The Power of Critical Skills Development
Gartner’s research into the manufacturing sector has highlighted a significant challenge: the skill gap that exists as industries move toward smart manufacturing and digitization. The transition to a more digital, data-driven manufacturing environment requires a stable core of skills among workers, but many organizations struggle to find or develop this talent.
According to Gartner, 57% of manufacturing leaders report that their organizations lack the skilled workers needed to support their smart manufacturing digitization plans. This issue is not just about having enough workers; it’s about having workers with the right mix of traditional manufacturing know-how and new digital skills. The challenge is twofold: new workers may be tech-savvy but lack industry-specific knowledge and experience, while tenured workers possess valuable institutional knowledge but may lack digital skills. Bridging this gap is essential for realizing the benefits of smart manufacturing, which include increased productivity, efficiency, and flexibility.
But how can we bridge this gap when it seems so large…
In the rapidly evolving landscape of manufacturing, the pressure to maintain competitive edge while ensuring operational efficiency and product quality is more intense than ever. A key strategy to navigate this complex environment is through the development of critical skills among employees and the effective transfer of these skills to the shop floor. This approach not only enhances performance but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
The Importance of Critical Skills Development
Critical skills for a manufacturing plant can include technical competencies related to the operation machinery and software, as well as soft skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and adaptability. Training programs that target these skills can significantly improve the efficiency and productivity of manufacturing operations. Critical skills represent 30% to 40% of all the shopfloor skills. Why? Because focusing on critical skills frees up valuable time and money to support the transfer of the skills into observable sustainable behaviors.
While the development of critical skills is vital, the true measure of success lies in the effective transfer of these skills to the shop floor. This means ensuring that employees can apply what they have learned in real-world manufacturing settings, leading to tangible improvements in performance.
Shop Floor Transfer: Bridging the Gap Between Training and Application
Collective efforts are needed throughout an organisation to achieve success.
For training to achieve a positive ROE (return on excellence), supervisors, managers and others in an organisation all need to be involved in supporting the training process before, during and after training begins. They can do this by, for example, helping prepare participants for training; providing support/coaching during the training; and, crucially, providing consistent and deliberate opportunities to apply and reinforce learning in the workplace after the formal training has ended.
Those responsible for training need to widen their role and expand their expertise and their influence within their organisations to support managers to do these things, and, more broadly, to ensure that both learning, and the application of learning continue into the workplace.
This is the first of a 3 part series on ways to improve manufacturing performance through training and skills. If you want to know more about our solution, feel free to contact me (Romain Gagnon) at rgagnon@axelleris.com.
