The Future of People in Manufacturing: Navigating a Changing Frontline

Technology has significantly changed the experience of being on the manufacturing frontlines. Unit operations that once needed significant physical labor have morphed into, or are currently shifting towards, highly sophisticated autonomous processes where the frontline’s focus is supervising, optimizing, preventing, and improving performance.

Now that painful workforce shortages have significantly improved, many manufacturers finally feel there is room to breathe. But now is not the time to let up. There’s a lot of data to suggest that those who allow workforce initiatives to be put on the back burner will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, increasing safety incidents on one side and degrading productivity on the other.

In this blog, I will highlight how Future of Industrial Work (FOIW) Leaders are navigating a changing frontline to support the evolving role, impact, and experience of workers within manufacturing as the industry adapts to changing workforce dynamics, pace of change, and technologies.

The Rapidly Changing Frontline Technology Landscape

The widespread adoption of Industrial Transformation (IX) and the need to compete on a global level continue to accelerate the introduction of a wide array of new digital technologies across frontline operations. Newer, innovative technologies have significantly changed how manufacturing plants operate and how workers interact with the process. Some of the more significant innovations changing the landscape across the frontlines include:

1. 1. 1. Generative AI

      2. Robotic process automation

      3. Software-defined automation

      4. Advanced Industrial Analytics

      5. Co-bots, mobile robots, AGVs

      6. Industrial Data Platforms

      7. Connected Frontline Workforce Applications

Figure 1: Manufacturers must accept the trends reshaping
the frontlines demand change to future-proof operations

These new technologies haven’t just changed the experience; the competencies needed to effectively provide the operational agility required in today’s fast-paced and dynamic production environment have also significantly changed. Further, a newer, less experienced workforce that has grown up with technology (digital natives) has an entirely new set of perceptions and expectations regarding digital tools in the workplace. As organizations expect pilot programs to scale and maximize value quickly, it's clear that the capacity to accept new technology will be crucial for navigating the trends shaping manufacturing and the Future of Industrial Work (FOIW).

A Commitment to Reskilling and Upskilling - with a Focus on Leadership and Culture

In a world so focused on technology, organizations can sometimes overlook the most critical element of success: building the foundation required to support people in adopting new tools and ways of working. To compete in the future, manufacturers must fundamentally change how they approach job design, recruitment, training, career growth, and personal development for the frontline.

Gone are the days when frontline tenure could support job shadowing and on-the-job learning to onboard new employees successfully. Unfortunately, without the right messaging, some workers may even see newer technology as a means to replace their role and eliminate their position rather than help them be safer and more efficient.

Manufacturers must make a strong commitment to reskilling and upskilling the workforce with actions that back up and support employee growth. FOIW Leaders have found that an employee-centric employee lifecycle, where Human Resources plays a key role in managing the employee lifecycle process improvements and responding to competency assessment results, can dramatically help employees see a future with the company.

Creating the Total Employee Experience in Manufacturing

Due to a perfect storm of change across the frontline, manufacturing workers face new challenges and opportunities. It is critical that manufacturers prioritize the human aspect, which includes employees across the organization at every level, when creating a strategy to achieve the company’s top business objectives.

This often means simplifying things for the newest ranks within your organization. An experienced operator not only knows what to do now but also knows what can be done later. Newer employees don’t have this experience or context. Pretty soon, everything looks like a priority, which can quickly become overwhelming and lead to undesired outcomes.

It also means developing your future leaders now. What is one of the top factors driving a great employee experience? A great boss who has your best interests at heart and makes you believe that you can succeed. Don’t leave this to chance by ensuring you build processes, capabilities, and a culture that develops supervisors, managers, engineers, foremen, and technical experts into servant leaders. This shift is the main difference between having connected workers and a connected frontline workforce.

Executives who accept the new normal, where ongoing training is critical for frontline success, will continue to gain share and momentum. Manufacturers must acknowledge their responsibility to provide meaningful work and transferable skills without expecting employees to dedicate years of service to the company.

If you’re ready to accept this challenge, here are four actionable recommendations:

1. 1. 1. Embrace the need for an employee-centric employee lifecycle. Industrial organizations must shift from the tried-and-true basic employee lifecycle to a more robust and documented employee lifecycle to better understand how the nature of work is evolving and what it means for job satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

      2. Adopt and mature talent management and succession planning capabilities. Manufacturers must invest in improved methods to train, retain, and cross-train employees on the Frontline to retain talent in the future and future-proof operations while recognizing that not all employees want to fill a leadership position.

      3. Create a system that helps employees better navigate changes at work and home. FOIW Leaders recognize employee wellness as an essential aspect of the total employee experience, and when compared to Followers, they are nearly two times more likely to have Employee Wellness programs that help create and maintain optimum physical and mental health.

      4. Develop a training curriculum to improve and expand digital competencies across the frontline. To keep up with the rapid adoption of advanced technologies, manufacturing leaders must ensure that employees at all levels have learning opportunities dedicated to using and better navigating existing digital technologies, improving the organization’s ability to meet future needs.

Finally, LNS Research has found that companies that adopt the Power of Prepositions when deploying newer technology are significantly more likely to achieve the buy-in necessary to scale. The IX Program must be a joint effort in which management, IT, IX, and Operations Management continuously engage plant personnel before, during, and after deployment to improve the user experience.

The frontline will see changes that radically reshape the ways of working with automation, AI, and new emerging technology being rapidly adopted. By embracing these best practices and focusing on how workers and machines can work together more effectively, manufacturing leaders can revolutionize operations and significantly improve safety, quality, and productivity.