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Webinar: Globalization Issues Facing Lab Managers 2

I've been rereading some of Peter Drucker's books on management. Even though some of these books are over thirty years old, Drucker was quite prescient in discussing trends shaping the business world and the results of these trends. Many of these res

I've been rereading some of Peter Drucker's books on management. Even though some of these books are over thirty years old, Drucker was quite prescient in discussing trends shaping the business world and the results of these trends. Many of these results are now obvious in today's working environment, including laboratories. Others are still working themselves out. Last week in Part 1, we discussed offshore outsourcing of laboratory work and expatriate laboratory employees. This week we'll look at other issues important in themselves and also critical in competing globally.

Productivity Increases

Concerning manufacturing productivity, Drucker notes, "I would suspect that the productivity increases are actually greater than all the figures we see because the new, more flexible manufacturing processes practically eliminate set-up time, when manufacturing has to cease."

This set-up time is a major issue in specialty chemical plants in which reactors, flow lines and storage tanks must be cleaned when shifting production from one product to another. Some commercial biotechnology plants use batch processing as well. Set-up time can be an issue in oil refineries and other plants that shift from one kind of feedstock to another or must regenerate or change out heterogeneous catalysts. Could this be an important area of research for process chemists and chemical engineers or am I just naïve? Couldn't chemical plants that reduce their set-up times substantially have a significant economic advantage over their competitors? Certainly catalyst manufacturers have worked for many years on improved heterogeneous catalysts that lengthen the intervals between when plants must be shut down for catalyst replacement.

Laboratory productivity has also greatly increased due to instrument automation, laboratory automation and other computer software.

Continuing Education

Drucker notes, "We are the only country that has a very significant continuing education system. Our most important educational system in the U.S., unlike Europe, is in the employees own organization." Therefore, it is disturbing that many large chemical companies seem to have reduced their internal training budgets while some smaller firms send fewer of their researchers to continuing education courses sponsored by organizations such as ACS and the Pittsburgh Conference. While on-line education is booming, these are primarily business courses. To the extent that lab professionals are involved earning an MBA or other business degree online, this is a good thing. However, to take advantage of their degree, these lab professionals usually pursue careers outside the lab.

Companies should work harder to develop career paths in which lab professionals can shift more frequently back and forth between laboratory positions and alternative careers. The more productive interaction between the different areas (R&D, sales, marketing, production, etc.) that would result could provide important advantages in rapidly bringing new products to market.

Global Capital and Our Retirements

Currently, there is substantial surplus capacity in many industries on a global basis. This capital has few investment opportunities. While this capital could push up stock prices to some degree, for many investments it means that rates of return will be relatively low. As a result, many lab employees could seek to remain employed well past the "normal" retirement age.

In addition, many lab professionals in their 40s, 50s and early 60s are becoming unemployed for extended periods. This is having a negative effect on their financial preparation for retirement. This is likely to lead to people working longer. Are many lab professionals, discouraged by long periods of unemployment, giving up on finding lab jobs and pursuing alternative careers outside the lab? Lab managers are losing access to many years of valuable experience when this occurs.


John K. Borchardt

Dr. Borchardt is a consultant and technical writer. The author of the book “Career Management for Scientists and Engineers,” he writes often on career-related subjects.