The first and second installments of this series on Developing & Engaging the Manufacturing Workforce, a paper by PMMI’s Alliance for Innovation & Technical Excellence, looked at the difficulty of locating engineering/technical and production/operations staffing for positions in consumer goods manufacturing, education and training. This third and final installment looks more deeply at Gen Y and a 21st century operating model.
Convincing Gen Y workers that the manufacturing environment is a critical and respected vocation, and is satisfying to their career aspirations, will take some work. The first step is a mixture of promoting public relations and backing up words with actions, according to the MESG (Manufacturing Excellence Share Group) white paper. Consumer goods manufacturers CEOs and other executives must wage campaigns to demonstrate the importance and value of manufacturing in the US. At job fairs, university graduation speeches, panel discussions and TV and radio appearances, they need to detail manufacturing’s value to a vibrant economy and elaborate on what their companies are doing to help revive the country’s prospects by expanding factory operations.