Watervliet Arsenal turns to 1905 program to retain critical manufacturing skills

By John B. Snyder, Watervliet Arsenal Public AffairsDecember 4, 2015

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WATERVLIET ARSENAL, N.Y. -- Should the Arsenal care about a recent report from the New York Department of Labor signaling a continued decline in manufacturing jobs in the state? Absolutely, said an Arsenal work leader who is often at the forefront of the hiring process for this Army-owned manufacturing center.

"In the last year, we have lost several experienced machinists due to retirements and to promotions to other manufacturing departments here," said John Zayhowski. "Trying to hire an experience machinist in the last few years to replace our losses has been extremely challenging because there are fewer manufacturing centers in New York from which to draw from."

The state of manufacturing has been in a state of decline for many years in New York. Even the once powerhouse New York City market has experienced a significant decline in manufacturing as evidenced by having fewer than 80,000 manufacturing jobs this year, down from more than one million manufacturing jobs it held in 1950.

In upstate New York, such companies as Apex Tool Group, whose operations dated back to 1834, closed, and an Alcoa aluminum smelting plant that had been in operations since the 1902 announced that it will soon close. So, even companies with a rich manufacturing history have not been spared and now are becoming statistics in New York Department of Labor manufacturing reports.

Additionally, the difficulty about filling a machining job at Watervliet transcends the small pool of available applicants. The scope of machining talent required to man the nearly 600 machines may be the broadest application of skills of any manufacturing center in New York state.

"Our machinists are not the typical type of machinist that one would often find on a commercial production line where a machinist may operate just one machine for years," Zayhowski said. "Our machinists have to be creative, read blueprints, input computer-aided designs, write programs and then, be able to run any one of the 600 machines that we have here. For those reasons, that is why an Arsenal machinist is in such high demand and hard to replace."

At the end of the day, an Arsenal machinist must also have a strong sense of purpose due in large part to the Arsenal's 200-year history of providing the military hardware that helps the Nation's troops to safely come home from battle.

So, if there is a continued decline in the available market for quality machinists, will the Arsenal's critical skills be eroded into a death spiral?

Absolutely not, Zayhowski said.

"Since the Arsenal opened its gates in 1813, we have lived through the ebbs and flows of available labor," Zayhowski said. "We will once again turn to a program that was created in 1905 to fix this very issue."

When Zayhowski isn't supervising machinists, he is supervising the Arsenal's apprentice program and fortunately for the Arsenal, Zayhowski has two classes currently in session. This program has for more than 100 years provided a backstop to the erosion of critical skills here.

The apprentices undergo a challenging 8,000 hours of hands-on training at the Arsenal and four years of schooling at the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. The Arsenal's senior class of apprentice are in their final year of the program and will graduate in August 2016. The freshman class are in their first year of the program and will graduate in 2019. There are efforts underway to start a new class in 2016.

"One of the things that is great about the apprentice program is that during the 8,000 hours of hand-on training we can use that time to shape the apprentices' individual skills toward any potential skill gaps that we may have," Zayhowski said.

In addition to machining skills, the apprentices must also learn to become good team members.

A great example of this teaming philosophy occurred this month as fourth-year apprentices spent a considerable amount of time mentoring first-year apprentices through their first machine cuts.

"There is nothing better than to learn by trial and by fire," said Nathan Coryea, a fourth-year apprentice, in describing why first-year apprentice Derrell Barefield was already cutting steel. "I think it is great for us (senior apprentices) to share our recent experiences and lessons learned with the new guys and so far, they seem very receptive to what we have to say."

Considering that Coryea has a blacksmith shop set up in his garage at home, the apprentice program has been a tremendous opportunity for him to work in a job field where his passion lies. Even though he has a few months left in the program, Coryea said that he believes that he is already a good machinist even without the official title.

Colin McCarthy, a fellow fourth-year machinist, reflected on his past four years in the apprentice program as drinking from a deep fountain of knowledge.

"I have had many opportunities to learn from some of the greatest machinists at the Arsenal, from Scott Ashton to Frank Taylor," McCarthy said. "What I truly like about the Arsenal's senior machinists is that they demonstrate a great work ethic and they don't give us anything. They make us work for every piece of their knowledge and when they do share their expertise, it is like drinking from a deep fountain of knowledge."

As New York's manufacturing industry will continue to suffer through the ebbs and flows of customer demand, the Watervliet Arsenal will look to calm the waters by taking care of its own, training the future master machinists in a program started on the hallowed grounds of this War of 1812 factory.

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