“In the near future artificial intelligence will most likely replace tasks, not jobs. The good news is that it will also create new markets and jobs,” Laura Buckler aptly summarizes in ROBOTIQ. “We might need additional education and re-training for those jobs, but the opportunities will be there.”

An example of such a task replaced is any repetitive job on an assembly line – a job that has defined the industry since its innovative inception in the 20th century, starting in automotive. It could be picking out bad parts, or separating green tomatoes from red ones, or simply filling a box with items, or aligning items properly for the next task in the line. As these tasks are replaced with machines that can do them just as well or better, it doesn’t eliminate the worker, just the task.

Robotic technology has overtaken some of the major functions in manufacturing once delegated to human workers, namely the repetitive, routine, mundane and often dangerous tasks. And this technology is no longer exclusive to large factories; smaller businesses are utilizing automation solutions to their advantage as well.

This trend will only increase with evolving IoT and digitalization. The robotic revolution is proving to be safer, reliable and cost-effective with manufacturers seeing a great return on this investment in a year or less. Automation technology allows manufacturers to turn their focus toward innovation that will not only create more jobs, but create jobs for a more educated and highly skilled workforce.

According to a Statistic Canada report from 2020, manufacturing companies that invested in and employed robots hired 15 percent more human workers. And according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) President Jeff Burnstein “Factory automation has allowed companies to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S. that would otherwise go overseas” he told Investor’s Business Daily. “Robots may take over certain tasks but workers get reassigned to other jobs. If you’re doing some dull, dangerous or dirty job, maybe a robot is doing that now and you’re doing some more productive thing for the company … And in the overall scheme, jobs are growing.”

Supporting this conclusion, Gustavo Sepulveda, process automation business head at Panasonic told Design News “Automation reduces the cost of manufacturing goods, it helps to produce with more quality, efficiency and safety. That generates revenue and more jobs … It is proven that countries with the highest automation density have lower unemployment rates.”

For many companies, a sudden shift to a fully automated line is a daunting change, but Sepulveda claims that such change can – perhaps should – be gradual. It may be possible to initiate automation gradually in one aspect of a company’s tasks and increase the complexity over time. And as new technology becomes available, there are certainly advantages to being flexible to upgrade.

According to a recent Pricewaterhouse Coopers (Pwc) report, close to 60 percent of manufacturers are utilizing some form of robotics technology. That percentage is expected to increase.

Humans and robots working together

The worrisome idea was that robots would replace workers, but the truth we see today is that people and machines working together yields better results for many applications. While robotic technology is set to operate on the repetitive and often dangerous tasks, employees are free to make decisions and handle tasks that require more analysis or creative thought. While a machine is handling the mundane, the worker might see potential problems before they become disasters, or be able to reason out a better way of doing something. Of course it depends on the environment and the tasks, but the human-robot relationship should be symbiotic, not competitive.

As MIT professor and economist David Author stated in an article in Manufacturing Automation about the introduction of robotics in factories “Most managers thought they were turning workers into unskilled machine tenders,” But rather the result was “A higher demand for people who could do abstract reasoning and control those machines.”

And those companies that invest in and train their employees to work together with and manage utilized robotic technology will benefit from a safer, more efficient and productive workforce ultimately creating better job satisfaction and a long-term commitment.

As with many industries, labour shortages are of major concern in manufacturing (far from that prediction that we’d have jobless workers who’ve been replaced) and many companies are investing in internships to help develop STEM skills specific to their needs. Many firms have partnerships with high schools and community colleges for individual internships. Others are working in conjunction with government agencies and career assistance organizations or taking advantage of economic development funds in order to establish skilled-trades apprenticeship programs.

According to a study published in the World Economic Forum – The Robot Revolution: Managerial and Employment Consequences for Firms, co-author Lynn Wu, professor of operations, information and decisions at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that “Any employment loss in our data we found came from the non-adopting firms. These firms become less productive, relative to the adopters. They lost their competitive advantage and, as a result, they had to lay off workers … The story is really about how do you leverage technology better to become more productive, to become more competitive? And how do you change your managerial firm practices so you can get the most out of your robot technologies?”

In conclusion, the manufacturing industry is in constant transition with newer technologies replacing the older technologies of the past, but these advancements are not killing jobs. Quite the opposite is true, as firms adopting innovative technology are thriving and growing, hiring skilled workers in jobs that are far more rewarding and healthy than ever before in the manufacturing industry.

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In the higher-risk manufacturing sectors falling, slipping on loose ground materials, tripping, and exposure to toxic chemicals are all contributors to injury, time off work, illness, and even death in some instances.

It’s the responsibility of the employer and even the employee to take a proactive, strategic approach to reducing these risks. And an effective and well-implemented workplace safety and health program can prove invaluable.

So it’s a given that workplace health and safety should be in the mission statement of any manufacturing company, regardless of size. And every employee needs to be responsible for abiding by safety policies mandated by a manufacturer. But safety, while by far the most important reason for attention to this basic principle, has some important side effects, all beneficial.

Productive safety

An international leader in industrial services, Advance Technology Services, in partnership with Plant Engineering magazine, conducted a study where researchers discovered that “83 percent of senior management and operations personnel witnessed a noticeable rise in productivity levels following the implementation of a safety program.”

These same researchers also saw a decrease in the costs of injuries and insurance claims.

According to David Miller, Advanced Technology Services’ senior director of environmental health and safety, “The results of this survey prove the primary importance of safety within today’s manufacturing environments.”

He adds that, “Only those manufacturing facilities which continue to emphasize safety as a top-level issue will remain highly productive and competitive in today’s marketplace.”

Essential training

Manufacturers can play a vital role in employee safety and health by offering assurance that both new and existing employees are comprehensively trained in their job responsibilities and are aware of the numerous safety protocols in place.

Safety-training software aids manufacturers by saving time and improves efficiency in their safety departments through hazard reporting, incident reporting, job safety analyses, mobile inspections, and behavior-based safety, for example.

Over the past decade, there has been a decline in work-related injuries according to some experts.

This is due in part to advances in technology and ergonomics programs. But there is still more to be done in the manufacturing sector to improve worker health and safety. It takes thorough training to bring new workers into any manufacturing facility. And it can be a challenge.

“There’s a learning curve for onboarding,” says Brian Kramer, manufacturing industry practice leader for the insurance company The Hartford. “Promoting worker safety goes beyond the safety manual or handbook. It’s about creating a culture that’s committed to, and very much focused on, safety and accountability.”

The Hartford indicates that, “The learning curve for new workers with a year or less of experience is steep and closely tied to injury rates. Employees with one year or less of experience accounted for 35 percent of claim volume compared to 15 percent by teammates with at least one to two years of experience… The takeaway is clear. Experience and retraining are critical to keeping workers safe.”

This also holds for management training. It’s the strength of all team members in manufacturing that will determine the success of a company through quality assurance that in turn ensures efficient operations and, perhaps more importantly, a company’s reputation.

Safeguarding workers also safeguards profit margins and can be achievable with a well-executed business plan. This must engage all members of a team so that the implementing of prescribed courses of action is achieved.

Leadership skills not only improve employee satisfaction but enable all team members to share responsibility for looking out for other team members, reducing workplace accidents. This is also an essential part of the framework for a positive company culture – the social and professional environment in which employees spend their days.

A supportive culture leads to better employee retention and certainly morale, giving employees confidence in management skills and leadership.

Pivoting with PPE

Employees are required to wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for each job they do. It may include footwear, glasses, head protection, and clothing, for example. It should be fitted appropriately with employees understanding how to wear and utilize it.

PPE requires regular maintenance, assessment, and updates.

PPE also protects employees from liability for any injury they sustain or cause. Even though a task takes only a moment is no reason to forego the wearing of the appropriate PPE or of being ignorant of the requirements for each protective item.

Sharp materials and corrosive substances are everywhere and can seriously damage the eyes. That’s why safety glasses are one of the most essential and effective forms of PPE and are available in different configurations for every job task. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), “90 percent of eye injuries could have been prevented by safety eyewear.”

Making machines safe

Having machine guarding in place on all forms of manufacturing equipment is essential to safety. Shields or other devices covering hazardous machine parts prevent equipment-operator injuries as well as injuries to anyone nearby.

Without proper machine guarding severe incidents such as crushed hands or fingers, burns, and even injuries that necessitate amputation may occur. All equipment such as overhead cranes requires periodic inspections to assure that proper guarding is in place.

Any equipment part, function, or process has the potential to cause injury. Such hazards need to be controlled or eliminated. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), “Machine guarding is the first line of defense to protect workers from machine-related injury. Without guarding, workers would be directly exposed to serious and potentially life-threatening hazards.”

OSHA also says, “Machine workers sustain 18,000 injuries and 800 deaths every year. While injuries can occur from machines in a variety of ways, one of the most common is lack of guarding.”

Safety-savvy tech

The manufacturing industry is ever-evolving with new technologies related to advanced automation, robotics, new materials and composites, and advanced process controls, for example.

Such technologies have greatly improved how a manufacturer plans and schedules manufacturing processes. For example, 3D printing is now cheaper while using less material and enabling more options for manufacturing facilities to custom create products.

Wearable technology and occupational exoskeletons can prevent job-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Such wearables can prove to be functional while improving ergonomics. Gloves that record employee hand movements track biomechanical movement, which can monitor and identify the kind of repetitive motion that leads to injuries.

Various technological advancements allow manufacturers to produce quality products more cheaply while cutting down the time for manufacturing. For the manufacturer, this equates to improvement in productivity with decreased costs.

In addition to advanced technologies increasing the efficiency of operations through waste reduction, manufacturers that are most highly technology-driven compared to the competition are overwhelmingly likely to be among the fastest-growing in their industry.

However, with advanced technologies come cybersecurity issues. Manufacturing companies implementing new technologies should focus on addressing such concerns.

The cloud-oriented software technologies being utilized are prone to security breaches. “The manufacturing industry is one of the most valuable targets to hackers as manufacturers will usually store personal customer information, according to PlanetTogether. In addition, modern manufacturing facilities that are extensively connected could be susceptible to hackers which could result in the shutdown of a production facility.”

There are concerns that new technologies in the manufacturing industry could cause redundancy among employees. While this is true in some cases, the fact remains that although more technologically advanced machinery is more efficient, resulting in higher productivity, such machinery can’t replace employee flexibility.

COVID – a lingering challenge

The pandemic has been detrimental to the manufacturing industry, presenting serious operational challenges. Everywhere, plant management has been pressured to find ways of continuing operations during the pandemic while maintaining hygiene and dealing with constraints on employees such as physical distancing.

Three main areas of focus need to be on protecting the workforce, ensuring business continuity by managing risk, and maintaining productivity – sometimes at a distance.

To protect their workforce, operating procedures and processes need to be formalized and tools initiated to ensure staff is kept safe. Employers must make employees feel confident in their workplace which can be done through communication helping to address employees’ concerns.

New policies and guidelines, including stricter hygiene measures, additional PPE where required, physical distancing, and a focus on protecting employees’ mental health as a priority during the pandemic, can be incorporated. Counseling services should be made available as needed to those employees’ returning after extended quarantines.

Employers are required to manage anticipated risks by recognizing potential changes and having a plan in place as to how their facility should react to such changes in advance. This ensures that any fluctuations are addressed rapidly and required actions are based on fact.

Communication during the pandemic isn’t impossible. A two-way dialogue between management and employees at all levels would ensure that concerns were addressed. For instance, supervisors collecting queries or concerns from team members every morning, and HR posting lists of full replies daily on company bulletin boards or monitors.

Workplace health and safety is the responsibility of every level team member in the manufacturing industry. Every member should know that they are at liberty to speak up about any issue that might concern themselves or others.

The importance of health and safety in the workplace can never be underestimated. It’s a duty and a moral responsibility of any manufacturing company to ensure all employees arrive home safely – each and every workday. But day by day it’s becoming clearer that all these actions taken wholeheartedly are not only an investment in the safety and well-being of the staff but also one of the best investments there is in the long-term success and productivity of a company.

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Most people understand the definition of culture in the broadest sense of its term. But when one speaks about positive company culture, that definition can take on a whole spectrum of meaning. A company’s culture encompasses its philosophies, values and practices which in turn affirm a company’s social and psychological environment.

A thirteen-month survey of over 1,400 North American CEOs and CFOs discovered that at least ninety percent believed that culture was a crucial component of their business. The study was conducted by an accounting professor at Columbia Business School, Shiva Rajgopal, and three finance professors from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and completed in October 2015.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industry start their businesses with innate beliefs and values. The foundation of any SME has to be affirmed and rooted in a sense of purpose, inspiration, and motivation, the core building blocks of turning a company brand into a cause.

During the COVID pandemic, the manufacturing industry has experienced a high employee turnover. According to a Deloitte March 30, 2022 press release, “84 percent of manufacturing jobs lost during 2020 were added back to payrolls.”

It is estimated that by 2025, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will become available with two million expected to be unfilled, according to National Association of Manufacturers Executive Director Carolyn Lee.

Manufacturers are in desperate need to fill vacancies to attract and retain new talent. This is where an established strong company culture will play a crucial role in attracting the right people with the right attitude to drive company performance.

The goal of any SME manufacturing company leader is to set his or her company apart from the rest, to let employees know that engaging with the company will be their best decision. After all, the competition has to be considered when continuously striving for greater market share. Established company culture will lure the best team in and keep them engaged and supportive of a company’s vision.

Research from the Journal of Organizational Behavior indicates that no matter the industry, a solid company culture fosters and impacts future growth potential, and companies with highly adaptive cultures have the competitive edge against competition with intransigent cultures.

Keep in mind that currently, those seeking employment have more options available to them. As a leader, you want to be committed to recruiting and retaining the right employees – those who are in sync with your culture.

There must be a continual assessment of employee needs for complete employee satisfaction, commitment and a sense of purpose. With this, a diligent leader can rest assured that employee recruitment, retention, and dedication will not be an issue, given that these are the backbone of any successful SME.

A resilient company culture transmits its core values throughout the business. Values such as being open, supportive, honest, possessing integrity as well as being passionate about your business are all positive factors. Yet there must be some room left for a favourable life-work balance of fun and a desire to serve customers. Securing strong partnerships will also prove to be beneficial.

The most effective means of establishing a great company culture is to consistently monitor that culture and seek out areas that need improvement. An impressive culture will affect growth, profit, and revenue in the long term.

“The most important thing is to approach company culture collaboratively,” Alessandro Valentini, Marketing Director at Grant Tree told Real Business magazine’s initiative, ‘SME Culture Leaders’ in 2019. “Culture is also about bringing different walks of life together… You have so many different people with different perspectives and needs that then translate into values.”

Michael Monteiro, Chief Executive Officer of Buildium, a Boston-based property management software company from Boston talked to Ed Nathanson for his LinkedIn article: Building Company Culture: 7 Steps for Every Small Business. Monteiro said that a successful culture requires that a company must know the reason it exists, its vision, and its values.

These questions need to be answered. If not, it is more difficult to create a clear company culture. “In the absence of answers to these most basic questions, we didn’t know whether we were really aligned,” said Monteiro. “But as time went on, our employees increasingly wanted to know where we were going as a company,” he added.

“Focus on your culture as early as you can,” he encouraged small businesses, adding, “Without a defined culture, employees get disenchanted; they move on. And without those guardrails, it makes it hard to make decisions as an owner.”

Establishing and maintaining a happy healthy company environment and culture not only affords all employees a favourable work-life balance and a sense of purpose and enthusiasm for their daily roles, but it will also undoubtedly foster both productivity and secure a company’s bottom line. For job seekers, finding such a company does take some effort, especially when considering that fifty-seven percent of jobseekers view company culture as an important factor when applying for a position according to Hinge Research Institute’s Employer Branding Study of July 2020. This appears to be especially true of millennials and the younger job seekers who seem to prioritize a positive company culture over salary.

Manufacturing industry leaders must realize that elevated employee motivation, health, and happiness aid in cost reductions associated with lower levels of absenteeism, job turnover, and compensation payouts. With increased efficiency and lower costs, a company’s healthy culture can be seen as a satisfying long-term predictor of a company’s capacity to grow and continue to thrive.

There are a few simple things that can be done to achieve this. Company leaders should acknowledge and reward employee contributions, act as mentors while encouraging employees to offer input, provide flexibility where possible, and provide opportunities for learning and advancement.

The idea of a four-day workweek is also gaining attention, and a shorter workweek would prove advantageous to SMEs in that it would aid in mitigating the current labour shortage. And for some SMEs, this arrangement can prove easier to adopt than for the larger competition because they tend to have more flexibility.

New Zealand company Perpetual Guardian adopted the four-day workweek and found that a shorter workweek fosters productivity and morale. It is an effective recruiting tool and a means to retain the most valued employees.

SME company leaders in the manufacturing industry play an instrumental role in developing a strong company culture essential in today’s hyper-competitive arena. A company’s culture defines its business performance, core values, and behaviour, and shapes how others view the company. Employees expect much more from the companies for which they work and want company values to closely align with their own. Companies that can deliver will have a positive return in terms of productive and loyal employees’ translating into improved company growth.

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Prior to the First World War, male factory workers dominated as factories were not considered a place for women to be. But this soon all changed when men picked up their arms to join the military during the Great War. The number of women in factories increased to meet the wartime production demands while men carried out their duties in battle. Women were needed, and they willingly chose to work.

The United States Government’s Department of Labor saw the need to create the Women in Industry Service (WIS) in 1918. The WIS coordinated with various organizations and corporations, and although the WIS was established to aid in a temporary situation, it eventually became a major fixture of the Department of Labor by 1920.

It then became known as the United States Women’s Bureau. “It was no coincidence that the Bureau was created the same year as the passing of the nineteenth amendment which gave women the right to vote. The First World War gave women new freedoms and opportunities and led to growth in the influence of women’s rights organizations,” says the Women in the Factories feature from the Elihu Burritt Library at the Central Connecticut State University.

During World War II, a global conflict of an unprecedented scale, women again took their places on production lines as many factories across North America were converted from producing normal household goods to military equipment to supply the needs of war.

Women across the country worked on assembly lines, out of a sense of patriotism or due to financial need with male breadwinners off at war. They ran drill presses, welded, used screw machines, produced munitions, and built ships and airplanes, among other activities. An estimated six million women began working in factories across the United States in positions that were previously unavailable. In fact, by 1944, women held one-third of manufacturing positions in the country. While some factories were producing military goods, most carried on with the same production of consumer goods as before the war.

When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt took a tour of the new workforce known as ‘production soldiers,’ she was impressed. But with so many women working on production lines, childcare centres became essential to enable them to work. She convinced her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to approve the United States Government’s first childcare facilities. Through the Community Facilities Act of 1942, seven centers were built to accommodate over 100,000 children. Industries across the nation were also encouraged to build childcare centres for workers.

Since the war, Rosie the Riveter has become a cultural icon with her bandana-tied hair, flexed arm, and her ‘We Can Do It’ slogan. At the time, however, the image was just one of many propaganda pieces intended to recruit women into the workforce. “If you’ve used an electric mixer in your kitchen, you can learn to run a drill press,” said an American War Manpower Campaign.

Canada had its own version of ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ geared at enticing women to fill positions in factories to contribute to the war effort, as men were fighting overseas. Indicating the essential need for women in factories while men were off to war, Canada’s Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Liberal Party leader from 1919-1948, addressed the nation in August 1942. “Men and women are needed to make the machines, the munitions and weapons of war for our fighting men,” he stated.

Thousands of women answered the call. The peak of wartime employment during 1943-1944, saw approximately 373,000 women working in factories, according to Veterans Affairs in Canada Remembers: Women at War.

In September 1942, recruitment began with the Women’s Division of the National Selective Service in Canada. Initially, “Selective Service officers were to restrict employment permits to single women or to married women without children, as much as possible,” wrote Ruth Roach Pierson in Canadian Women and the Second World War.

Pierson also noted that “The September registration had revealed that in British Columbia, the Prairies, and the Maritimes, there were more than twenty thousand young single women without home responsibilities and willing to work full time.” Large production factories in Quebec and Ontario saw approximately 15,000 rural workers transferred to these facilities.

These women did their part to keep production facilities operating at peak capacity by learning the trades and skills necessary to support the ongoing war machine. The Canadian government also sponsored childcare centres so women could work.

Canadian women were vital contributors to Canada’s Victory Campaign whereby, in late 1944, Canadians liberated the southwestern region of the Netherlands, with which Canada had a special relationship, from the Germans. The strategic location was then utilized for logistical purposes.

Women performed many repetitive tasks that required fine precision work in electronics, instrument assembly, and optics, for example, something that they proved to be very adept in doing. Women had proven that they could do ‘men’s’ work on factory production lines. These opportunities enabled women’s earning power, although for significantly less pay than their male counterparts. Although many women were already part of the workforce, the war effort was joined by those from middle and upper-class backgrounds who previously remained in the home.

After World War II, most women were let go from their jobs and returned home. The demand for war materials fell, and soldiers were returning home from the war seeking employment to get back on their feet and reacclimatize to civilian life.

Even so, between 61 and 85 percent of women wanted to remain in their jobs after the war. For them, working signified newfound freedom and independence. As Anne Montague, the founder of Thanks! Plain and Simple, an organization affiliated with the American Rosie Movement, noted in the Washington Post: “You know, they said about the men, ‘How ya gonna keep em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?’ What I say about the women is, ‘How ya gonna keep ‘em knitting with yarn after they’ve seen Lockheed?’’’

In contrast, today, women are encouraged to pursue careers in the manufacturing industry, and technology and the quickly changing world of automation and augmentation will require specialized skills. More women are pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

According to the U.S. Department of Education, STEM degrees achieved by women increased almost sixty-seven percent during the 2008 to 2009 academic year. Close to thirty-three percent of STEM degree recipients in the U.S. were women from 2017 to 2018, equating to close to 240,000 degrees from colleges and universities. This number is up from the 2008 to 2009 statistic of over 143,000 degrees.

Women not only took positions across North America in the manufacturing sector in support of the war effort, but they also sacrificed their sons, husbands, fathers, and brothers. For that, women deserve our enduring gratitude.

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