Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn YouTube
    Trending
    • Rajiv Kulkarni Talks about the Malware Analysis Pipeline
    • IDS Alliance Raises Awareness of IAM Fundamentals with the ‘CISO Chronicles’
    • Building Digital Accessibility: AI Requires Human Oversight to Cut Down on Algorithmic Biases
    • BlackBerry Ivy: Enabling a New Age of Electric Secure Autonomous Vehicles
    • Security Automation Cuts Down Expenses and Saves Time for IT Teams
    • IBM Think 2022 – Embracing the Present, Preparing for the Future
    • A Game of Numbers: The Correlation Between Technology and Sports Betting
    • Software-based Enterprise Solutions for Navigating the “Too Much Information” Age
    TechSpective
    • RSS
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • LinkedIn
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Technology
      Featured
      March 1, 20216

      Could Home Study Be Better for Education? Using Technology to Craft a Better Tomorrow

      Recent
      May 20, 2022

      Building Digital Accessibility: AI Requires Human Oversight to Cut Down on Algorithmic Biases

      May 20, 2022

      BlackBerry Ivy: Enabling a New Age of Electric Secure Autonomous Vehicles

      May 15, 2022

      A Look At The Last Generation Of Internal Combustion Engines

    • Reviews
      Featured
      March 4, 20211

      Dell’s UltraSharp 40 – Improving Work and Workplaces with Monitor Innovations

      Recent
      April 7, 2022

      Dell’s Latitude 5430 Rugged – Redefining the Extremes of Mobile Computing

      October 12, 2021

      Innovating Home Video Conferencing: Dell’s New 27 Video Conferencing Monitor – S2722DZ

      September 22, 2021

      Review: Intrusion Shield

    • Podcasts
    • Security
      Featured
      March 7, 20212

      Pandemic Unmasks Vulnerability to Automated Bot Attacks

      Recent
      May 25, 2022

      Rajiv Kulkarni Talks about the Malware Analysis Pipeline

      May 23, 2022

      IDS Alliance Raises Awareness of IAM Fundamentals with the ‘CISO Chronicles’

      May 14, 2022

      Ransomware is Indiscriminatory – Prepare for Everything to Fail

    • Microsoft
      Featured
      September 12, 20201

      The Microsoft Surface Duo: The Communications Device for Those That Think Different

      Recent
      April 8, 2022

      AI and Why Windows 12 Could Be a Far Bigger Advance than Windows 95 Was

      October 11, 2021

      The Surface Laptop Studio: Building a Windows 11 Targeted Laptop

      August 28, 2021

      Why Microsoft’s Hardware Baseline for Windows 11 Is Important

    • News & Analysis
      Featured
      March 6, 20212

      Fixing The World One Person At A Time: Cisco Networking Academy

      Recent
      May 25, 2022

      Rajiv Kulkarni Talks about the Malware Analysis Pipeline

      May 20, 2022

      BlackBerry Ivy: Enabling a New Age of Electric Secure Autonomous Vehicles

      May 20, 2022

      IBM Think 2022 – Embracing the Present, Preparing for the Future

    • Business
      Featured
      March 6, 20212

      Fixing The World One Person At A Time: Cisco Networking Academy

      Recent
      May 20, 2022

      Building Digital Accessibility: AI Requires Human Oversight to Cut Down on Algorithmic Biases

      May 20, 2022

      Security Automation Cuts Down Expenses and Saves Time for IT Teams

      May 18, 2022

      Software-based Enterprise Solutions for Navigating the “Too Much Information” Age

    TechSpective
    You are at:Home»Business»Digital Transformation»What Has Led to the Manufacturing Labor Shortage?
    manufacturing labor jobs digital transformation
    Image from Pixabay

    What Has Led to the Manufacturing Labor Shortage?

    1
    By Tom Hennessey on February 10, 2022 Digital Transformation, Hiring Practices, Network, Strategy

    In the early days of automation, manufacturing technology was often about replacing workers. Robots could do many repetitive jobs faster for less money, and there was no arguing with the economics. Today, the exact opposite is true. We have a manufacturing labor shortage with no end in sight, which has caused many organizations to accelerate investment in automation technologies to help amplify the performance of their existing staff.

    Today, technology has taken on a new role: making people more productive. Digital transformation is now all about extending the benefits of technology to every employee at every level of the enterprise.

    There’s only one problem: those employees are getting hard to find.

    Today, hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs are going unfilled around the world, and companies are even struggling to fill high-paying, entry-level production jobs. Last year, according to a new study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, the industry had a record number of job openings, and not all due to the pandemic.

    What’s more, things are going to get worse. The National Association of Manufacturers forecasts that 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030. These unfilled jobs will have a significant economic impact and could cost the industry $1 trillion or more.

    Just at a time when digitally transformed manufacturers are poised to enable extraordinary productivity and effectiveness from their employees, they can’t find enough people.

    What’s Causing This Manufacturing Labor Shortage?

    Part of the problem is finding people with the right skills. But it’s also how the public views manufacturing jobs. According to Carolyn Lee, executive director of The Manufacturing Institute, many people either don’t know these jobs exist or think manufacturing is a dead end. “Some just don’t see the point” of a manufacturing career, she says. In a world ruled by technology, manufacturing seems old school.

    Of course, the reality is just the opposite. Manufacturing is a high-tech frontier in applying automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital collaboration, and augmented reality, to name a few examples. As Lee says, “Modern manufacturing careers are increasingly high-tech, high-skill, and high-pay.” And they depend, she notes, on “irreplaceable human skills—things like creativity, critical thinking, design, innovation, engineering, and finance.”

    Indeed, certain manufacturing jobs are still being replaced by automation. Self-driving vehicles in warehouses may someday be the norm, although vehicles driven remotely by AR-equipped humans are a proven alternative right now. In some industry sectors, “lights-out” manufacturing is a possibility. But in the world of complex manufacturing, most people are not very replaceable.

    What Can Be Done?

    If technology once took manufacturing jobs away from people, it may now be the key to bringing them back. Working in a manufacturing company is nothing like it used to be, and today it can be a cutting-edge technology experience. Those manufacturers investing in modern systems, cloud-based applications, and highly scalable architectures should be able to use that fact to attract and keep employees.

    Offering the ability to work remotely is one obvious example. Remote work was a trend before the pandemic, and it has only been accelerating. A digitally transformed company can support a wide range of remote workers – a staff that increasingly can work anywhere. They can be knowledge workers, office managers, engineers, technicians, or even equipment operators with an Internet connection anywhere in the world.

    The opportunities go well beyond remote work, too. For example, VR (Virtual Reality) can be used as a training tool to develop skills for new workers or those who want to advance. Managers and executives can use the latest AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to help make decisions and run operations in real-time. AR (Augmented Reality), like smart glasses, can be used by plant workers to enhance their work experience and boost effectiveness. Research suggests that 40% of organizations will combine the physical work experience with virtual technology in some fashion by 2023.

    Read more about this technology; Smart Glasses Add Informed Reality to the Shop Floor.

    Many analysts are beginning to talk about the emergence of a shared industry ecosystem where human expertise will be available online as needed, something like Uber for manufacturing jobs.

    All these things, and undoubtedly innovations we can’t foresee, will be part of the solution.

    Back to the future

    Digital transformation is a work in progress, and there’s a lot of uncertainty ahead. However, one thing is clear: the manufacturing workplace is being radically transformed, and companies need to go back to basics to recruit and keep employees. The Deloitte study recommends reaching out to communities and schools to build awareness and “leverage advanced technologies to increase digital fluency.”

    Digital transformation is no longer just concerned with streamlining operations and improving efficiency and resiliency. Those things still matter. But now, there’s another reason to digitally transform: to attract, keep, and empower people at every level. Now and in the future, an enterprise’s ability to build its human capital may well depend on how successfully it has embraced—and promoted—its digital transformation.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleTechnology Revolutionizing Private Events
    Next Article The ‘Big Gap’ That’s Limiting Mass 5G Adoption
    Tom Hennessey
    • Website

    As Chief Marketing Officer at iBASEt, Tom brings over 25 years of enterprise software marketing and business development experience to the executive leadership team. He is responsible for the strategic growth of the company. Tom earned his MBA at the University of Southern California and holds a BS degree in Management from Northeastern University.

    Related Posts

    Building Digital Accessibility: AI Requires Human Oversight to Cut Down on Algorithmic Biases

    Software-based Enterprise Solutions for Navigating the “Too Much Information” Age

    Ways to Make 2022 the Best Year Ever for Your Small Business

    1 Comment

    1. Pingback: Jornal do Advogado Trabalhista, 11 de fevereiro de 2022 | Gueiros Bernardes

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Site Sponsors
    Intel
    DevOps.com
    Adobe
    PopSpective
    • Technology
    • Popular
    • Top Reviews
    May 20, 2022

    Building Digital Accessibility: AI Requires Human Oversight to Cut Down on Algorithmic Biases

    May 20, 2022

    BlackBerry Ivy: Enabling a New Age of Electric Secure Autonomous Vehicles

    May 15, 2022

    A Look At The Last Generation Of Internal Combustion Engines

    9.0
    July 14, 2016

    Review: Lenovo Yoga 900S

    9.5
    March 2, 2015

    Review: Asus Zenbook UX305 ultrabook

    8.0
    February 9, 2015

    Review: Burg 12 smartwatch

    9.7
    November 16, 2018

    Review: BlackVue DR900S-2CH Vehicle Dash Cam

    9.5
    September 2, 2015

    Review: Microsoft Band

    May 27, 2014

    Protect your family photos with ScanMyPhotos

    PopSpective
    Popular Posts
    9.0
    July 14, 2016

    Review: Lenovo Yoga 900S

    9.5
    March 2, 2015

    Review: Asus Zenbook UX305 ultrabook

    8.0
    February 9, 2015

    Review: Burg 12 smartwatch

    Coffee and Politics
    Coffee and Politics
    PopSpective
    • RSS
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • LinkedIn
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    About

    TechSpective covers technology trends and breaking news in a meaningful way that brings value to the story, and provides you with information that is relevant to you. We offer in-depth reporting and long-form feature stories, as well as breaking news coverage, product reviews, and community content in plain English terms, and with a unique perspective on technology.

    Adobe

    © 2020 Xpective, Inc.

    • About
    • Privacy
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Contact
    © 2021 Xpective, Inc.
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.