The Top 10 Wastes of Lean Manufacturing

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Lean Manufacturing is a concept developed during the 1990s, and at the time it was referred to as the Toyota Production System (TPS).  It sets out to clarify the processes within the manufacturing timeline that add value and eliminate the processes that inhibit it.  TPS identified the seven wastes of lean manufacturing, which we’ll be exploring in this blog; but it doesn’t stop there – we’ll also be examining some additional areas of waste that affect the factory line.

TIM WOOD

The TPS “seven wastes” are easily remembered via the acronym TIM WOOD, i.e., Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-Processing, Overproduction, Defects

What are the Wastes of Lean Manufacturing?

Waste is anything that does not add value.  When your production line follows a large number of processes, it’s inevitable that, over time, elements of that process develop that hamper the efficiency of the build.  This costs the manufacturer money, which, in turn, gets transferred to the customer.

Eliminating waste is an essential component in a company’s ability to compete, while helping increase profits.

Your customers expect timely delivery, consistent quality and the right price. So, streamlining your processes to remove waste is essential.

1. Transport

Unnecessary transportation of goods within a factory-line is the product of a variety of problems: poor factory-floor layout; complex handling systems; large batch sizes; storage in multiple locations; and over-production.  These all result in unnecessary transportation.

The movement of materials from location to location is a waste because it adds no value.  You need to pay people to move materials, and the maintenance of vehicles is costly.  A poor floor layout can increase the distance between operations, resulting in delays in processing and expensive transportation costs.

2. Inventory

Inventory costs the manufacturer money until it has been sold on to the customer. Every finished product or material component require storage space; waiting on the shelf to be sold.

Large amounts of inventory increase the chance of transit damage and cause delays in transportation and therefore adds to the wastes of lean manufacturing.

3. Motion

Unnecessary motion occurs where movements by either man or machine are not as small or as simple as they could be.  It could be that your engineer needs to bend down to pick up heavy objects multiple times throughout a shift – this puts strain on their back and could be eliminated by merely feeding those materials at waist-height, rather than on the floor.

This is all common sense because even robots will wear out eventually.

4. Waiting

A sloppy production timeline results in unsynchronized activity, causing waiting within the production process.  Idle time occurs when interdependent procedures are not in synch: operators are kept waiting or work slowly to accommodate slack cogs in the wheel.

5. Overproduction

Overproduction breeds waste!  It results from producing more product than your customer requires.  This causes storage problems from unnecessarily large batch sizes, and an inability to respond to customer need.

If your customer wants 150 pieces of x and 12 pieces of y, but you already have 700 pieces of y and only 10 pieces of x, then your customer is going to have to wait for you to produce to their requirement.  Streamlining your processes to meet customer need means that product is sent directly to the customer, in a timely fashion (and not stored) is a means to reduce the wastes of lean manufacturing.

6. Over-processing

Over-processing occurs where elements of your manufacture don’t add value.  Painting of unseen parts of the product, or cleaning or polishing beyond required levels are example manifestations of over-processing.

Manufacturers need to aim to process to the degree that is useful and necessary.  Over-processing is generally caused by a lack of standardization, unclear specifications, and inconsistent quality acceptance standards.

7. Defects

Defective goods are the most apparent waste.  While faults can never be eliminated entirely, you can reduce them by implementing poka-yoke systems (processes that help equipment operators to avoid mistakes).

This requires thorough documentation of processes and standardized training so that everyone follows a standard set of operations to achieve a uniform result.

8. Wasted Talent

If an employee is simply moving materials or equipment from one place to another (transportation), then that person’s talents are being under-utilized.

Non-utilized talent equally refers to management’s ignorance of continuous improvement feedback that comes from those operating the machines.  If management fails to engage with talent, it’s considered to add to the wastes of lean manufacturing in these terms.

9. Ineffective Performance Measures

Machine or process monitoring is a valuable resource for transitioning a process to lean manufacturing.  By obtaining an accurate data-reflection of current processes, you can identify waste.

You can also empower the workforce by providing the ability to monitor their own performance and recognize productivity norms, while rewarding uniform, standardized working practices.

10. Poor Supplier Quality

No production process can overcome an unreliable supplier.  If you need materials to produce, then you need to be able to rely on your suppliers to make sure your processes are as efficient as they can be.

Of course, there are always extenuating circumstances, but if your suppliers are continuously letting you down, it might be time to look elsewhere.

To Conclude

Your workforce is your business, and making sure that they’re productive is more than continually watching over them.  Listen to them, because they will have the first-hand experience of any problems on your production line.

Eliminating waste is about examining your existing processes, and empowering operators to help you streamline the factory floor.

ShiftWorx™ MES software enables manufacturers to measure and record granular production information right off the plant floor, from any machine or process in real-time to help eliminate the wastes of lean manufacturing.  Not only does this help eliminate waste, it engages your employees with actionable data!

Achieving lean manufacturing is now easier than ever with ShiftWorx™ MES:
◉ Cloud-connect ANY machine, tool or process
◉ Increase your shop floor productivity by 50%
◉ Rapidly deploy the solution in <5 Days
◉ Reduce waste, and decrease downtime by 30%
◉ Improve employee engagement 20%
◉ Achieve a fast ROI in 3 months!

ShiftWorx™ MES ultimately enables manufacturers to Make Smarter Decisions, Faster – Contact us to book your industry specific consultation and demo.

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#LeanManufacturing #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE

Manufacturing Monitoring and Employee Engagement: How ShiftWorx™ MES Connects the Two

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There is very little doubt that manufacturing monitoring software appeals to forward-thinking plant managers, shop supervisors and CEOs for its ability to track production and increase operator efficiency, saving companies thousands of dollars a month.

However, a key benefit (potentially one of the most important features) of manufacturing monitoring that is often overlooked is the impact it has on shop floor operators and employee engagement.  When operators are engaged in the task at hand, they are known to work more efficiently and with more focus. Manufacturing monitoring, when set up properly, provides that type of engagement.

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Machine monitoring being used to enhance employee engagement

Having a screen at each machine or workstation, and large screens on the shop floor that display and track the employee’s production statistics empowers the workforce in the following ways:
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Accountability

When an employee’s production is being tracked and recorded, there is a clear sense of accountability for their work.  Creating accountable employees delivers numerous benefits to the company, including superior execution, lower employee turnover, more creativity and innovation.

Gamification

Gamification is the process of applying and integrating elements of game mechanics in order to motivate participation, engagement, and loyalty.  Gamification takes the data-driven techniques that game designers use to engage players and applies them to non-game experiences to motivate actions which add value to your business. ShiftWorx™ MES enables that type of engagement with its ability to keep scores, track progress and display user-statistics.

Consistent Measurement of Performance

Machine Operator Displays his Manufacturing Monitoring Dashboard

In one of our recent blogs, Top 3 Questions Asked About Manufacturing Monitoring, we highlight that one of the questions asked most frequently is, “What do Operators on the Shop Floor Think of Manufacturing Monitoring; is this More of “Big Brother” Watching?”  The feedback we received the most is that operators are in favour of having the monitoring implemented as it gives them a consistent measurement of their performance that they are able to see every day.  With a manufacturing monitoring system like ShiftWorx™ MES, operators are empowered and engaged when they are able to view and understand their performance metrics in a real-time feed.

FreePoint Technologies is dedicated to helping manufacturing companies improve their bottom line, improve employee engagement, and bring modern technology to the plant floor.  Through the power of the internet and our patented technology, we are able to connect to any machine or any process, giving you the tools you need to keep your manufacturing facility going strong, and continuously improving!

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#SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

How Machine Monitoring Works – 6 Steps to Increase Productivity 50%+

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Machine Monitoring is the Process of Connecting Your Machine to the Internet to Collect and Interpret Data.

But have you ever wondered how exactly it works and what steps are involved; how it is FreePoint can connect to machines and gather valuable data that can be shared, analyzed and reported on?  In this article we explore how the process of machine monitoring works and when done properly, can deliver an instant production increase of 50% or more.

Step #1 – Integration

The first step in machine monitoring is to connect your machine or process to the internet.  With FreePoint, our patented black box technology allows companies to connect easily through WIFI, ethernet, USB and/or cellular.

At FreePoint we are able to do something many other companies cannot – connect to both new and legacy machines.  With our patented technology we can connect non-invasively to any machine.  Non-invasive meaning that neither the machine nor its control system needs to be modified for the FreePoint system.  A typical machine can be connected to the FreePoint system in less than an hour.  The oldest machine we have connected thus far is a vertical machine built in 1914!

Step #2 – Data Transferred and Stored

Now that we are connected to the internet, it is time to transfer some data.  Through the power of the net, data flows seamlessly from each connected machine or tool to our secure remote server.  By sending the data to our server we are able to give you access to analytic tools, dashboards, report generators, and information distribution tools from a web browser using our ShiftWorx™ MES software.

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Step #3 – Data Displayed

The data from the machines can now be displayed throughout the plant on computers and TV monitors, cell phones and tablets.  With ShiftWorx™ MES software, pre-made dashboards are readily available to use, but the customer also has the option to create custom dashboards to display a large range of information visually.

Step #4 – Production Increase

By displaying real-time data to your employees about the machines or processes they are working on, you can expect a production increase when you identify the causes of downtime.

Step #5 – Analyze

With the ability to see both real-time data, as well as view historical reporting, plant managers and supervisors can analyze the data to make informed, profitable decisions faster.

Step #6 – More Production Increase!

production increaseWith the ability to analyze machine performances and make data-driven decisions, production can be expected to increase again and again as actions are taken to optimize the shop floor.  Improved cycle times, accurate quoting, limited downtime and maintenance all help your bottom line.

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This is how machine monitoring works in a nutshell.  FreePoint is dedicated to helping manufacturing companies improve their productivity, and engage their employees by bringing modern technology to the plant floor.  Through the power of the internet and our patented technology we are able to connect to ANY machine, which is the essential first step to realize a 50% production increase.

Are you interested in implementing machine monitoring?  Learn how you can achieve your continuous improvement goals with ShiftWorx™ MES – receive a consultation on your specific application, and see a live demo – we’re here to help you in your transition to Industry 4.0 – Contact us today!

Click to read  ShiftWorx™ MES customer reviews at Capterra and GetApp:

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#SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

CASE STUDY | Machine Shop Increases Productivity By 69% In One Year

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Learn How FreePoint’s ShiftWorx™ MES Successfully Helped a Machine Shop Save $325/day by Increasing Productivity 69% in One Year!

The customer is a modern machine shop located in the border region in Mexico. The shop has 4 Electrical Discharge Machines (EDM) that are critical to the company’s production.  The following figures demonstrate the impact of ShiftWorx™ MES solution.

The image below (the before scenario) shows pertinent productivity information from these 4 machines from a typical day before the integration.  The blue bars illustrate the EDM machines’ run times for a 24 hour period and the white gaps indicate the setup time between each run.  Both the run (blue bar) and set-up times (white bar) vary depending on the job.  The shop, in the before scenario, required 24 hours of scheduled production time to produce a total of 43.5 hours of “value adding” activity using the 4 machines on that day.

 

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The screenshot below illustrates the exact same 4 EDM machines shown one year later.  Similar to the previous scenario, the blue bars still vary in accordance with the jobs being run on each machine, however, the setup times (the white gaps between the blue bars) are now consistently smaller than the before snapshot.  The result from integrating ShiftWorx™ MES is that less time is being lost between productive “value adding” periods.  For the customer, this means that more value adding activity (specifically 57 hours on this day) occurred in less scheduled production time (two 8.5 hour shifts vs. three 8 hour shifts).  All of the recovered lost machine time was then aggregated, and the machines were freed up for an entire shift.  Not only does this decrease production cost for parts being produced, but it increases the plant’s capacity and ability to take on more work.

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The image below compares the productivity before in one month, to the same month one year later.  As illustrated in the graph, every day of the month before had machine activity, meaning that employees were in the shop running the machines.  The year after, the machine activity occurred only on weekdays, freeing up most weekend shifts as well.  This allowed the customer to increase their capacity and take on more business.  The machine’s efficiency went up from 33% on a typical 24 hour day the year previous, to 56% on a typical 17 hour day 12 months later representing an increase of 69%!

 

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At that rate of productivity improvement, the system as implemented paid for itself in 20 days, and the cost of the ShiftWorx™ MES SaaS subscription is recovered in the first day of every month.  It’s hard to beat that kind of ROI!

For More Information on How ShiftWorx™ MES SaaS Can Benefit Your Manufacturing Operation, Please Contact Us to Schedule Your Consultation and Live Demo Specific to Your Industry!

#MetalFabrication #JobShop #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

 

6 Ways Machine Monitoring Saves You Money

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In every manufacturing process there are two elements; value added, and non-value added. Both cost time and money, but only one will yield returns. Machine monitoring systems connected to the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) is the best way to capitalize on value-added, innovative production processes.

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LEADING FOR SUCCESS: Empowering the Right People to Build Your Business

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More Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the top 10 tips gleaned from successful companies and leaders that I’ve worked with over my 40-year career.  Although the two tips shared in this column are very similar and intricately related, they are also critically distinct.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder


“If you want something important done, ask a busy person.”

A colleague on a church board once said to me many years ago, when the two of us were assigned a task, “If you want to get something important done, ask a busy person.”

Here’s why that’s a great tip for a manufacturing setting.  Truly busy people in manufacturing have a knack for getting things done.  They are not looking to put new things on their list but instead are trying to find the quickest way to get an item off their list.  Yes, there are people in manufacturing that know how to make themselves busy or keep themselves busy, but successful company leaders innately know the difference between routinely busy people and truly busy people that get things done.  How do I know this is true?  Easy.  A task that is critical and needs to get done seldom gets assigned to a person with a track record of managing never-ending projects that seem to go on.  They get assigned to people trusted to deliver an outcome.  Without even deliberately knowing they delegate tasks in this way, they do.

Truly busy people know how to delegate, when to stay out of the way and when to roll up their sleeves and just do it themselves.  Their focus is on getting the important tasks done and making themselves less busy.  Routinely busy people are looking to remain busy, and often without knowing they are doing it, they keep tasks open and keep themselves positioned as a critical communications conduit.  They resist closing the task out to get assigned another task, or worse (in their minds), have no important task assigned to them.  Truly busy people don’t have this aversion, because as soon as they have any bandwidth at all, other important tasks are assigned (or reassigned) to them.  What I’ve observed over the last four decades is that most progressive company and department leaders already instinctively know this.  They just aren’t aware of it.  The key is to not burn out your truly busy people.  Instead, let them graduate up the ranks as they succeed, confident that there is another high-achieving candidate ready to follow their lead and fill their shoes.
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Successful manufacturers build on the people that take them forward.  As they empower, enable and grow the people, they build their businesses.  The company’s culture encourages its people to imagine, plan and persist on finding ways to move forward.
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“Leaders find a way.”

The second tip comes from someone I was also on a board with.  We faced many challenging situations together.  His closing mantra was “leaders find a way”.  And indeed, they do.  The leader is not the person with the position or title, or the education, or the letters behind their name.  The leader is simply the person that finds a way when others don’t or can’t.  In all of our workplaces, there are many people that can point out the reasons why something can’t get done.  In fact, we often admire, empower, and even promote individuals that have great abilities to foresee or articulate problems that others can’t see.  But how does that get a company ahead?

At best, it keeps the company from going backwards – It doesn’t pull the company forward.  Many managers are to some degree inclined to keep companies from going backwards, but leaders are more often inclined to find a way forward. There are leaders in every organization, in roles up and down the org chart.  In the most successful organizations I have come across, the people that find a way (leaders) are supported, encouraged and appreciated.  In less successful organizations, the folks that have a knack for finding a way become discouraged and move on.  A leader’s true role is to develop new leaders.  A successful company’s culture fosters and encourages people to imagine, plan and persist on finding ways to move forward.

This is a key differentiator that I’ve observed that sets successful thriving manufacturers apart.  They build on the people that take them forward.  As they empower, enable and grow those people, they build their businesses.

Who are those people in your organization – the ones that find a way and get things done?  Are you building on them?

Paul Hogendoorn co-founded FreePoint Technologies with the goal of giving manufacturers the benefit of information technologies that inform, empower and motivate their most critical asset – their people.

Access Paul’s full series of Leading For Success: Tips in Manufacturing Automation Magazine here: https://www.automationmag.com/author/paul-hogendoorn/

 

@AutomationMag #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #IIoT #MESsystem #MachineMonitoringSystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #LeanManufacturing

LEADING FOR SUCCESS: MORE Tips to Help You Make Your Company Great

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More Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the series of sharing tips I’ve learned from manufacturing companies and leaders I had the privilege of working with that were clearly succeeding and thriving, rather than just surviving. The tips are the best things I gleaned from them. The idea behind this series is to share all so everyone can do even better.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

 

In the first column, the tips were: “Don’t make a big production of it”, and “Your people are the smartest people in the room”. The two tips in the previous column were “What gets measured gets improved” and “You can get a lot more done when you don’t care who gets the credit.” They all seem relatively straightforward, but there’s more to it than just an easy-to-remember slogan.

“Digitize your proven processes first.”

A common and expensive mistake many companies make is that they tamper with proven plant floor processes in order to digitize them to achieve their stated Industry 4.0 goals. The mistaken belief is that it’s okay to change an effective plant floor process to accommodate a new digitized system, and the new process with a digitized system will be inherently better than the current process with an older manual system. This is a mistake on two counts. The first is that you may have reduced the effectiveness of a fairly effective production process, and you make money on the production process, not on the administration process. The second is that you will likely have made gaining buy-in on the implementation of any new digital system even harder to achieve by starting out on the wrong foot.

There’s a natural tendency to leave working processes alone and tackle problem areas first. However, in this case, it’s better to eliminate one major project variable by digitizing a process that you know already works. You are not trying to do two complicated things at the same time by introducing a paradigm-shifting technology and trying to fix a broken process. Fixing a broken process is a major task and objective by itself, as is digitizing a working process. For your whole Industry 4.0 plant floor digitization plan to have the best success, you need an early win. Digitizing a manufacturing administration process that you already know works well (checklists, scheduling, buy-off forms, etc.) can get you that early win. Taking on a broken process and trying to fix it with technology could stall your digitization initiative or send it in the wrong direction.

“Know your internal customer, and what’s in it for them.”

The larger an organization is, the more layers there are, and the more important this tip becomes. Advancing an idea or trying to get something critical done often means moving the conversation up the ladder one rung at a time. Or, it may mean delegating it down, but again, one rung at a time. Each rung on the ladder has a different stakeholder with a different agenda. A few years ago, my company’s marketing department developed a “persona chart” to help our sales team be more successful by aligning their pitch and terminology with the audience they were addressing. Seeing it all laid out on a single chart revealed how complex manufacturing organizations really are, and how important it is to understand “what’s in it” for everyone on the other ladder rungs.

On the far left of the persona chart are the machine operators and “value-adding, hands-on” people in your organization. On the far right is the C-suite, with the CEO on the very far right. In between, you have supervisors, department managers, plant managers, CI, maintenance and other functional managers, and perhaps division managers. The two main things that change as you go from left to right are the metric of concern and the period of interest. On the left, the metric of interest is parts, cycles, and rate, and the period is this hour, this shift, this day. On the far right, the metric is financial and the time view is this quarter, this year, this stage. On the left, the interest is personal financial security and stability. On the right, it’s profitability, sustainability and growth. On the rungs in between, it’s somewhere in the middle. Knowing how to advance your cause up the ladder, or delegate an objective down the ladder, requires a good understanding of what constitutes success for all the folks you are working with. The better you understand their position and what’s in it for them, the better your chance of achieving collective success.

Paul Hogendoorn co-founded FreePoint Technologies with the goal of giving manufacturers the benefit of information technologies that inform, empower and motivate their most critical asset – their people.

Access Paul’s full series of Leading For Success: Tips in Manufacturing Automation Magazine here: https://www.automationmag.com/author/paul-hogendoorn/

 

#SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

LEADING FOR SUCCESS: Tips to Help You Make Your Company Great

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Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the series of sharing tips I’ve learned from manufacturing companies and leaders I had the privilege of working with that were clearly succeeding and thriving, rather than just surviving. The tips are the best things I gleaned from them. The idea behind this series is to share all so everyone can do even better.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

 

“What gets measured gets improved.”

You might’ve heard this before, but there’s a catch – two actually. The first is “what” you measure is very important. If you measure the wrong thing, the improvements you make won’t make much difference – if any at all – to your operation. The best example I saw was a large tool and die company undertaking a major project to measure the OEE of their critical machines to improve that number. Several years into the project and their second attempt at doing it, one very astute manager concluded that they were focusing on the wrong thing. He observed that the time “under spindle” was relatively short compared to all the time that the pieces of work sat on skids at the end of aisles waiting for the next process to be run on them. He also found that minimizing the time between machining processes was a more pertinent objective than minimizing time under the spindle. The net result of measuring and improving that more relevant metric was a near 100 percent capacity increase in their facility, eliminating all overtime and outsourced operations as well as winning more business and taking on more work. The second catch is that to engage everyone in the improvement effort, the measurement must be shared in real time and be meaningful for the people actually involved. Sharing reports at the end of a month may be good for plant managers and executives to review in their meetings, but that has little motivational or behavioural change value.

“You can get a lot more done when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

I learned this one early on, from one of my mentors at the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC). He quarterbacked all sorts of small and large initiatives, deferring the credit to others. He was making investments into the people that he knew could leverage the projects’ successes, and if he ended up placing great champions to lead them from that point on, it would become a recurring win with an exponential result. Plus, he’d be free to quarterback another project. One of his most successful endeavours was the formation of the London Region Manufacturing Council. He initiated it and then placed it in the hands of a series of people (myself included) that received a lot of the credit for what the organization accomplished. Twenty years later, his initiative continues to be a strong advocate for manufacturers in the region.

But there is a catch to this tip too. Be careful that the right people get the credit. There are ‘credit takers’ in every organization who will quickly fill every credit void. Even worse, there are ‘credit destroyers’, people sensitive to the perception that when someone else looks good, it’s not good for them. To counter this, praise and credit should be shared publicly and evenly sprinkled over a larger group. The primary praise and credit should be shared more specifically and shared up the ladder a couple of rungs so that the individual may receive more opportunities to do even more great things for your company. Giving credit where it’s due adds to your currency in the organization as well as puts another potentially impactful contributor on the corporate radar. True winning team players are never afraid of having another high performer on the team. ‘Credit’ is an important currency and needs to be invested back into the business wisely.

Paul Hogendoorn co-founded FreePoint Technologies with the goal of giving manufacturers the benefit of information technologies that inform, empower and motivate their most critical asset – their people.

Access Paul’s full series of Leading For Success: Tips in Manufacturing Automation Magazine here: https://www.automationmag.com/author/paul-hogendoorn/

 

@AutomationMag #AutomationMag #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

Top 10 Reasons it’s Great to Work in Manufacturing!

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Manufacturing is a great place to work. It’s an industry that satisfies those who enjoy “doing”, and it’s one of the largest sectors in North America. Manufacturing employs 8.5% of the population in the USA and accounts for almost 11% of Canada’s GDP.

There are lots of reasons why it’s great to work in manufacturing. We thought we’d do a bit of research to find out what people who work in manufacturing think about manufacturing.

 

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1. It’s exciting

Manufacturing covers a wide array of industries – it’s difficult for people not to find it interesting. Manufacturing spans some of the most interesting high-tech industries, such as aerospace, food technology, machine monitoring, and pharmaceuticals. Not everyone gets the opportunity to tell friends about their day-job, but when you’re working on the latest developments in aerospace, people want to listen.

 

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2. It’s safe

To the contrary of what’s widely believed, the days of workers crammed into darkened sweat-boxes, handling dangerous chemicals and machines that would gladly rip off a limb are now, mostly, resigned to history. Things have come a long way. Robots, machine monitoring, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and automation are all employed to ensure that the workplace is a smart and safe one.

 

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3. You’re creating tangible things

Manufacturing is all about producing things which go on to help people live their lives. And there’s very little that’s more satisfying than seeing the fruits of your labor and saying “I made that”. Workers in manufacturing are responsible for bringing products into stores, and maybe even set pieces into blockbuster movies. If you work in a bank, you shuffled some numbers today – and those numbers got shuffled by someone else. Manufacturing produces tangible products.

 

 

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4. There’s a career path

There’s more to manufacturing than fabrication and welding – although, these days, these are highly skilled roles. Automation has taken a lot of the dangerous, repetitive work away from the factory floor, leaving many specialized tasks behind for talented individuals.

As the baby boomers retire, there are opportunities in leadership, as well as opportunities in sales, business development, marketing, product research and development, and HR. Manufacturing can provide stability and life-long career paths.

 

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5. The Cutting Edge

Manufacturing has always driven innovation: 3D printing, the IIoT, drones, robotics, for example. We adopt new technologies before they become widely available on the consumer market, so we get the opportunity to use and perfect the development of these cutting-edge technologies. It’s a great reason to get up for work in the morning.

 

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6. Contributing

Manufacturing makes a significant contribution to home and global economies, as well as puts food on the table at a local level. With a substantial contribution to GDP, manufacturing helps raise the standard of living for workers and consumers, while lubricating the economy. We’re also producing products that make lives easier, so not only is the contribution financial, but we’re adding to the quality of life for millions of consumers.

 

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7. There’s a need

There’s a huge skills gap in manufacturing. In 2011, the National Association of Manufacturers identified that there was a 67% deficit in available, qualified workers. That means that there’s a huge opportunity for training, and for those hoping to develop life-long skills. The world of work has become transient as our economies have shifted to a service-based focus; the “job for life” in those industries has become a thing of the past. But manufacturing is here to stay and needs skilled workers, especially as the baby boomers are retiring, leaving huge gaps in the workforce.  

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8. Diversity

With the massive demand for skilled people, there’s a huge array of career progression opportunities in manufacturing. The image of repetitive production lines and grubby overalls is not the new norm. Of course, those roles are still available for those who want them, but technology has stepped in, leaving wider possibilities for skilled workers. It’s not all shop-floor working; there are opportunities in prototyping, product development, as well as the many office and marketing roles.

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9. You get paid!

Manufacturing offers competitive pay and benefit packages. There’s a higher percentage of workers in manufacturing with retirement plans, in comparison with other private sector industries. And there’s often a good range of health care benefits available, and on a more generous basis than in other industries.

Pay, on average, is higher for equivalent roles in other industries.

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10. New skills

As manufacturing adapts to new technologies, so do the roles. There’s a distinct push for people with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) skills, as machines require programming and new software needs development.

Companies are struggling to recruit people with these skills; partly because it’s not widely understood that these skills are required. But for highly qualified, technical specialists, manufacturing offers excellent potential for a great career.

So, there you have it – ten reasons why it’s great to work in this exciting industry. If you’re interested in getting involved, speak to your local careers advisor, or approach your local manufacturer directly and let them know what you have to offer them.

If you are already in the manufacturing industry and what to improve your productivity, reach out to us today.

 

Co-op students: A key to plant managers’ success

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As I continue to share the Top 10 Tips I gleaned from industry leading manufacturers over my 40 year career, I almost missed sharing this one.

When it comes to digitizing processes on the plant floor in the pursuit of achieving “Industry 4.0” objectives, it occurred to me that many of my most successful customers had benefitted from the youthful, tech savvy enthusiasm of college students working under the direction of the plant manager, getting ideas put into action that the manager, or his seasoned staff, was not able to do as effortlessly themselves.  New technology has its advantages, but it is not as exciting to the ‘more seasoned’ crowd as it is the younger generation that embraces it naturally and enthusiastically.

About a year ago, I was doing a presentation to a company that has 3 plants and about 500 employees.  The owner of the company was still involved and was at the meeting along with his plant managers, CI manager, IT manager, CFO and a few others.  Almost as a tag-along, one of them invited their co-op student to the meeting, likely because it was his responsibility to keep the co-op student gainfully occupied that four-month term.

Read Paul Hogendoorn’s Full Article in the March Issue of Manufacturing Automation “Industry Watch”

https://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=46118&i=740720&p=16&ver=html5

 

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