by Kelsey H | Aug 16, 2021 | Industry News
“Now Hiring!” “We’re Growing!” “Start Today & Earn a Bonus!”
Are you tired of seeing these messages posted on every business’s door? Unfortunately, many industries, including manufacturing, are struggling to find enough candidates to fill open job positions. As of May 2021, the US manufacturing industry had half a million job openings to fill, according to a report from Deloitte.
Many manufacturers saw older employees retire at an increasing rate last year, which has contributed to the influx of available positions. According to a survey from MetLife, in 2020, more than 1 in 10 Baby Boomers decided to retire sooner than expected. However, there simply haven’t been as many young workers coming in to replace the retirees.
Having enough employees on hand is essential if your company wants to take advantage of consumers’ surging demand for many products. Consider adopting the following strategies to boost your candidate base and capitalize on the growing economy.
Target New Demographics
Sadly, younger demographics are often hesitant to pursue a career in manufacturing simply because they don’t know much about it. For many people, “manufacturing” still conjures up images of hard and messy work, long hours and potentially dangerous conditions. Of course, that is no longer reflective of most manufacturing positions. There are tons of careers within manufacturing that don’t require manual labor, let alone a hard hat and steel-toed boots.
However, without exposure to modern plants and facilities, potential employees may not understand how far the industry has come in recent years. As you create or update materials used to promote job openings, be sure to prominently feature your advancements in technology, attractive work environment or any other appealing benefits you can offer. Video can be a particularly effective tool to show your employees in action and perhaps even interview them on what they enjoy about your work. Outlining this new reality of manufacturing will start to change the industry’s perception among young, skilled workers.
Address Changing Priorities
The new, young work force of today is quite different than the Baby Boomers, who were coming of age when the manufacturing industry hit its peak employment in 1979. Though pay rate will always be an important factor, Millennials and Gen Zs also prioritize other values in their workplace, including work/life balance, diversity and inclusion. In order to capture the interest of this younger audience, your organization must prove that you also share and have addressed these key concerns. If you’ve already taken concrete actions, such as adding flexible work hours, remote work options or inclusion training, announce those achievements proudly on any hiring materials you create. If you haven’t added these elements yet, consider how your organization can get started to make an impression on future prospects.
Consider Untapped Markets
Though nearly 50% of all workers in the US are women, men still make up more than two-thirds of all manufacturing employees as of May 2021. This phenomenon is part of a larger societal issue, where women are overwhelmingly pushed into more traditional caretaking roles, such as teaching or nursing. However, by overlooking the female audience, many organizations are still fueling the perception that manufacturing is a hyper-masculine industry, and as a result they are missing out on an important half of the workforce. If you do happen to have a number of female employees, consider highlighting them on your website and social media on a regular basis and promote their accomplishments to illustrate your support.
It’s also critical to continually meet female employees’ needs in order to retain their talent. According to a recent Deloitte survey, 1 in 4 women in manufacturing are considering leaving their jobs. For most of these employees, the decision comes down to the need for a more flexible schedule due to family obligations. If they want to keep positions filled, manufacturers must find ways to address and solve these issues internally.
As you work on your hiring efforts, it’s important to make the most of the workers you do have in the meantime. An advanced planning and scheduling tool, such as VirtECS, can be incredibly helpful in optimizing the allocation of your existing employees. VirtECS gives manufacturers the ability to make a model of their unique plant, from the layout of equipment to the number of employees available at any given time. Our clients have told us time and again how helpful our resource allocation tool has been for their operations. To learn more about VirtECS, check out our guide here.
by Kelsey H | Aug 3, 2021 | Industry News, Supply Chain
The ever-growing number of cyberattacks has much of the manufacturing industry on edge – and for good reason. According to a June 2021 report from Morphisec, one in five manufacturers in the US and UK have experienced a cyberattack in the last 12 months. As a whole, manufacturing plants reported three times as many ransomware attacks in 2020 as the previous year.
Cybersecurity has notably reached the highest office of the United States, with President Biden signing an executive order on May 12 after a string of recent attacks on federal agencies. The order outlines a “software bill of materials” that requires government vendors to provide specific tools that will help agencies identify their most vulnerable networks. It’s an important first step in the fight against virtual attacks, but these changes will have to make their way into private organizations in order to more significantly impact the manufacturing industry.
Cyberattacks bring up obvious security and financial concerns for manufacturers, but there are many other hidden dangers to these threats. One compromised plant can result in a backlog through the entire industry’s supply chain, leading to some of the product shortages we’re currently experiencing.
When attacks seem to be coming from all sides, it’s difficult to feel truly secure in the safety of your business. However, experts have noted how essential it is to work with a cybersecurity team and ask them some key questions to decrease your risk for a potential cyber threat.
What’s the status of our internal electronic connections?
According to a security expert from PricewaterhouseCoopers, assessing vulnerable connections between departments is critical to stop cyber threats before they happen. Performing a review of all tools and assets shared throughout the organization has helped other companies catch weak links in their electronic defenses and ensure sensitive information has all the proper barriers in place. You may also want to ask your IT department about the best ways to communicate with them in the event that you discover a threat or vulnerable channel. Providing a clear path of communication can help move emergency actions along much more quickly – and once you discover a cyber threat, every second counts.
Are there any parameters to remote work?
Working from home has added flexibility and physical safety for employees at many companies, but unfortunately, it’s also opened the door to cyberattacks. Data from a recent survey of IT and cybersecurity professionals indicates that remote work caused security breaches in 20% of all organizations last year. For organizations that use remote work in some capacity, it’s essential to consult your cybersecurity team about the tools currently in place to prevent hackers from stealing remote access and capturing confidential information. If you haven’t yet added any security features to address these risks, consider asking about geographic limits for remote access, multi-factor authentication, and heightened control over user permissions to your network.
Do we have protected backups in place?
For all too many businesses, cyberattacks eventually do become a reality. If your plant experiences a security threat, do you have a backup of your most critical data to get operations back up as soon as possible? And what methods does your cybersecurity team have in place to protect those backups? According to IndustryWeek, manufacturers who store monthly backups of all their data at a safe off-site location are able to recover more quickly from a cyberattack. If essential information is lost in an attack with no way to get it back, recovery may take weeks, if not months, leading to drastic delays, wasted product and lost revenue.
Vendors and partners are also an important group to consult about cybersecurity. Though they exist outside of your organization, they will likely have sensitive information about your products or services within their own network. To ensure you company is fully protected, be sure to talk to your current vendors about their cybersecurity plans and ask any new partners about their security practices before entering into an agreement. For other concerns you may have about your organization’s cybersecurity, don’t hesitate to reach out to your IT department or a trusted team of security experts in your area. These experts can provide more detailed advice for your specific needs and help you design strategic processes, giving your business as much protection as possible.
by Kelsey H | Jul 7, 2021 | Industry News
Though the US is well on its way toward containing the COVID-19 pandemic, not all countries have been as fortunate. In Taiwan, the struggle to control COVID-19 cases has caused a disruption to the production of semiconductor chips, and companies across the world are already feeling the ramifications.
In time, the semiconductor shortage will be solved, but the situation has exposed a troubling snag in the supply chain. Industries that depend on these products should prepare for extensive changes heading their way in the months and years to come. Keep reading to find out the latest updates on the manufacturing situation in Taiwan and all the related supply chain consequences.
What’s Happening with the Semiconductor Supply Chain?
Following an oil crisis in 1973, a group of businessmen and Taiwanese government officials met to discuss potential new endeavors into technology to improve Taiwan’s local economy. Taiwan’s government quickly began funding research for a new form of technology – semiconductors. Within years, manufacturing plants began to form and earn business from companies around the world. One of those plants, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, eventually became Apple’s semiconductor supplier of choice and is currently the largest chip manufacturer in the world. Thanks to those early investors, Taiwan is now the epicenter of semiconductor manufacturing, and many of the world’s largest companies are heavily reliant on them for a steady stream of chips.
Unfortunately, Taiwan has seen COVID-19 cases surge in recent months. Due to geopolitical tensions, the country has had a limited supply of vaccines, and less than 1% of the population is fully vaccinated so far. Taiwan spent much of May and June under Level 3 restrictions, just short of a full lockdown. Over the past few months, many plants in Taiwan have been continually affected by outbreaks, leaving them short-staffed and making production difficult. Some have even had to halt operations completely for periods of time, and consequently, the total output of semiconductors has been significantly lower than usual.
How Have Companies Been Affected So Far?
Although most companies that design and utilize semiconductor chips are located in the US, almost all the major semiconductor manufacturers are based in Asia. In fact, just two semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan hold 72% of the global market revenue, according to TrendForce. Throughout the pandemic, corporations that rely on these manufacturers for their parts have discovered that they are extremely vulnerable to any price increases, disruptions, and delays.
So far, automakers have felt the semiconductor supply shortage the most. In order to function properly, most new vehicles require hundreds of semiconductor chips. Research from Bloomberg suggests the shortage may cause carmakers to lose up to $61 billion this year in revenue. Additionally, tech companies like Apple and Samsung have had to delay new smartphone launches due to limited access to semiconductor chips. By the end of Q2, smartphone production will likely be reduced by an estimated 5%. For reference, that means there will be about 15.5 million fewer smartphones available than usual. Companies that produce other electronics, including televisions, video game consoles and home appliances, are also expecting future delays and product shortages.
What Are the Long-Term Consequences?
This serious disturbance in the semiconductor supply chain is drawing scrutiny from many sources, including international governments. The European Union’s Commissioner, Thierry Breton, reportedly sees the shortage as an opportunity to overhaul the industry’s supply chain. Earlier this year, President Biden conducted a 100-day review of the US’s manufacturing supply chain and specifically assessed our process of obtaining semiconductors. Then, last month, the Senate approved a new bill, the US Innovation and Competition Act, which will provide $52 billion in funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The bill is designed to encourage companies to build new tech hubs throughout the US and begin reshoring semiconductor production to prevent supply chain disruptions from happening in the future.
If the semiconductor industry continues to be reshored, it may prompt some companies to become more vertically integrated to avoid rising costs. For example, Intel has already started to take on more of their own semiconductor chip manufacturing. This integration process, while potentially beneficial long-term, will require significant capital up-front, along with an increased workforce and constant innovation to keep up with competitors.
If you’re considering vertical integration or simply wondering how your company can plan production around potential disruptions, it may be helpful to utilize an advanced planning and scheduling tool. Thanks to nearly 30 years of R&D investment and real-world experience with some of the most complex manufacturing processes, VirtECS is the most complete design, planning and scheduling solution. For more information on how VirtECS can optimize the processes for your organization, download our guide here.
by Kelsey H | Jun 7, 2021 | Industry News
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford
All manufacturing plants, especially those that produce highly advanced or brand-new products, are bound to experience mishaps and mistakes from time to time. When these errors occur, it’s best to take a cue from manufacturing pioneer Henry Ford. What can your team do to learn from the mistake and prevent the same issues from happening over and over again?
To quickly minimize the effects of the mistake, there are a few immediate steps your organization can implement. Down the road, if you notice continual issues, you may discover deeper-rooted challenges that you will also need to address. We’ll discuss both kinds of solutions below.
Short-Term Solutions
In any industry, it’s important to own up when you make a mistake. This is especially critical for manufacturers that are handling products that can cause harm to consumers if not produced correctly. After the problem is discovered, the first thing you need to do is report it to the appropriate parties within your own organization. Once everyone is brought up to speed internally, you may also need to alert outside groups, such as federal regulators, distributors, or clients who will be affected by the setback.
After you’ve notified the correct people, you’ll want to act immediately to solve the mistake temporarily and enable your plant to resume production. One way to cut down on errors is to increase the number of people onsite who are monitoring for irregularities. Simply having more eyes on production will increase the chances that issues are noticed while they’re still fixable. These supervisors shouldn’t be intimidating or micromanaging to others on the plant floor, but rather they should help where they can and serve as a reminder to pay attention to the work. However, the expense of having more people working at once will add up over time, so this solution is best used only in the short-term.
As another precautionary step, the added supervisors could take time to check the progress between multiple stages of production. Reviewing products throughout the process will help your organization pinpoint exactly where mistakes are happening, and you’ll be able to remove affected materials before they cause more issues down the line or take up wasted time.
When Johnson & Johnson experienced issues with a contract manufacturer that resulted in the contamination of 15 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, they quickly set these initial solutions in motion. They had to notify officials at the FDA immediately, and because the errors occurred at a contracted plant, Johnson & Johnson chose to increase the number of its own employees on-site to monitor the work and perform additional checks. Had these precautions been in place to begin with, they may have discovered the contaminated doses in hours rather than days and could have avoided such a disastrous delay in production.
Long-Term Solutions
While quick actions can help put out fires in the short-term, they’re often costly or unrealistic to sustain for years to come. To nip these mishaps in the bud, you may need to revisit the drawing board on your overall processes. Addressing the root cause of these errors will be more cost-efficient and provide many benefits down the road.
If many of the mistakes come from human error, you may need to consider that your organization isn’t properly prepping new employees for their duties. Before new hires start their job at your plant, increase the intensive training they receive to help each person become more comfortable in their role before they’re thrown into real situations. As part of this training, you might give them advice from long-time employees on how to overcome common mistakes to prep them for challenges they’ll likely face eventually. To prepare employees most effectively for their unique tasks, you’ll want to make sure a portion of the preparation is on-the-job, as well.
In order to catch and prevent more potential mistakes, employees must also feel empowered to report any concerns they have or errors they’ve made. If your plant encourages a culture of transparency and continual improvement, all employees will feel capable of playing the supervisory role we discussed as a short-term solution. When everyone works together to make each other and the entire organization better, it eliminates the costly need for additional oversight.
To aid employees’ work, reassess your current work areas with people’s movements and capabilities in mind. The placement of the mechanisms and controls may have made sense in theory, but in reality, they could be making your team’s jobs harder than they need to be. Similarly, if your processes still require extremely close observations, manual calculations, or constant multi-tasking, it can be difficult for any human to avoid occasional mistakes without additional assistance. If you can automate the more arduous calculations or give employees convenient tools that will relieve some of their stress, you’ll see the investment pay off with more precise results.
One improvement that can help streamline and optimize your entire plant is an advanced planning & scheduling solution. Planning & scheduling software, such as VirtECS, uses virtual plant modeling to replicate your facility’s unique characteristics and find the most effective production schedule. VirtECS can both identify inefficiencies in your processes and easily adapt your existing schedule to account for any changes you decide to make. If you’re interested in learning more about the ways VirtECS can minimize inefficiencies at your plant, check out our guide here.
by Kelsey H | May 4, 2021 | Industry News
The race to produce an effective vaccine against COVID-19 has been one of the most publicized manufacturing feats of our time. With the virus spreading rapidly across the world, pharmaceutical manufacturers were tasked with producing the vaccines at warp speed once they were approved. Now, with about one-third of all Americans fully vaccinated, it’s safe to say these companies are delivering on their promises. In March, President Biden announced the US will have enough vaccine doses for every American adult by the end of May, a full two months earlier than initially anticipated.
Despite the inherent challenges of trying to mass-produce a brand-new vaccine, these manufacturers have managed to outperform expectations. This accomplishment has shown what is possible in the medical field, but it has also uncovered unique strategies within the manufacturing world. In the future, we expect to see plants start adopting these effective procedures, which we’ll analyze below, to make production as efficient as possible.
Keep communication open across all sites.
During the COVID-19 vaccine production process, we’ve seen an increased need for communication across all manufacturing sites involved. To keep the rollout moving as quickly as possible, much of the process was split up among plants across the country. For example, Pfizer has utilized plants across the US and the world to produce their vaccine. The raw materials are produced in St. Louis, then the mRNA drug substance is created and purified in Massachusetts, and finally the product must be shipped to Michigan to be finished. When the Pfizer vaccine is shipped, it must also be kept at a very low temperature with dry ice and heat monitors to preserve the active ingredients. With these many moving components, it’s been essential for all sites to stay in constant communication to keep their processes coordinated so no critical steps are skipped or mistimed.
Even if your product doesn’t require such strict instructions, your organization should employ open and rapid communication to keep production moving efficiently. When delays or changes happen, updates should be sent swiftly to everyone in the organization who may need to know. The people responsible for the next step in the process can make the needed adjustments to ensure as little time and resources are wasted as possible. Manufacturers that are able to coordinate and react to changes in real time will be well-prepared to meet customer needs and demands in the years to come.
Sacrifice short-term gains for long-term benefits.
In many cases, slowing or stopping manufacturing production for a short period in order to increase production in the future can be a very worthwhile sacrifice. As we look to Pfizer’s vaccine process again, they decided to temporarily pause production at their plant in Belgium to upgrade their factory lines and increase the overall production capacity. This decision will allow Pfizer to produce 2 billion total vaccine doses this year, which is a massive increase from their original estimate of 1.3 billion doses. Even though they had to delay the process upfront, they will ultimately be able to produce a higher yield in less time.
It’s natural for manufacturers to hesitate to disrupt the flow of production, because each second is valuable at any plant. Reducing your facility’s output even for a short period is no small sacrifice. However, if the pause in production will improve efficiency and total product output going forward, this kind of upgrade will be exponentially beneficial for your organization in the long run. If your organization is hesitant to take this approach, use data to find the break-even date, or the amount of time it will take for the increased output to make up for the losses incurred while production was paused. This can help determine if a short-term stoppage is plausible for your plant.
Form mutually beneficial relationships with other manufacturers.
There are a number of manufacturers currently producing the vaccines now, and each organization has been able to scale up production by forming partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies. For example, after receiving approval for their single-dose vaccine, Johnson & Johnson enlisted Merck to help produce a larger supply that can be quickly shipped out to communities. By spreading the work around to other facilities that are equipped to produce vaccines, the brands are able to push their product out faster and the partners are able to get a piece of this valuable work.
Other manufacturers should look to mutually beneficial partnerships as they consider efficient changes to their process. Some may hesitate to outsource production of their own products, but this strategy often helps organizations create more product and save their time. Contract manufacturers are specialty plants that exist solely to produce parts or projects for other brands. Hiring these facilities that are made to handle part of your process can prove to be an important asset in expanding production in the future.
However, when outsourcing your operations, be aware of the increased risk for mistakes. Unfortunately, Johnson & Johnson has faced numerous issues with their vaccine production at Emergent BioSolutions’ plant in Baltimore. When you enter a contract manufacturing partnership, be sure to clearly communicate your expectations, and consider sending some of your own employees to supervise on-site for a period to be sure processes are executed properly.
Making strategic changes doesn’t have to throw off your entire manufacturing process. With advanced manufacturing planning and scheduling software, you can ensure that your plant will continue to run as efficiently as possible. APS software can also help you identify the most beneficial improvements to make. For more information on VirtECS, our planning and scheduling optimization tool that has been helping manufacturers since 1993, download our guide here.
by Kelsey H | Apr 5, 2021 | Industry News, Process Improvement
There’s lots of talk about artificial intelligence in the business world. Manufacturers have started to wonder if AI makes sense for their company and what it may mean for their workforce. We’d argue that there’s a new AI that’s more important for the manufacturing industry: augmented intelligence.
While artificial intelligence involves processes that use technology to complete tasks automatically, augmented intelligence is focused on providing human decision makers with more advanced knowledge to make informed decisions. By compiling and sorting through data from daily operations, augmented intelligence can help your employees form a clearer picture of what is happening during production and the causes behind it. From there, your organization can begin making the most productive adjustments. Let’s get into the specific benefits of introducing augmented intelligence into your plant.
Early Detection of Problems
In the normal operations of a manufacturing plant, each process is generating so much data at any given moment that it can be hard for employees to thoroughly review every aspect of production. As such, it’s common for small mistakes or inefficiencies to slip through the cracks. Augmented intelligence can sort through all of this data rapidly and present your employees with the critical data they need in real time, allowing them to identify deviations or other issues quickly.
One notable example of the effectiveness of augmented intelligence comes from a clinical study on cancer cells, discussed in a recent IBM report. The study found an artificial intelligence-based system had a 7.5% error rate in identifying lymph node cancer cells, while human scientists had an error rate of 3.5%. However, when the scientists combined system data with their own findings, the error rate fell to just 0.5%. With added knowledge from augmented intelligence, your workforce can successfully make adjustments and relieve some of the strain on your overall manufacturing system.
Closely Monitor Processes
Another beneficial factor of augmented intelligence is the ability to provide round-the-clock monitoring of all production activities. This technology can gather a remarkable amount of data, while also organizing the information to make it easier for your team to analyze. Employees can then make more timely and accurate calculations to recommend potential improvements in product quality, plant optimization and other areas. Augmented intelligence will not make any real decisions for your plant. Instead, it presents all the necessary data and relies on your team to make the best decision accordingly.
Over time, this data can also help your organization learn when various machines or systems will need maintenance to prevent breakdowns or inefficiencies. Getting ahead of potential delays will save both time and money in the long run, and keeping machines running smoothly can also reduce your plant’s overall operating costs. According to predictions from Gartner, augmentation will generate nearly $3 trillion in value in 2021, making it more valuable than any other form of AI. By 2025, it may be twice as valuable as other virtual agents.
Learn How to Adapt and Scale
Manufacturers that utilize augmented intelligence are able to combine data from processes throughout the entire plant. With a more connected system, your team is able to more easily and quickly work around bottlenecks. Previously, these challenges may have complicated new product introductions, variations or personalization. By implementing these changes, your plant can run more efficiently and also allow you to offer a stronger overall customer experience. As demand for product increases, augmented intelligence can also provide the information needed to successfully scale up production to meet growing consumer needs.
Our advanced manufacturing planning and scheduling software, VirtECS, has been utilizing augmented intelligence since our company was founded back in 1993. VirtECS relies on augmented intelligence to continuously learn about a plant’s unique planning and scheduling challenges and discover optimized solutions. As such, our VirtECS technology is able to advance on a regular basis. If you’re interested in learning more about how augmented intelligence and advanced software can improve your manufacturing operations, click here to view our VirtECS Overview.
