manufacturing workforce, skills gap, manufacturing day, manufacturing strategies

As we approach Manufacturing Day in the US (October 1), it’s a good time to address the continuing skills gap in the manufacturing industry. The skills gap is not a new issue—we’ve been seeing skills drain away for years as older workers retire and younger workers shun the industry, but the situation is now reaching dire proportions. Let’s look at a few ways manufacturers can use the upcoming manufacturing recognition day to improve awareness of the opportunities in the industry.

Community Outreach

National Manufacturing Day is the perfect opportunity for manufacturing management to open their facilities for plant tours or to invite students to visit and see what manufacturing is about. Since many people perceive manufacturing jobs as dirty, boring, and dangerous, seeing a modern plant with CNC equipment, virtual reality training, and robots and cobots working side by side with humans can be an eye-opener. National Manufacturing Day is coming up soon, so this is one strategy you’ll want to take advantage of quickly.

Take Advantage of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) National Network

On January 25, 2021, Executive Order 14005 expanded and cemented the role of NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) to among other priorities, help reduce manufacturing costs, improve efficiency, and most importantly, develop the next generation workforce. MEP team members work in local communities to address issues confronting manufacturers.

MEP has 51 centers, one in every state and the territory of Puerto Rico, plus 385 MEP service locations. The centers employ over 1,400 advisors to provide any US manufacturer with the resources they need to succeed in the manufacturing industry. The MEP centers have partnering relationships with local schools, educators and universities, both public and private, to help address the skills gap through targeted education programs. To connect with your nearest MEP center, use the state-by-state listings found here.

Retain and Repurpose Workers with Existing Skills

While predictions about the rate of Baby Boomer retirements are dire—and according to Pew Research, the rate of retirement is increasing rapidly—manufacturers don’t have to lose those skills. With a little more flexibility from employers, many Boomers could be inspired to stay in the workforce.

Just because they turned 65 doesn’t mean the Boomer generation is ready to spend their days playing endless rounds of golf and watching TV. Many would welcome the chance to stay employed, at least part time. Here are some ways to entice those skilled workers to stay onboard long enough to bridge the gap.

Mentoring Programs: Since younger workers don’t have all the skills needed to fill the most critical jobs, pairing them up with older workers who do have the skills allows for a seamless transfer of skills. The experienced worker’s primary responsibility in this role is to ensure that the younger worker absorbs the knowledge they need to handle the job on their own. This idea works best if both parties have clearly defined roles and milestones with specific timelines. At the end of the mentoring term, the younger worker assumes a regular job, and the mentor goes on to the next mentee. This ensures a continuing transfer of knowledge and shows the workforce that the company values its workers.

Part-time Jobs: Older workers who may not relish the idea of working full shifts may be perfectly amenable to working a few hours a day or a few days a week. This may present a scheduling issue for plant management, but it’s better than not having the required skills at all. And with a little creativity, job sharing may provide the company with an FTE by using two or three part-timers.

Consider Adaptive Business Systems

You’ll never convince a Millennial that manufacturing isn’t an archaic career backwater if all they see on the plant tour is old character-based green screens or even GUIs that date back to the year of their birth.

And with the pace of manufacturing evolution today, processes and procedures may change rapidly. Employee turnover is high, and hanging on to existing employees is difficult, so you need systems that work intuitively and without imposing unnecessary steps for people trying to accomplish a task. You need an adaptive business solution that enables you to simplify processes to minimize training and reduce the time needed for each task.

You also want an adaptive solution built on a platform that allows you to grow and change without requiring customizations to enable changes. That means you need a stable platform that supports extensions without forcing you to change the core code. Ideally, the adaptive solution would enable employees to tailor screens and procedures to their individual preferences, and it would provide intelligent help that walks them through new or infrequently done tasks to minimize training, frustration and downtime.

Sound impossible? It’s not. And chances are, if you ask a Millennial worker, they’ll tell you exactly what today’s manufacturing workforce needs. Younger workers prefer a more modern interface, with role-based dashboards, built on a platform that allows them to personalize without needing to change code or ask for development support.

Check out QAD Adaptive ERP and the QAD Cloud—next generation ERP that’s rapid, agile and effective—another tool in your quest to overcome the skills gap.

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