Need to Close the Skills Gap

One of the major challenges faced by manufacturers in the growing economy involves closing the skills gap among the current workforce. The threat of fewer available workers comes about as people grow older and retire, thereby taking their extensive knowledge away from the factory. Job requirements also keep manufacturers from filling necessary positions.

McKinsey Global Institute warns the lack of workforce availability may reduce economic activity by 40 percent. Despite increased automation and optimized supply chains, companies need people to maintain the machines, design new hardware and develop special skills for individual positions. This skills gap continues to widen because workers don't have the educational know-how to perform their jobs, and it could affect economic growth in the future.

Statistics bear out these points. Deloitte believes up to 2 million manufacturing jobs may go unfilled between 2015 and 2025 out of 3.5 million manufacturing jobs available. In China, the population of citizens aged 65 and older surges rapidly from 8 to 23 percent of the overall population from 2010 to 2040, leaving an enormous shortage of factory workers, even as manufacturers struggle to find workers in 2015. Aging workers represent a major problem for China, but a skills gap due to a changing work environment threatens the growth of manufacturing in the United States.

The high-tech nature of manufacturing increases the skills gap as automation evolves in American companies. Connected devices that need wireless capabilities, known as the Internet of Things, blend information technology and operations technology. As such, more and more manufacturers require people trained in IT to run machinery in the plant. Automated processes no longer require someone who knows how to call up information on a computer screen, because automated machines now communicate with everything else on the assembly line. This new form of wireless automation connects to other applications that help the plant run smoothly, including ordering new supplies and repairing machines in a timely manner.

Manufacturers have no quick fixes to solve this skills gap problem. Younger people must have access to educational initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Companies should create as many educational initiatives as possible to make training affordable and easily accessible. Manufacturers can partner with local community colleges to create a curriculum based on current practices, and companies can even host classes on-site as a basis for the partnership. Baby boomers on the cusp of retirement should pass on their knowledge by mentoring younger workers entering the labor pool.

Learning must continue beyond just earning a degree less than two years out of high school. Manufacturers should encourage lifelong learning opportunities, because technology, thanks again to the Internet of Things, evolves very quickly. What works in 2015 may face obsolescence in 2020. Because of this, educational opportunities must teach workers how the entire manufacturing process works from start to finish. This also means government funding, colleges and companies must identify how they want to train new workers through competency-based instruction in a multimedia, hands-on classroom.

If manufacturers want to keep a competitive advantage, executives must see education and job training as a benefit rather than an increased expense. Otherwise, the issue of workforce availability and a widening skills gap only gets worse as technology becomes increasingly complicated.

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