How manufacturers can use digital technology to solve skills shortages

Manufacturers have always embraced innovation; it’s hardwired into how the industry has operated for centuries. Innovation via digital technology is, of course, no exception, but the pace of change is now so rapid that it’s hard for businesses to maintain the necessary skills to harness it. Couple this with an upward trend of skilled individuals leaving the workforce, and it makes for a real challenge for the sector. This is exemplified in a recent Gartner survey of Manufacturing CEOs where ‘workforce’ came out as one of their highest priorities. This blog offers a few thoughts about how digital technology can offer a solution to three key dilemmas facing manufacturers.

Take a look at some of our IT services for manufacturers and see some projects we’ve worked on.

Re-skilling 

The nature of work in the manufacturing sector is changing. Automation and robotics are removing manual processes from the production line (66% of manufacturers now use automated processes), enabling data to be collected in ever more vast quantities. Having people with a digital skillset who can analyse, understand, and take action from that data requires specific skills that often companies lack. Retraining existing staff to develop these abilities or outsourcing to a third party can unlock where the value lies in that data and discover those fine margins, which combine to make a huge reduction in wasted time and costs.  

Recruitment 

Perhaps this isn’t a new problem, but certainly, the issue has become more acute with a shrinking pool of available talent. Manufacturers need to find and recruit the right people and skill sets for their organisation. As such, there is a huge focus on getting young people into manufacturing with apprenticeships, apprentice degrees and summer internship programmes. But not only is there competition within the industry but from other sectors too. In a recent cross-industry survey ‘talent’ was cited as the top barrier to digital transformation for 27% of respondants - so digital skills are something that everyone is looking for! So how can manufacturing stand out? To really appeal to young people at the outset of their careers, manufacturing companies need to invest time and effort into their digital outreach channels like Instagram and TikTok – it's not just the customers they need to attract! Your recruitment and onboarding experience needs to be on point as well – something there are plenty of software solutions available to assist with. Manufacturing is an exciting, fulfilling area in which to build a career, it needs to sell itself more!

Employee Experience

Given the difficulty in recruiting highly sought-after talent to the sector, manufacturers need to make sure they hang on to employees once they have them. Employee expectations have changed substantially in a short space of time as a result of COVID, and employers need to respond accordingly.

Digital technology has a key role to play here. Yes, it enables remote and hybrid working, but more than that, technology can help integrate people and processes so employees feel connected to each other and the goals of their company. It allows them to understand the impact their role makes to the success of their organisation. Companies also need to replicate the experience outside of the workplace within the workplace. Digital processes at work should be as easy as buying something off Amazon – that’s what a digitally literate person expects in their personal life, why should they accept less at work?

The staffing and skillset challenges facing the industry may be daunting and even unknown at present (who knows what skills manufacturers will need in 5 years' time!), but there is always a solution and embracing digital technology in all its forms is essential to turn these challenges into opportunities.

DSP offers a range of IT services for manufacturing both in the cloud and on-premise. We offer support, consultancy, application development and AI to help manufacturers reduce costs and waste and improve processes and outcomes. Take a look at some of our work.