MT Magazine May/June 2022

FEATURE STORY

MAY/JUNE 2022

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the workforce into a cadre of people freshly graduated from a community college or a four-year program who come in to take care of operations – and it isn’t giving veteran employees a severance package. Tribal Knowledge “Most manufacturing jobs have technical components and functional knowledge-based, tribal knowledge-based components that you just can’t get rid of,” Bergstrom points out. In other words, long-term employees simply know how things are done to get product out the door. This know-how is important. While there is much to be said for “big data” in terms of compiling and processing information, there is still lots to be said for what Sally or Joe know about the operations they’ve been performing for many years. This isn’t something that is written down in a spreadsheet somewhere but what has become intrinsic knowledge. Should they be shown the door, that goes with them. Bergstrom says, “That knowledge is critical to products and services.” A driver that organizations of all sizes need to take into account is something that was made most evident by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply chain problems: “Whether it is onshoring or near-shoring, there is a need now

The Accelerating Transition Bergstrom believes the transition is one where traditional manual labor operations are being increasingly replaced by automation, whether with robots or smarter conveyance devices. Consequently, there is a need for the upskilling of individuals who will be taking on different roles within the operation and doing things like keeping the automation up and running. This is going to be a transition that is not going to happen overnight but which will take some time as people are trained – many on the job – in order to take on these new roles. Whether you are big or small, the kinds of folks who are going to be running your operations are going to start to look different. “Whether you are big or small, the kinds of folks who are going to be running your operations are going to start to look different,” Bergstrom says. However, there is something that Bergstrom underlines as being absolutely essential in terms of the transformation of