Insights

How to transform manufacturing using a flexible talent model

Ramya Kannan

As a core industry, manufacturing is essential for the survival of the human race. For example, process manufacturers that address the basic needs of food, clothing, access to nutrition, water and other resources through their businesses. Discrete manufacturers help in transportation, making products that make life easier on a daily basis. Manufacturing keeps the economy going and is a significant contributor to gross domestic product of countries.

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How is the manufacturing industry evolving?

The manufacturing workplace has been rapidly transforming at a significant pace. With the fourth industrial revolution, we have seen huge adoption of digital technologies like industrial IoT, smart sensors, automation, and robotics. These technologies are embedded on shop floors, warehouses, and on manufacturing production lines to move heavy components and process raw materials into finished goods in high-risk environments that can be dangerous for employees. In short, the paradigms of manufacturing industry operations today are very different than in the past.

An infusion of financial investment and technological advances have catalyzed this significant change in how the manufacturing floor operates. People practices and the human resources (HR) function cannot be far behind. Workforce members must keep up with this change and learn to refresh or acquire new knowledge and skills to harness this technology.

In response, the dynamics of managing such an upgraded workforce are also very different. As humans become proficient at using machines to accomplish tasks they once had to do themselves, such as managing output and delivery requirements, performance expectations must also evolve. A flexible talent model - a modern approach to workforce management and talent acquisition, characterized by increased flexibility, openness, and reliance on external talent resources - can help.

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Workforce challenges in the manufacturing industry

With the pandemic and the macroeconomic situation in the last few years, the rapid growth in using technology in a manufacturing setting has to be balanced with evolving the workforce and the subsequent and pervasive challenges the industry is facing:

• Tackling workforce shortages: With the adoption of technology being used on the manufacturing floor, companies need to attract workers with relevant science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational and technical skills to manage production lines. Workers on the shop floor need vocational training to handle smart equipment, calibrate them, and manage equipment performance, maintenance, and output. An untrained workforce poses a challenge to manufacturers to manage their capacity and production profitably while ensuring safety and liability due to injuries are managed carefully. With the focus on ESG, social metrics help companies focus on worker safety in manufacturing facilities that is enabled by technology.
• Attracting technical talent: Talent shortages naturally result in a war for recruiting the limited talent available. Although manufacturing companies acknowledge the need for diverse STEM skills in both research and development and on production shop floors, they do not always have the budget to attract strong talent for both types of technical positions. Manufacturers also compete with technology companies, start-ups, and other industries for talent. At the same time, people in the workforce often think that the manufacturing sector cannot offer the technological exposure or competitive compensation that industries can offer.
• Providing appropriate training: With shortages in the workforce and the high turnover the manufacturing industry is experiencing, providing a robust training mechanism is critical to productivity and output quality. Unfortunately, companies may find it difficult to allocate resources to train newcomers, as it impacts their production output and increases the cost of running a manufacturing facility. Workers already in or planning to join the manufacturing sector need opportunities to gain experience and grow to stay relevant in a competitive labor market.
• Retaining and engaging employees: Most manufacturing companies have plants across multiple geographic locations. Managing, engaging and retaining large numbers of workers effectively across different regions, cultures, languages, social backgrounds, and skills is a daunting task. With the widespread and diverse nature of business, it can be difficult to foster a common culture and provide an engaging, consistent, equitable environment across locations. Additional challenges to engaging employees include the use of temporary labor, shift work, seasonal fluctuations, and the presence of trade unions.

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The benefits of using flexible talent in the manufacturing industry

While we need to ensure that our HR practices engage our workforce in a meaningful manner, some availability issues can be resolved by leveraging a flexible talent model effectively. If you are not familiar with the model, it provides companies with access to a diverse pool of individuals with specialized skills and knowledge that may not be available within their permanent workforce. This is distinct from using a temporary workforce in production facilities. Other benefits include:

• Addressing skills gaps: The manufacturing industry is evolving rapidly, and there may be skills gaps within the permanent workforce. Flexible talent allows companies to fill these gaps with experts who possess the required skills. For example, a company is building a solution that would help compute the dimensions of the fractional distillation chamber and the filtration layers that is needed to extract different products from crude oil like petroleum, naphtha, methane, and other products. The company needs a petrochemical engineer who could help it with the geometric and trigonometric computations and was able to use open talent to address the knowledge gap in building the rules engine for its solution.
• Encouraging a fresh perspective: External talent often brings fresh ideas, perspectives, and experiences to a role. This can foster innovation within the manufacturing process and lead to creative solutions to challenges. Diverse teams also often have a wider range of viewpoints, leading to more robust solutions. For example, companies may deploy non-engineering process quality consultants on an engineering shop floor. The perspectives on quality through process decoupling and perspectives on identifying concurrent tasks instead of sequential activities enabled significant productivity in the process.
• Accelerating project timelines: Flexible talent can be quickly onboarded, enabling manufacturers to complete projects more rapidly. This agility is especially valuable when addressing time-sensitive projects or market demands. When companies need to ramp up and down on STEM talent to address specific time sensitive needs, they naturally turn to open talent and get people with the right skills and exposure. Many of them work with a company for a longer term on multiple engagements, getting rehired every time there is a need and released at the end of the project.
• Supplementing the internal workforce: Flexible talent does not necessarily replace a company’s permanent workforce but complements it. By combining the skills of both internal and external talent, companies can efficiently achieve better results and outcomes. Permanent teams often have so much irreplaceable customer- or business-specific knowledge that is highly valued. However, by supplementing permanent teams with consultants from the open talent marketplace who have worked with multiple other clients, the collective knowledge of the market combined with tribal knowledge of the business at hand, has proven its edge in effectiveness.
• Accessing global talent: With remote work becoming more prevalent, manufacturers can collaborate with skilled professionals from around the world, increasing the talent pool and facilitating cross-border collaboration. As companies set up distributed environments, they have needed support across multiple geographies and time zones. The ability to harness talent from any part of the world without having to relocate them, the relocation expenses, and location-specific living costs have made the delivery model much more efficient at the right costs.

The pandemic influenced companies to consider this newer model for re-configuring their workforces to remain competitive and align with global market trends. While flexible talent offers several benefits, manufacturers need to strike the right balance between their internal workforce and external talent.

Building strong communication channels, ensuring data security, and integrating external talent seamlessly into a company's culture are vital for successfully integrating flexible talent. To learn more about how to make your manufacturing facility’s production more efficient, autonomous, and adaptive, visit Digital Manufacturing Solutions and Services | UST.