How manufacturing industries overcome the NXT_gen boredom gap

Many of my clients in manufacturing fail to attrack young, higher educated talent. Manufacturing environments in general do not have the 'YouTube-influencer-working-wherever-and-whenever-I-want' attractiveness. Many new and next gen people, finishing their university are expecting to start-up, free-lance or picking the employer who is willing to settle around their "demands", "earning a lot of money" and even "more respect for what they do". With this 'ethos', it's difficult to find the right next gen leaders, right?

But what about the industry itself? How well did the manufacturing industry prep for attracting these group of 'factory-workers'? In the past 25 years, automation, in combination with manufacturing excellence programs, increasingly improved productivity, quality, safety and conversion costs in manufacturing. Same time, with increased automation, many tasks became redundant, while requested skills of workers needed to operate, incleasingly became more and more sophisticated.

Today, this had led in many companies to a gap in between people and the environment they are working in: Processes and data, but also even the fysical spaces people are working in, are no longer in sync anymore with the people who do the job. They get bored by working on paper, while the rest of the world is fully Digital. They are bored by drinking the worse drinks out of an vending machine, while their peers sip their latte out of a fancy espresso machine, and they get demotivated because they do not move fast enough through their carreer path, encouraged and recognized for their results and contribution, instead of the fixed and solid path corporate HR has designed.

What can the manufacturing industry do to close this Boredom_GAP?

1. Deeper process ownership. Automation frees up time of workers. But how do they spend this freed up time? What tools do they use in this freed up time? Are they intellectually sufficiently evoked? Or does the industry use workers for their hands instead of their heads? With delegating not only tasks, but process accountability, workers own (parts of) their machine, line or even supply chain. This accountability creates ownership and engagement on all levels of the organisation. As well in daily management routines, as in improvement activities, ownership creates better performaning, longer lasting workers.
2. Balancing Remote Work. Digitization allows manufacturing companies to enable remote work for certain job functions, such as design and engineering, which can be done from anywhere with an internet connection. This can help manufacturing companies tap into a larger talent pool that may not want to work in a traditional manufacturing environment. Specifically omen and men who need to care of children or have other care duties such are parential care, are often willing to work on their level, if they are able to manage these private tasks in a non traditional way.
3. Supportive Automation. Manufacturing companies have automated repetitive and dangerous tasks, freeing up workers to focus on more engaging and intellectually challenging work. But it does not end here. Utilizing data from these processes, unleashing new levels of information to improve or system, can help make manufacturing jobs more appealing to higher educated workers who are looking for intellectually stimulating work. Digitization with artificial intelligence combined with automation opens a new era of opportunities to attract next_gen workers.
4. Exciting Augmented Reality. AR or VR can help manufacturing companies leverage virtal or augmented reality to provide workers with real-time training and support, reducing the need for on-the-job training and making it easier for workers to get up to speed quickly. Product changes, packing changes, (preventive) maintanance), early equipment reliability can be supported by AR or VR reality platforms, involving workers in improvement activites in an attractive and engaging way.
5. Flexible Scheduling. Implementing flexible scheduling and remote work options, making it easier for workers to balance work and personal life. By using digital planning tools, changes in flexibile planning options can be calculated more accurate and faster. This enables people to schedule their work more private-centric instead of work-centric, without decreasing productivity. This increases work committment and creates an engaged work force.
6. Inspiring Sustainability. Digitization can help manufacturing companies reduce their environmental impact in several ways, which may be more appealing to higher educated workers who are nowadays increasinly concerned about sustainability.

There are many aspects that can help manufacturing companies create a more attractive and challenging work environment for higher educated workers. Digital plays a crucial role in this journey, leveraging automation, remote work, augmented reality, flexible scheduling, and sustainability.