By the middle of next year, one Iowa manufacturer expects to lose 90 of its 420 production workers to retirement. Another manufacturer which employs 150 people in a small community says it “would hire more employees tomorrow if they were available.”

These examples illustrate the types of workforce shortages faced by Iowa’s manufacturing sector, according to an in-depth report issued recently by the Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based consulting group.

“The biggest challenge facing advanced manufacturing firms in Iowa is the lack of adequate workforce,” according to the report, which was commissioned by the Iowa Department of Economic Development. “This involves finding sufficient entry-level workers; replacing workers nearing retirement; and finding workers to fill special needs and skills, many in traditional areas.”

Unless present trends are reversed, the state could lose more than 55,000 of its 100,000 advanced manufacturing jobs within the next 10 years, the report said. These jobs are characterized as being within industries that use innovative processes or make high-technology products, and therefore pay above-average wages.

Among the “critical actions” outlined in the report’s 10-year strategy are the creation of a statewide advanced manufacturing council; the formation of “clusters” of Iowa manufacturers that produce similar products; building supply-chain links between large and small manufacturers; and a matching-grants program for new product and process development.

Executing the 15 actions recommended in the report, which range from immediate to long-term in scope, will require $139 million in expenditures over 10 years from the state’s general fund, plus $21 million in direct contributions from manufacturing companies, according to the report.

Increasing the capacity of Iowa’s community colleges to respond to manufacturers’ workforce training needs is among the seven actions deemed critical by the report. Also critical, the report said, is to better fund community colleges to update equipment used in manufacturing-related training. The report recommends $2 million in additional annual funding to the community colleges over the next five years for additional course development, and $750,000 per year for a community college equipment fund.

The majority of the companies that receive training services through Des Moines Area Community College are in the advanced manufacturing sector, said Larry Grubisich, executive director of DMACC Business Resources.

In the past year, “we dealt with 99 different companies in delivering customized, specific training,” he said. The most frequently requested topics include lean manufacturing training, management-supervisory training, welding, geometric tolerancing, computer manufacturing and safety training.

Iowa’s 15 community colleges have trained more than 7,400 employees in

lean manufacturing techniques in the past fiscal year alone, said Gene Gardner, executive director of the Iowa Association of Community College Trustees. “We’ve worked with over 280 companies (in lean manufacturing) over the past five years,” he said.

Each community college uses advisory committees that include employer representatives to determine its priorities for new training programs, Gardner said. For example, Iowa Lakes Community College introduced a wind technology training program in response to growing employment needs by the wind farm industry, he said.

The community colleges’ $3 million annual funding request for manufacturing training equipment has not been funded for the past three years, Gardner said. However, the Grow Iowa Values Fund legislation included $7 million in annual funding this past year for the community colleges.

Gardner said the report’s recommendations are good news for the community colleges. “It’s important in those areas that we have industry-standard equipment for our labs and classrooms,” he said.