Blog

March 25,2019,Philippines—Several changes and developments, especially in technology, have helped the global manufacturing industry move onwards for years. However, evolution just does not happen very easily. Almost like a direct result, it only follows after the industry has overcome problems and challenges presented by the latest changes and discoveries. It is a cycle that is necessary in order for the global manufacturing industry to continuously move forward.

With the upgrades and improvements surfacing once every year at a minimum, here are four problems and challenges that the global manufacturing industry is currently facing.

Skilled labor shortage

A problem not only the manufacturing industry is experiencing but also by all other industries as well, the aging workforce poses the threat of skilled labor shortage. According to a survey conducted by The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte titled Skills Gap and Future of Work Study in 2018, approximately 2.69 million manufacturing jobs are going to be open due to retirements and another 1.96 million jobs will be created due to natural growth within the next 10 years. However, only 2.2 M of these jobs are likely to be filled.

In addition to hiring more employees to replace the aging workforce and service the growing demand, the manufacturing industry also needs to worry about the cost implications of training the new workers with little to no experience due to lack of trade school opportunities for young men and women. Fortunately some manufacturing companies have already developed robust training programs within their companies as well as collaborated with colleges and other education institutions to provide proper manufacturing education for entry-level workers.

Humans vs. Robots

On a positive note, the manufacturing industry has advanced well enough that the lack of skilled laborers can be covered by automated procedures and even robots. In fact, International Federation of Robotics in their 2018 press release Robot Density Rises Globally reveals that the automation of production is accelerating around the world with an average density of 74 robot units per 10,000 employees in global manufacturing. This advancement in technology not only covers for the lack of skilled laborers but also enables manufacturing companies to increase their efficiency and reduce production time.  

However, robots are expensive and may be too unaffordable to many companies. At the same time, using robots to permanently replace human laborers raises a lot of concerns including work ethics and maintenance. Using outdated technology because of the rapid technological advancements is a concern as well.

Rapid technological advancements

Advanced manufacturing engineering or AME engineering is thriving from the gush of new outstanding technological discoveries and creations which is then mostly beneficial for the manufacturing industry. Even so, the pace of which technological advancements are coming out to the industry has also been creating problems and challenges for it.

Like the concern stated above about robotics, the manufacturing industry will have to keep up with the latest trends and technology, and incorporate them to their system in order to stay on the same ground as their competitors or be one step ahead of them. However, the time required to learn a new technology is now usually slower than the pace of introducing new technology. By the time the manufacturing company and its workers have finally mastered the new technology, a newer technology will most likely have been introduced to the market already.

Cybersecurity

Given the challenge of rapid technological advancements, manufacturing companies or even those outside the industry may be willing to steal intellectual property to be ahead in the market. The most likely victims of this are the product design and development teams of manufacturing companies which are in charge of researching and creating new product designs. Of course, the product design and development teams are also the most probable suspects to intellectual property theft.

Also, because of the fast technological changes, it is possible that most manufacturing companies are relying on outdated cybersecurity systems which gives easy access to cybercriminals. Moreover, with the growingly fierce competition, there are threats everywhere in the global manufacturing industry.

Equally important in keeping up with the latest manufacturing trends, global manufacturing should also pay close attention to the possible problems and challenges that may come their way, find a way to overcome them, and move one step towards tomorrow.