With the recent launch of distribution and training centers in the Chicago and Atlanta areas, The Lincoln Electric Company is upping the ante for welding equipment manufacturers, and leading the way to a new level of distribution and sales offices and training facilities for the industry.

Lincoln Electric opened a 100,000-sq.-ft. sales, distribution, training and demonstration center in Atlanta late last year. That was the industry's first comprehensive sales and training facility. Lincoln Electric opened a similar, 110,000-sq.-ft. center in Chicago in April.

These centers represent a concept that is new to the welding industry, but that is tried-and-true for other industries.

By bringing sales, distribution, training and demonstrations together under one roof, the centers allow customers to see and learn about advanced arc welding equipment and products during their buying-decision process. And, the centers provide the facilities for hands-on training, demonstrations and continued education for welding technologies for the company's existing customers, distributors, and the general public.

Richard Seif, Lincoln Electric's senior vice president for sales and marketing, said these centers are designed to "allow customers to choose their welding equipment, learn how to use it right out of the box and have it delivered all from the same facility."

It's easy to see why Seif is happy about the sales function that these facilities are providing, but their secondary portion — the training resources that Lincoln Electric is putting into place — can't be overlooked or disregarded, and those are investments Lincoln Electric is making in its own future.

Everyone knows that fewer and fewer young people are graduating from high school with the skills needed to become welders or other skilled workers in manufacturing, and technical schools

and community colleges are not responding fast enough to educate people to come even close to fulfilling the needs that are forecast for the industry. The many schools that teach basic welding skills also haven't been able to fill the gaping pipeline for welders.

Industry operated facilities are increasing in importance throughout manufacturing and are being used to their capacity. For example: In recent years many machine tool manufacturers launched combined sales, distribution and training facilities that are comparable to those that Lincoln Electric has opened.

Establishing such training facilities is a natural and necessary extension of business for equipment manufacturers on several levels.

First, they will provide their existing and potential customers with on-going education so those customers can keep their workers educated and up-to-date with the development of new technologies being made by equipment producers.

Secondly, they are an adjunct to the schools that teach welding skills and increase the resources for education. That, in itself, is a laudable reason for their existence, as they will help to ease the skilled labor shortage.

Finally, they are necessary investments for the future that the equipment manufacturers have to make. Because, without skilled people who know how to operate the equipment these manufacturers produce and sell, markets for the equipment could dry up as older generations of workers — as older welders — retire and leave the workforce.

It's a sad commentary on the state of education in the United States that manufacturing as a business gets slight — if any — consideration at the elementary to high school levels, and that companies such as Lincoln Electric have to step up to fill in the learning gap.