Kitchen & Bath Business - February/March 2020 - 39

people train for these professions.We train in everything from sales to designers, technicians and installers - not only for young people but also for people
who want to change professions. And now, as we are newly established [in
the U.S.], we will bring an academy here."

sites that play video after video showing how easy it
is to "flip things on Amazon and make $300 a day,"
he said. "There's thousands of these videos telling
them they can make this easy money. And it's not a
little thing, it's prevalent. Everything on tiktok and
Instagram is easy."
Thus, Sandow said the hands-on approach is
critical and the antidote to an attitude of "why
would I go out and get a job when I can sit home
and make a couple of hundred a day flipping
things and play on my phone?" He also said
young people must be made aware that if they
don't have stable careers, they won't have a stable
life in years to come.
"But tradespeople have this," said Sandow.
"They've been able to build very good careers that
are very solid. There are entire categories of work
that will disappear, for example an Uber driver. It's
great, until driverless cars become prevalent and
we don't need Uber drivers anymore. Kids need to
understand about career paths and the difference
between a two-year career and a long-term career."

HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP

While many people fear the technology that can potentially take jobs away
from people, it also changes the skillsets needed to thrive in jobs for the future.
An example of this is Sandow's Material Bank, a technology platform and
marketplace for materials sampling, which launched in Memphis in January
2019. The idea behind it is to send actual samples - from paint chips to tiles,
wood or fabric swatches - to designers and their clients so they may see and
feel the actual product before committing to a purchase. Sandow said there's
a very small window in which to do all that complex fulfillment and deliver
samples anywhere in the U.S. by 10:30 the next morning, so they built the
logistics facility from scratch.
"We saw that the labor in the fulfillment industry is typically temporary, on-demand, very low-paying jobs," he explained. "So we started an
experiment: We decided that if we wanted to be the highest-wage payer
for warehouse workers in the Memphis area, we would invest heavily up
front in robotic technology, which meant that even though we would
employ fewer people, we would have the speed, service levels and low
error rate to be able to pay these people very well - starting at $17.50 an
hour, compared to about $12 in that market. Because of the robotics and
automation, we gained great efficiency, and we have great productivity
and worker retention. It has been a big success and is a terrific example
of automation working with people - and frankly, younger people love
working with robotics."
Sandow added that in today's K&B industry, texture, materials and color
are more important than ever, and clients need to see the product. And no
matter what kind of virtual reality glasses they use, the glasses can't simulate
the actual product, so they have to sample it in person. Francis observed that
while online technology or virtual reality can't substitute for the real thing,
Sandow's sampling operation uses to state-of-the-art logistics technology
to provide a solution.

"A lot of kids graduate [from
college] with heavy debt that they
can't repay. There are a lot of
different ways to make it, and the
skilled trades is one of the ways."

NEVER STOP TRAINING

Francis expanded on the topic of continuing to provide training for workers as
they continue in their careers so they remain relevant in the workforce.
"I tell kids to pick careers that aren't going to be eaten up by [artificial intelligence] two years after they're out of school,"said Sandow."Entire categories
might disappear, but we will always need good, hands-on tradespeople to
install kitchens and bathrooms."
He identified two main problems: First, that schools don't prepare students
properly for jobs in the real world. Second, and perhaps more critical, are web-

"Entire [career] categories might disappear,
but we will always need good, hands-on
tradespeople to install kitchens
and bathrooms."
ADAM SANDOW
Sandow

KATTY PIEN
LIXIL Americas
FLEXIBILITY IS KEY

Francis countered that perhaps the key is to be
flexible. When artificial intelligence takes over a
particular career, people have to be able to go out
and get training to do something else. Pien added
that young people getting started in their careers
today must be resilient.
"We are projecting that young kids today will go
through multiple careers in their lives,"she offered.
"And we have to teach them that a four-year college degree isn't the only way. A lot of kids graduate with heavy debt that they can't repay.There are
a lot of different ways to make it, and the skilled
trades is one of the ways. So a college career isn't
the be-all and end-all for everyone."
Åkerberg said that the jobs of today will
change instead of disappear. For instance, imagine a kitchen installer working with Google
glasses, running into some problem and getting
information and advice instantly and visually on
how to deal with it.

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Kitchen & Bath Business - February/March 2020

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