Peter Warrian PhD University of Toronto

Steel Employment Trends: Sector Definition Globalization and NAFTA Steel Market Demographic Bubble New Steel Workforce Production Workers Knowledge Transfer New International Steel Management Themes Continuous Improvement Maintenance Steelworker of the Future

Broader Steel Industry Independent Pipe Mills Rolling Mills and Drawing Mills Foundries Construction Fabricators Metals Service Centres

Ownership Changes Changes to Competitive Environment Single NAFTA Steel Market Restructured Supply Chains: Value Added Migration Steel HR profile shift More skill-intensive Higher value-added production processes

Broader Steel Sector will need to recall or hire between 19,000 and 29,000 workers over the next five years. The Sector will need to hire or recall a minimum of 5,000 skilled tradespersons between 2011 and 2015

The transfer of undocumented skills from older workers to younger workers. Knowledge Transfer has emerged as a new human resources planning challenge

Automation of production processes, changing skill needs of both production workers and skilled tradespersons Increase the importance of technicians and technologists Gaps in essential skills will exact a greater cost on both workers and employers Nature of essential skills will also change

Internationalization of ownership structures. This is most evident in Primary Steel Adoption of international managerial norms and the international flows of talent Productivity benchmarking, new approaches to work organization Distinct strategies related to training and human resources development

Dramatic rationalization of production underpinned the increased integration of international markets. In Canada, this rationalization of capacity drove a step-function increase in productivity Reduced overall employment Reshaping the skill needs of the steelworker of the future

No Step Function change in Technology Incremental Improvement on Shop Floor the philosophy of kaizen – which achieves results through the cumulative impact of small changes – has become central to management strategy in the primary steel industry. Implications for upgrading the skill requirements and responsibilities of equipment operators and for introducing flexible work structures

Historical importance of Maintenance in the Primary Steel industry TPM To achieve and maintain optimal utilization of machinery and equipment Premise of TPM is that machine operators develop tacit knowledge through active management of the machinery

Minimum 2 year Community College degree Long-term strategy to ensure an adequate and appropriate supply of technicians and technologists with the requisite industry experience Mismatch between the supply and demand for persons with technology skills pertains to internationally trained professionals

Impact of Continuous Improvement Change in attitude that is required, on the part of both managers and shop-floor workers, for implementation to be successful. Flattening of job hierarchies and an expansion of scope within jobs Increased reliance on sensors and computer control systems will make basic computer literacy an essential skill for the majority of production workers

Impact of Information Technologies The line between the technology skills of technicians and technologists and the trade skills of a skilled tradespersons will become blurred The normal trades school curriculum and training standards for apprentices will fall short of meeting the Primary Steel industrys needs.