Digitally Transforming the Manufacturing Workforce
Yet, PwC’s recent Global Digital Operations Study found that UK firms are lagging behind the global average for technology adoption. While there may be a number of reasons for the low digital readiness of the sector, such as lack of clear vision, and fears of uncertainty around Brexit, a growing concern is also the lack of access to relevant skills.
It’s been suggested that over one third of skills considered important in today’s workforce are likely to no longer be relevant in the near future. Manufacturers will soon require quite different expertise from their workforce to master new technology. According to a 2018 report by Accenture Strategy, businesses that fail to upskill their workforces so they can effectively collaborate with modern machines and technology face the risk of missing out on revenue and growth.
Despite the evident importance of skills development, the majority of UK manufacturers do not provide annual formal, accredited training to more than a quarter of their workforce. Yet, challenging and training employees to acquire new expertise can be a cost-effective way to manage staff resourcing, provide a boost to employee engagement, and ultimately have a positive impact on a company’s productivity.
There are several areas manufacturers should consider when reviewing the training needs of their workforce and providing opportunities for upskilling.
With the current trend for automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, it is time to re-imagine work practices and stop relying on working in operational silos that have been created around job descriptions. Instead, manufacturers need to review tasks—including labelling, packaging, and shipping—rather than job roles, to reap the benefits of digital data sharing. Software platforms, such as modern enterprise resource planning (ERP), provide employees across departments with real-time information and a 360-degree picture of what’s happening in the business.
By allocating tasks to both machines and people, manufacturers can ensure an efficient level of automation, freeing up employees’ time to focus on new, less manual and more skilled tasks that deliver greater value to the business.
Beefing up engineering talent on the shop floor is, without a doubt, vital; however, skills gaps higher up in the business are just as pressing. Manufacturers should therefore think about technical knowledge and skills gaps, but also consider potential gaps in management and leadership skills. In fact, Stanton Chase’s 2017 Global Industrial Executive Survey shows that for 30 percent of companies, the biggest challenge in implementing industrial innovation is a lack of technical skills, but 20 percent say the same of leadership skills such as change management.
It is worth remembering that leadership skills and human ingenuity will become more important than technical knowledge, and as we dive deeper into Industry 4.0 this will become clearer. Bringing in a development and training specialist can help manufacturers perform a skills gap analysis to ensure that any training plan is not only going to address the current pressure points, but also future-proof the company.
Forward-thinking leadership teams are developing their workforce upskilling strategy—a task that has historically been the responsibility of HR—as an integral part of their strategic business planning process. This planning process includes a comprehensive review of how external trends are affecting existing structures, jobs and skills across the business.
