Manufacturing Workers Make the Difference: A Workforce Adapting to Change
Eighty years ago, British author and futurist H.G. Wells, famously wrote, "Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.”
Wells was writing about the brutal, binary nature of evolution: Life either figures out a way to survive or it dies. But given today’s accelerated pace of change, “adapt or perish” could also serve as the bumper sticker for our times.
Consider this.
According to a recent article by the World Economic Forum, “Estimates have projected that between 400 million and 800 million jobs worldwide could be displaced by automation by 2030. And artificial intelligence (AI) could cause ‘99%’ of all workers to be unemployed by 2030. Even if the true figure is more like 30%, it’s the quiet reality being whispered across the American executive suite.”
No doubt, the nature of work is changing — and that means we need to change, too. I’m optimistic we can. And that our industry can lead the way.
As I travel the state and meet manufacturers, I’m reminded that manufacturing workers still make the difference – not the robots and algorithms.
Case in point: I just visited a major Georgia manufacturer who showed me how they recently deployed automation to take over risky, repetitive work performed by a large production crew. While the jobs went away, the people didn’t. Instead, crew members were upskilled and redeployed into safer, more productive jobs.
Another manufacturer told me that automation had a valuable but limited role in their factory because its production work was too complex and required well-trained workers to solve problems and fabricate products. This work was not for bots – it was for people.
And yet another told me that his manufacturing team was identifying operations areas that are ripe for automation and data collection for machine learning. Automation will help his team do its jobs better, not replace those jobs.
All are embracing automation, but people still matter most. All are adapting, but they’re bringing people along on the journey.
Which leads me to GAM.
We are contributing to workforce adaptation through the recent development and launch of Manufacturing Georgia – a revolutionary platform designed to grow the labor pool in our state. Manufacturing Georgia brings manufacturers and prospective workers together to share information about each other, provide training for manufacturing careers, and then get people into jobs.
This platform represents a paradigm shift in how we identify and attract workers to manufacturing. Gone are the days when people lined up at our factory doors for jobs. Today, we use Manufacturing Georgia to proactively reach out to job seekers, engage in dialog, and build relationships before they walk through the front door to start their employment.
Manufacturing Georgia reflects our industry’s ability use technology to attract talent, to train people for new and existing roles, and to reskill others who have manufacturing experience.
Our industry is adapting to change and helping talented people stay synced to the needs of modern manufacturing. In the process, we are keeping people at the center of our operating strategies.
