Upskilling the Manufacturing Workforce

Upskilling the Manufacturing Workforce

Here is another one of those cool PwC research reports regarding manufacturing workforce. As always when talking about the present and future workforce, there is good news, bad news, and idle speculation.

We must remember that many of us are filling roles that didn’t exist ten years ago. How many jobs will exist in ten years that we can’t even imagine!

Executives’ Split Opinions on Manufacturing Workforce

PwC Workforce Study TrainingPwC, along with the Manufacturing Institute, surveyed 120 US manufacturers, and found that many are still split on the issue of talent shortage – 31% of manufactures believe there is no manufacturing skills shortage now, but there will be in 3 years, while 29% believe there is one and it will only get worse.

Other stats surveyed and topics discussed in the report include:

  • 75% of factory floor jobs (R&D, engineering, prototype design) are being filled by those with post-second school education
  • 74% of manufacturers are training in-house to raise employee advanced manufacturing skills, with 40% recruiting local STEM students
  • While millennials are of focus, what about Gen Z?
  • Can manufacturers attract the gaming generation using virtual reality as a draw?
  • Wild cards – the maker generation and the gig economy, & the rise of the freelance class

Upskilling manufacturing: How technology is disrupting America’s industrial labor force placed special emphasis on how advanced manufacturing technologies are impacting workforce dynamics. “What we found is that while there is indeed some jitteriness over skills gaps, manufacturers are working to close those gaps. But we’re still in the early stages.”

PwC Workforce Study Slide Hires

PwC Workforce Study Production

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Skills shortages are not uniformly felt today:  33% of manufacturers say they have no or only a little difficulty in hiring talent to exploit advanced manufacturing technologies, while 44% have ‘moderate difficulty.’
  • The worry is that it will worsen:  31% of manufacturers see no manufacturing workforce skills shortage now but that there will be one in the next three years; 26% say it’s already peaked and is behind us; and 29% said it exists and will only worsen in the next three years.
  • The most common strategy to upskill employees in advanced manufacturing  is to train in-house, followed by recruiting local STEM students and offering outside vocational training.
  • Robots are not stealing manufacturing jobs:  37% believe that the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies will result in their hiring additional employees; 45% said it will have no impact on hiring; and 17% said it will result in hiring fewer employees.
  • But advanced tech is changing job requirements and descriptions: Nearly three-quarters of non factory floor manufacturing jobs are given to candidates with a four year or advanced degree.

Click bait and People As An Asset

I wonder how much of the worry is caused by idle speculation from the press searching for page views? Bad news hyped is as good a formula as “10 ways to attract the opposite sex” for getting clicks to your site. The fact that so many are taking immediate steps to “upskill” their workforce is gratifying.

Too often we forget that people are the most important asset. They come not only with two hands, but they also come with a brain. The more we encourage them to develop and use that brainpower, the more successful our enterprise will be.

Upskilling the Manufacturing Workforce

Building A Digital Industrial Ecosystem

Industry and manufacturing leaders recognize the trend to the next step in the evolution of enterprise effectiveness and success. The industrial digital revolution is an overnight sensation that has been 30 years in the making. We began with digital controls then adding human interface and then information handling.

Internet of Things with its proliferation of sensors and other smart edge devices, IP networking, data science, and advanced analytics (business intelligence) combined take us to a whole new level of enterprise effectiveness.

The trite question from marketing people often goes, “What’s keeping our customers awake at night?”

Well, are executive worried about the capability of technology?

Two research reports just came my direction recently from a couple of my go-to sources for what’s happening with the thinking in the industrial/manufacturing executive suite. One is from PwC, What’s Next in Manufacturing: Building an Industrial Digital Ecosystem, and the other from Accenture Digital Skills Gap Slows Manufacturers’ Push to Build Digital Factories.

No, it’s not technology that worries them. First it’s people and culture. Are there sufficient people with digital skills? Will the culture make the transition? Then, of course, they worry about how large the investment might become and what the return will be. It’s people and economics.

PwC Digital Industrial Survey

In this report, PwC shares results from a survey of global industrial products companies, shedding light on what manufacturers are doing now to build out their digital operations and what bottom-line benefits they expect to yield through those efforts.

Buying into digital: manufacturers plan to ramp up investments

In the last two years, US manufacturers invested an average 2.6% of their annual revenue in digital technologies. In the next five years, they expect to lift that investment to 4.7% of revenue—for an estimated $350 billion in investments in digital operation technologies across automotive, industrial production and manufacturing industries alone.

Venture capital funds flowing, too

Since 2011, some $3.6 billion has poured into VC-backed start-ups across a selection of digital technology sub-sectors, with investment rising at a 47% clip–more than double the annual growth of total VC funding (18%) in all sectors over the same period.

“Digital deals” have comprised 15% of all US M&A activity since 2012

According to a PwC/Strategy& analysis, more than $6.0 billion has been invested on “digital deals” in North America alone since 2012, comprising some 15% of all M&A deals over that period.

The greatest challenge to a “digital vision” is cultural

In the context of embracing digital operations technology, three of the top 10 challenge areas identified by surveyed companies relate to organizational readiness and financial concerns. Some companies anticipate high investment requirements with unclear return on investment, and lack of digital standards and issues related to data security and intellectual property are also noted.

PwC Mfg Research 1 May 2016

Monetizing digital operations sought through cost reductions, revenue generation

Nearly two-thirds of manufacturers expect that adopting digital manufacturing technologies will translate into lowering operating costs by at least 11% mostly via efficiencies through automating processes and production.  Meanwhile, over half of these manufacturers expect such adoption to boost revenues by at least 11%.

How digital technologies drive bottom-line results   Manufacturers are just scratching the surface of monetizing digital manufacturing.  Some key drivers to achieving cost-cutting and revenue uplift from digitization with the introduction of smart, connected manufacturing technologies and products and services include:

  • Lowered “price of variability” across production and processes
  • Moving from analogue products to  “connected, digital products”
  • Manufacturing data…and  new business models
  • Software-enabled upgrades to products
  • Pay-as-you-go model

Building a digital manufacturing strategy

Building a digital strategy requires a thorough self-assessment to determine a company’s “current state” of its digital evolution—and, just important, defining its “target state”.  This means tailoring digital operations solutions to a business’ assets and making the right moves at the right time—from ramping up data analytics capabilities, to monetizing product data to considering a “digital deal”.

PwC Digital Mfg Research 2 May 2016

PwC concludes, “The future of digital manufacturing holds many “what-ifs”.  But, if it unfolds as dramatically as our survey indicates, most all manufacturers will be altered to some degree.  And, for every “what if”, there are choices manufacturers ought to consider.”

Accenture Researches Industrial Digital

Take a look at some of the results of Accenture’s research. Although the majority ofmanufacturers have implemented digital platforms, more than half (51 percent) lack the skills to operate digital factories. The more successful manufacturers have advanced talent strategies in place to digitally enable the workforce of the future.

Cracking the Code on the Digital Factory, a report based on a global study of 450 manufacturers, found that a growing skills gap is one of their biggest concerns – a situation that has worsened in recent years as manufacturers have transformed their operations using new technology, analytics and mobility capabilities.

Accenture May 2016

Fifty-five percent of manufacturers, up from 38 percent in 2013, reported a skills gap among skilled trades laborers, who need to operate increasingly advanced digital machinery and equipment, such as 3D printers or modeling and simulation tools on the plant floor. Likewise, 60 percent of manufacturers, up from 31 percent in 2013, cited a shortage of maintenance workers skilled in the use of predictive maintenance analytics that leverage data from embedded sensors in a machine-to-machine environment.

“For manufacturers to realize the full potential value of digital factories, they need to redesign their workforce to include new manufacturing skills, such as analytical reasoning and data-driven decision support,” said Russ Rasmus, managing director, Accenture Strategy. “Developing a comprehensive talent strategy inclusive of new digital skills is an imperative for today’s manufacturers.”

Digital Factory Leaders

The research identified a small group of manufacturers (8 percent) that outperformed their peers by increasing production and profitability by more than 10 percent since 2013. These “leaders” are more likely than their peers to understand which new skills they need for future growth and success, and have a more effective strategy to attract, develop and retain this new breed of manufacturing talent.

A majority of these leaders (73 percent) more frequently reported already having the requisite digital skills, as compared to 49 percent of other manufacturers, and they were nearly 50 percent more likely to report a higher degree of visibility into what skills they needed. That has allowed most of the leaders (81 percent) to achieve greater internal workforce mobility in roles involving digital, enabling them to match employees with managers who need those skills.

Barriers to Success

While these digital factories are enabled with rapidly developing technology innovations, the technological aspect of their implementation is not the top barrier to success. Seventy-five percent of the deployment challenges cited by survey respondents are related to skills, organizational change or structure, and the talent within the organization.
Chief obstacles that hinder manufacturers’ digital adoption.

“Manufacturers must aggressively manage these non-technical barriers as they deploy their digital factory capabilities. These include the ability to create new processes, lead teams made up of workers and machines, and constantly update training programs,” said Rasmus.

Technology And The New World of Work

Technology And The New World of Work

Tim Sowell’s thinking over the past few months has resonated with me. He’s looking at the blend of technology and humans that will build the plant of the future.

Some years ago when I was laying out the initial editorial stance of Automation World, I was attacked by Lean practitioners (consultants). They said there was little use for automation. It just replaced people and made plants less intelligent and flexible.

My reply was that they missed the point. Some things needed to be automated—maybe for safety reasons or for repeatable quality. Some things would always require people (no matter what some dystopians are trying to sell us today). The smart managers and engineers architect blended manufacturing using the best of both automation and people.

I still believe that.

Sowell’s latest blog post, New World of Work will be center to Factory of the Future, takes a look at a similar idea. Much deeper than my musings, of course, his thesis needs to be digested and considered when you are out architecting your next manufacturing or production line.

He talked of a discussion with some colleagues discussing the future from a variety of views. “Sure enough we ended up aligned on the core that the ‘factory of the future’ will be around what two companies labeled ‘New World of work’. I have mentioned this many times in this blog around ‘smart operational work’.”

We were able group companies who looked at the future thru “new technologies” and how they could apply them, (I seem to visited a number of this type in the last month) vs those companies that we believe will be the leaders with the successful approach of “how they must operation, work” in the new world.

Sowell New World of Work

They defined some characteristics of the new world:

  • Brand loyalty at customer reducing, so “Brand Promise” is key
  • Agility to satisfy is key
  • Shrinking mid tier market as the larger companies continue to consolidate to address the supply of new products and service markets. (especially in consumer products).
  • Dynamic workforce where workers rotate locations/ roles, experience in a role will be less than 2 years.
  • Supply chains with limited inventory requires transparent/ agile manufacturing across the sites.
  • “Constant Change” in assets, process, people, products is the natural state in the 2020.

Then they defined some fundamentals of the “new world of work.”

  • New ways of working with dynamic workers that share, collaborate and are connected but assume experience from the system, they trust the system
  • New Processes around agility, new product  introduction that leverage the skills and approach of the “digital Native” collaborative worker, combined with new technologies to enable new processes and operational awareness. The ability to see situations early, continue to learn, and act fast to changing conditions is key.
  • New technologies provide the opportunity to deliver these new ways of working, with new processes. The likes of leveraging the data, through “big data” to use the past to determine the future in a natural manner. The industrial internet of things (industry 4.0) will enable smart devices providing new levels of embedded autonomy in machines and processes, shifting workers to “exception based” management, but with greater responsibility.

Think about the ease of younger people who move between physical and digital seamlessly. There is no hesitation to communicate and collaborate. If they don’t know something they will search for an answer. As we learn to blend technology and people seamlessly, we’ll see this new world of work evolve.

Sowell concludes, “The natural state of the new world is one of ‘change’ and the systems and culture must be able to ‘master’ naturally.”

Upskilling the Manufacturing Workforce

Klein Industrial Workforce Survey

Many people are concerned about recruiting the next generation industrial workforce. Not only must we recruit younger people, attracting young women into the industry in a variety of professions would be great.
Klein Tools just sent the results of a survey—its second annual “State of the Industry” one. This year, Klein Tools took a new direction with the survey focusing on family and asking more than 200 union and non-union electricians about their experiences getting into the field and on the jobsite.

As a sixth-generation family business, Klein Tools wanted to know how much support electricians get at home, which helps Klein create programs to better support future electricians and their families. The survey also specifically focused on women in the electrical industry, finding how many regularly work on jobsites with union and non-union electricians.

Family Ties & Influence

The Klein ‘State of the Industry’ survey found family and friends have important influence over those deciding to join the industrial workforce and specifically become electricians, particularly among union members. In fact, they may be the strongest factor in determining if someone will apply for an apprenticeship and commit to a career as an electrician.

  • Three in ten electricians (30%) have one or more other electricians in the family, with union members (39%) significantly more likely than non-union members (23%) to have another electrician in their family.
  • One-half of electricians (51%) were encouraged to become an electrician. More than nine in ten electricians (92%) would encourage someone to become an electrician.
  • Two-thirds of electricians (64%) would encourage their children to become an electrician.
  • Three in ten electricians (30%) would specifically encourage their daughter to become an electrician.

“Family is what Klein Tools is based on and it’s important apprentices have family support when deciding to become an electrician,” said Mark Klein, president of Klein Tools. “We know not all students receive the support they need when considering trade schools and we are actively working with apprenticeship organizations to ensure students have access to the resources, tools, information and leadership necessary to be successful in this industry.”

Women on Jobsites

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2014 women represented only 2.4 percent of the electrician workforce. Klein Tools wanted to know how often women worked on job sites in the past year and was pleased to find the majority of jobsites had women regularly working on them.

  • More than three-fifths of electricians (62%) report having worked with one or more women on job sites in the past year.
  • Union members (78%) are significantly more likely than non-union members (51%) to have worked with one or more women on job sites in the past year.

“This is a good start, but is still markedly lower than what we believe it should be,” said Mark Klein, president of Klein Tools. “With numerous talented tradespeople expected to retire in the coming years, we need more trained electricians filling in the ranks and we support anyone who wants to contribute to this ever-changing and challenging industry.”

The Klein Tools ‘State of the Industry’ survey was conducted by Russell Research, an independent survey research firm, which conducted 200 online interviews from January 27 – February 5, 2016, to secure a nationally significant representation. Forty percent of respondents were union members and 60 percent were not.

klein_tools_2016_soi_2_first_release_final_infographic

Upskilling the Manufacturing Workforce

Find An Automation Expert

Do you ever need a temporary automation expert to get you over a project hump? Ever wish there was something akin to Angie’s List for PLC programmers and other skilled industrial technical people?

Andy Urda called the other day to introduce me to a new company and concept in the workforce staffing industry—FactoryFix. Andy’s been in the industrial market for a long time with a few motion control suppliers. He’s trying some new things and ran into the founders of this company.

The idea is to match companies with needs for project help with local experts who specialize in the skills they need. FactoryFix has a platform that allows customers to post details about their project then wait as vetted service providers are brought to them.

According to the Web site, “We help industrial companies become more productive by providing an online marketplace of factory-wide solution providers. From basic machinery maintenance to custom assembly machines, our platform matches the customer with local companies whose expertise is perfect for their request. We also help entrepreneurs grow their businesses by solidifying their online presence and introducing to them local customers with immediate projects to bid on.”

There is no cost or obligation to post your project. Simply tell us what you need help with and get connected.

Read testimonials, ask questions and hire the best Expert for your project.

Within hours of posting your project, we match you with interested and available Experts whose expertise is just right for your request. Their introductions go directly to your inbox.

Review their profiles, read reviews, and ask them questions. When you’re ready, decide which Expert is the right fit for your project and hire them.

You’re free to work directly with the company and service providers you select; FactoryFix doesn’t want to play middle-man. After the project is completed, write a review about your experience on the Expert’s profile.

Interesting idea. Is this something you’d like? Do you do something similar now?

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