A design for saving industry – Give more emphasis to art and design in our education systems

The dominant view of North Carolina’s economy is that its traditional manufacturing base is slipping into a steady and inevitable decline. New technologies and tariffs may save some jobs, but even those fixes are likely to be temporary.

By STUART ROSENFELD

http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/story/3161589p-2855362c.html

Is this the end of the road for those industries that have been the mainstay of the job base that brought North Carolina from an agricultural to an industrial economy?

Experts expect the next decade’s employment to come from the so-called New Economy sectors, including biotech, information tech and "nanotech." Consultants recommend moving quickly into groups of research-dependent industries that they neatly label "innovation clusters."

These indeed are likely to grow, but are likely to be near research universities and will not replace large numbers of jobs in traditional industries, or provide employment for many of those already displaced in very rural areas.

Is the disappearance of North Carolina’s traditional industry "cluster" really inevitable? Or are there long-term solutions that can preserve, and even raise income levels in significant parts of it?

Over the past few years I’ve studied industry clusters in Europe that have remained highly competitive in traditional sectors, many in remote areas and with high labor costs.

For example, in the rural town of Maniago, Italy more than 120 companies produce and export artfully designed, special purpose cutlery. Tourists are drawn to the cutlery museum and cooperative specialty stores. In Ibi, a torn in in southern Spain, about 90 plastics companies, supported by a special technology institute and toy library, produce well-designed and high-quality toys that compete with lower-cost areas. In a very expensive region in northern Italy, Alessi contracts with 300 artists to produce thousands of unique high-end kitchen products. Their secret? Specialization, quality, artistic content and design.

In Europe, "community" colleges that specialize in art and design are common, and play a major role in producing high-end goods. Colleges of Art and Design in Glamorgan, Wales, Plymouth, England, and Kuopio, Finland are in high demand among students. Museums of industrial design and technology are popular attractions in large and small cities.

Some traditional North Carolina companies have discovered the value of using design to move into more upscale, shorter-production-run goods. The community college-based technology center for the hosiery cluster in and around the Catawba Valley once focused nearly exclusively on advanced knitting technologies, but it now also supports product design, quality, testing and "lean manufacturing." This cluster has found that it can compete by selling less at higher prices. Thorlo, for example, produces highly specialized socks to match a variety of needs like trekking, hiking and running.

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What can North Carolina do? It can help firms not just make things better but also make better things. It can consider innovation not to be just patents but also creative applications of art and design. The state has a wealth of artistic talent, including in its most rural communities. Academic degrees are not the only — and probably not the best — way to measure a region’s creativity and capacity for innovation. Possibly some of that artistic talent can be merged with our production capabilities and entrepreneurial strengths to develop higher-end customized wood, sewn or food products.

We have a statewide manufacturing extension program (despite a recent federal budget cut of 60 percent) that helps small and mid-sized firms solve production problems and raise productivity. It might also send artists or designers into firms to assist with aesthetics. Forums that bring together manufacturers and artists may lead to new partnerships and identify market opportunities for craft products. HandMade in America, in Western North Carolina, is working to build such connections across Appalachia.

We could give far more emphasis to art and design in our public schools (shown also to contribute to increases in other learning outcomes). Community colleges, as the state’s strongest link to traditional industry, very likely will be keys to success. Haywood Community College already has fine crafts programs, but they could be more systemically merged with its technical programs.

A community college devoted to art and design but linked to technical and business programs and employers would make a statement about the state’s commitment to creativity. It would provide opportunities for youth with unconventional and untapped talents and for regions where emerging technologies companies are unlikely to flourish.

(Stuart Rosenfeld is principal of Regional Technology Strategies, Inc., http://www.rtsinc.org a non-profit in Carrboro.)