Labor Trends & Industry Need
Central Ohio, home to one of the nation's largest and fastest growing supply chain sectors, has a critical need for a highly-trained and knowledgeable workforce. To design a cutting-edge two-year degree to meet this need. Columbus State has partnered with industry to better understand the challenges and talent needs facing the Central Ohio logistics community. A key challenge is fully integrating and leveraging the potential of new technologies throughout the supply chain. The Logistics Engineering Technology degree prepares students for a career in this growing technology-driven field.
Industry Trends & Job Growth
The logistics industry in Central Ohio, is expansive and growing.. Columbus is the nation's fourteenth-largest city, home to the Ohio state capitol, the headquarters of major insurance companies, 1,800 manufacturing companies, and 4,000 logistics companies with more than 76,000 employees (Columbus 2020, 2016). In the past decade, the fastest growing sectors have included logistics/transportation and utilities with a 26% growth (Columbus 2020, 2016). Continued investment in the region's logistics sector as well as the complementary growth in retail, pharmaceuticals, and advanced manufacturing indicate a continued demand for college graduates with a strong technical engineering education. Among Central Ohio's largest logistics employers are Honda Logistics North America, Amazon, Target, Witron, GAP, Cardinal Health, MAST L-Brands, Boars Head, Midwest Express, One World, Intelligrated, and Rogue.
Furthermore, the city of Columbus was awarded a $40 million grant from the US Department of Labor. The SmartColumbus project has already raised $460 million more in support. The project is making Columbus a better city and place to live, but creating numerous job opportunities.
According to the National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education (2013), logistics engineering technicians oversee a variety of software and equipment related to mechanical, applied electronics, manufacturing, automated systems and information technology. The Manufacturing and Logistics Report Card (Ball State University, 2013) reports that Ohio is one of only two states with an "A" grade in the importance of its manufacturing and logistics sector. However, the same report shows that Ohio merits only a "C" in development of human capital. It is this significant gap in the supply of trained logistics engineering technicians that this grant will seek to ameliorate.
Job openings for logistics engineering technicians will remain strong and offer an attractive wage. Considering only targeted occupations for logistics engineering technicians, Central Ohio boasts a steady expected growth of 12.1% between 2015 and 2025 with 2,493 more jobs, compared to a state increase of just 8.5% (EMSI, 2016). The median earnings for these occupations are just under $37.91 per hour.
Industry Driven Occupation Job Skills Analysis
Columbus State ATE projects have created, piloted, and launched an effective new model for an "accelerated DACUM" known as a Job Skills Analysis with Compression Planning ©. This model was piloted in the ATE project entitled Building an Academic Pathway for Industrial Engineering Operations Technicians (1400452). It was then successfully replicated for the ATE project Ohio Region Cybersecurity Technician Training Pipeline (1501194) and other programs.
A trained facilitator led a small group of industry representatives who generated, categorized, and rank ordered the roles, responsibilities, and major tasks of logistics engineering technicians. The group further identified the general skills, soft skills, and specialized equipment used by these technicians. The Jobs Skills Analysis with Compression Planning © with Storyboarding method proved to be a highly-effective and efficient process in extracting necessary job skills data and information from key industry partners in hours rather than days. Faculty used this information to craft a job description of a logistics engineering technician which became the basis for curriculum development. Through the use of Compression Planning with Storyboarding, the session can take less than 25% of the time required for a full DACUM—which requires industry representatives to participate for two full days. Compression Planning with Storyboarding provides efficiency and flexibility for the team. The resulting process typically can be accomplished in half of a day.
The results of this job skills analysis are summarized in the following document: Job Skills Analysis.
For more information about organizing and implementing a successful job skills analysis please review our White Paper.
Verifying Compression Planning Results
In order to verifying the results of Compression Planning with Storybaording and gain additional insights, a follow-up survey was disseminated to obtain feedback from a larger representation of industry regarding the skills needed for a logistics engineering technician or related position. The survey was disseminated to project partners and to members of the Columbus Region Logistics Council. A total of 21 industry representatives completed the survey.
Key Highlights:
- 25% of respondents indicated that their organization hires an operations analyst, systems specialist, or other comparable position with a two year degree and with experience in logistics
- 5% of companies indicated that there would be no need for an individual with this skill in the future
- 6 Competencies: accounting, communication, information technology, leadership, logistics and technical knowledge – communication and logistics ranked highest
A full-report of the survey results, prepared by the Ruck’s Group, can be found in the following document: Logistics Engineering Technician Industry Survey Results.
Supply Chain Management Industry Advisory Committee
The LET curriculum is continually being reviewed and updated based upon active participation of the SCM Industry Advisory Committee. Employer partners include representatives from Boar's Head, Central Ohio Transit Authority, CEVA Logistics, Crane World Wide, FST Logistics, Henry Schein Animal, Intelligrated, Ohio National Guard, and TTS US. Also including educational partners with representatives from Ashland University, Franklin University, and Ohio Dominican University.
Supply Chain Management Advisory Board Mission:
The CSCC Supply Chain Management Advisory Board will meet twice a year to validate current and planned SCM Program strategy, provide current industry input and feedback, and strategize to enhance the SCM Program's presence in Columbus and surrounding region.