Even with technology advances, people still need to be present to keep operations running and apply current and new skills.
BY STEPHEN WHITE AUGUST 1, 2024
Learning Objectives
Understand the benefits of workforce development
Understand the implications of technology on manufacturing labor and upskilling
Understand the partnership between educational institutions and industry.
Workforce development insights
Despite advancements in automation, human roles remain vital for monitoring, improving, and maintaining systems, ensuring smooth and efficient manufacturing processes.
Workforce development and STEM education are crucial, equipping employees with the skills needed to adapt to technological advancements and ensuring business continuity.
Technology and AI will continue to improve, leading some to believe people’s role in manufacturing will diminish or be eradicated. After all, the majority of manufacturing costs are comprised of labor and raw materials, and since raw material, even if it is recycled material, is still required to make something, replacing labor through automation is the next logical step. However, these advancements still require people to monitor, improve, repair, maintain and support them.
A true “lights out” operation would imply the manufacturing of a product will not require human intervention throughout the entire process. In the simplest terms, a load of raw material will be placed at the start of the process and the finished product, ready to ship, will be put on a truck and hauled to the customer locations without a single person’s influence. Robots making robots. Robots making sweaters. Robots fixing themselves. IBM tried it in 1980 with limited success. GE was almost there in the 1990’s. Science fiction is now a reality as companies like Japan-based FANUC and Netherlands-based Philips are the closest to achieving Nirvana.
Most companies do not have the financial resources nor the fortitude to commit to a “lights out” facility. The challenges and costs are great, as even Elon Musk will attest. Instead, they investigate and locate areas within the process where automation will improve areas related to safety, quality or productivity, which affects cost.
As equipment is installed, the labor associated with the old processes will either be relocated, retrained or reduced. Regardless of the resultant category an employee falls into, individuals will require an update to their knowledge and skills to stay in the manufacturing community. As manufacturing gets closer to complete automation, overall labor headcount may significantly decrease, but labor rates for those that remain will be higher, as will the training budget, in order to support continued, uninterrupted operations.
Committing to workforce development and STEM
Workforce development, therefore, is just as imperative an investment as technology, as one cannot exist without the other. For it to work, employees and management must each accept it is not the responsibility of one or the other, but both. Employees must be willing to invest the time and energy to learn just as much as the company must be willing to invest the time and resources necessary to teach. As technology advances, there may not be a need for an operator at each machine, or to move material from one station to another. A current job may disappear, but a new position to support the upgraded system will be created. There will be a need for more technical skills and analytical thinking to monitor system imperfections, troubleshoot and improve programming, perform preventative maintenance and fix equipment when it breaks, because no matter how well it is designed and built, it will break.
Humans still need to decide on what, how many and when to produce, especially when a facility uses the same equipment to manufacture different products. It takes humans to make financial decisions. Continuous learning and upskilling employees to keep up with advancements satisfies a number of important business principles: reduced downtime, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, reduced turnover and reduced operating costs.
The United States has committed to improving concepts in STEM education. Though the acronym was coined in 2001, the concepts in the United States date back as far 1862. The STEM learning system is important to workforce development because it promotes many of the characteristics and skill necessary to work with and improve upon automation, and can also be carried forward into other economic sectors such as financial, retail, music, healthcare and service. In addition to the obvious, the STEM curriculum promotes critical thinking, curiosity, social skills, flexibility, initiative and most importantly, the acceptance of failure and persistence. It combines theory with application. Not all people learn the same, and not all learning can be understood by all people.
Even a general laborer position, which does not require a significant amount of skill or education, can benefit from STEM and development training. As positions become obsolete with the advancement of technology, other opportunities will become available either within or outside of the manufacturing sector for these individuals. STEM training and workforce development training, if done correctly, will prepare employees and companies for the future. Let’s not send the Terminator just yet.
Stephen White
Author Bio: Stephen White is the plant manager for Cummings Lumber Company’s unfinished hardwood flooring division, Barefoot Flooring, located in Troy, PA. He has previous experience as a Naval Officer, and in vinyl flooring, fiber cement siding, and cabinetry manufacturing facilities as an Engineer, Maintenance Supervisor, and Maintenance & Engineering Manager. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, received his MBA – Operations Management from University of Scranton, and a Masters Certificate in Healthcare Design and Leadership from Cornell University. He is a Certified Six Sigma Green Belt and is always looking for improvement opportunities both on the production floor and in his personal life.
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