The manufacturing industry is one of the main customers for automation providers. And that will not change anytime soon. According to a new 2018 skills gap study from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, the widening manufacturing skills gap is expected to grow from about 488,000 jobs left open today to as many as 2.4 million manufacturing jobs going unfilled between this year and 2028. That is compared to 2 million jobs between 2015 and 2025 per an earlier study.
This workforce crisis, the study found, could put at risk $454 billion in manufacturing GDP in 2028 – or more than $2.5 trillion over the next decade. See Figure 3 above for more details.
“Manufacturers in the United States are experiencing some of the highest levels of growth we’ve seen in decades, yet the industry seems unable to keep up with the resulting rebound in job growth,” said Paul Wellener, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. industrial products and construction leader. “With nearly 2 million vacant new jobs expected by 2028, compounded by 2.69 million vacancies from retiring workers, the number of open positions could be greater than ever and might pose not only a major challenge for manufacturers but may threaten the vitality of the industry and our economy.”
There are a variety of factors behind this workforce shortage, of course, including having the wrong perception about what modern manufacturing looks like. However, five out of 10 open positions for skilled workers in the U.S. manufacturing industry remain unoccupied today due to the skills gap crisis. These positions require specific training or skillsets and often take months to fill.
“While the manufacturing industry today is thriving and optimistic, the sector’s workforce crisis seems to be casting a dark cloud over the future,” said Carolyn Lee, executive director of The Manufacturing Institute. “About 73 percent of manufacturers cite this crisis as their top concern according to the NAM’s latest ‘Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey,’ and The Manufacturing Institute’s new study with Deloitte only underlines the urgency of taking on and solving this challenge.”
To address the skills shortage, companies are trying new things to attract and retain employees, such as allowing nonproduction work to be done from remote locations or adopting broader HR policies. When it comes to production-focused positions, automation is becoming increasingly important in light of the skills gap challenge.
According to the study, 26 percent of manufacturers are investing in productivity-enhancing technologies and nearly 60 percent said they also plan to rely more on automation over the next three years. This is often part of an overall strategy to help to alleviate the industry’s serious and continuing struggles in finding talent.
Initially thought to present a danger to human jobs, many manufacturers are now turning to automation to supplement the low-skilled jobs they cannot fill and focus their existing workers on jobs that are either higher-skilled or require uniquely human skills. Nearly half of the executives surveyed have implemented automation – robots, cobots, machine learning, or AI – in the past three years. And one in three of these manufacturers is supplementing their current workforce with automation, often for repetitive tasks. Further, 64 percent of these executives found that automation helped them overcome some of the challenges they are facing in filling open jobs with qualified talent.
Manufacturing executives who responded to the survey stated the top five skill sets that could increase significantly in the coming three years due to the influx of automation and advanced technologies are: technology/computer skills, digital skills, programming skills for robots/ automation, working with tools and technology, and critical thinking skills.
The influx of automation in manufacturing continues to disrupt all aspects of operations. It can be found in the form of robotic arms on production lines, cobots that assist humans in manual tasks, autonomous mobile robots for materials handling and more. In its future of jobs report, the World Economic Forum said by 2022 machines and algorithms will contribute 42 percent of total task hours, compared to 29 percent in 2018.
Technology skills, and especially computer skills, are not a good long term investment because of the constant change needing constant upgrading. And while automation has been a great career, when the particular project is completed one becomes an overhead cost burden. Also programming robots, since once the robot is correctly programmed the job is done. So a lot of jobs are a collection of short term projects that vary a fair amount, requiring a larger skill set.
And across the board, there is a pay shortage, in that the compensation is not proportional to the value delivered. That does not help at all. Entry level pay may be great for entry level skills, but then there is a limit to advancement.
There is also the lack of ability to focus attention for more than a few seconds, which is an unfortunately very common affliction among a whole lot of people. That will probably lead to the demise of several previously great nations.
Computer skills and programming, even to robots is not so much programming in specific languages or technologies. Technology is always changing. What we need is the ability to know to program, and learn the new language or technology. Today you may learn Java, but tomorrow, you probably need the ability to learn some new programming language yet to be developed. The fact is that you learned one, and should be able to learn another relatively quickly
Project management and leadership is something else that should always be taken into consideration. It is not the technology, the manpower, or the task itself. It is how to do things in the most efficient and cost effective way. That is the main thing.
Additionally, certain higher level manufacturing can not be outsourced, and that is appropriate. It is generally the kind that it is highly skilled, and the costs to outsource it are more then what the cost savings are. Most of the “mass production” type manufacturing has been outsourced (overseas). What is left are either small runs, or stuff that are more value added.
As far as pay, there is a higher limit. Eventually the cost of the labor will make manufacturing not feasible for something (at least not in the USA). If we were to continue to manufacture it in some place where there is a high pay, it will not be cost conducive, and we would be making it at a loss. No one wants to have the price of their mobile phone increase in the USA, simply because of the increase in labor and pay. That is why we have to seriously look at sourcing stuff at places where things are cost conducive.
In this day and age, one has to be ready to change, and learn to manage it. I started out in manufacturing, and perhaps am still in it. However, what I do today is less tied to directly to manufacturing, and more tied to me being a knowledge worker. I had to change. Change is difficult.
As an example, the pay for a skilled machinist is insanely low. It’s not an easy job and requires dedication and intelligence. Why would anyone want to do it if they could find a higher or similar paying job that is easier and probably cleaner. I love machining but the pay will not support a family and house in a major city by a long shot.