Impact Dakota Blog is a blog dedicated to supporting North Dakota’s manufacturing community improve People, Purpose, Processes and Performance. Entries provide information on opportunities, new ideas, quick tips, celebrations of success, and well, frankly, anything to help you become a better manufacturer.
A recent study by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte revealed that more than 8 out of 10 Americans acknowledge the importance of the manufacturing industry but less than one-third of those surveyed would encourage their children to pursue a manufacturing career due to concerns around job security and stability, weak career paths, and poor pay.
When science and technology meet social and economic systems, you tend to see something akin to what the late Stephen Jay Gould called “punctuated equilibrium” in his description of evolutionary biology. Something that has been stable for a long period is suddenly disrupted radically—and then settles into a new equilibrium. Analogues across social and economic history include the discovery of fire, the domestication of dogs, the emergence of agricultural techniques, and, in more recent times, the Gutenberg printing press, the Jacquard loom, urban electrification, the automobile, the micro-processor, and the Internet. Each of these innovations collided with a society that had been in a period of relative stasis—followed by massive disruption.
If you’re contemplating hosting a Manufacturing Day Event, you probably have a lot of questions, ranging from “What is a Manufacturing Day event?” to “What sorts of resources are available to help me make my event a success?”
Certification can help you become a high-value commodity to your employer and be among the most sought-after individuals in your industry. Certifications not only help you attain knowledge, they prove it. Certifications are a recognized and respected industry credential.
Although the workforce shortage ranks quite high nationally, it is, I believe, the number one issue constraining the growth of North Dakota businesses, especially in the manufacturing arena, based on on-going interviews within that segment of our economy. We hear all of the speculations and assumed root causes, such as, it is difficult to attract talent because of our winters, etc. Whatever the reason, no one has come up with the secret sauce that will fill the thousands of job openings that exist right now. Perhaps a novel approach to at least partially, and probably significantly, resolve this issue is to take a hard look at the jobs listings themselves.
In some earlier posts, I wrote about the variation across states and industries in terms of productivity at a particular point in time. I like to think about these measures as gauges of what I call economic condition. Another way to look at things is to examine changes in productivity over time. These types of changes I refer to as a gauge of economic performance. GDP by industry is a good proxy for productivity since it’s defined as gross output minus the cost of goods sold.
By 2018, supply chain will need to fill 1.4 million new jobs, and this doesn’t even count jobs people will be retiring from. While it’s great to see this kind of growth, there may not be enough bodies to fill these positions. Will this stifle the industry’s innovation and progress? In The Supply Chain’s Weakest Link, SDC Executive points out the shortage and how to fix this issue. Below we list 3 Ways to Address the Supply Chain Labor Shortage.
Most manufacturers are working diligently on “getting better.” The question is: for what purpose? I’m frequently told that cost reduction and implementing employee ideas are the goals, and they’re not bad reasons to take action. They are not, however, the reason your business exists.
Without manufacturing, the room where you make dinner would be rather stark and barren. There’d be no pots, no pans, no stoves, no spatulas, no appliances – big or small. There’d be no way to prepare the meals that give you and your family sustenance. With no counter, there wouldn’t even be a place to set down your coffee cup!
t’s spring break for my 6-year-old grandson Bruce, and I’m spending the week with him in Oakland, California. What to do? We make a couple of trips to the park, looking for rocks on Treasure Island (that was a bust). When did the days get so long? Searching the internet for fun things to do with kids, I find the Jelly Belly Candy Company (link is external) in Fairfield, CA offers free factory tours.