuracy and production efficiency.
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