C EO ROU NDTAB LE
BRIDGING THE TECHNOLOGY AND TALENT DIVIDE At a time when a dearth of skilled workers is hobbling growth, manufacturing CEOs share strategies on workforce solutions. “Today, automation is looked at as a requirement.”
LABOR SHORTAGES, growth imperatives and supply-chain pressures are forcing manufacturing executives to accelerate industrial automation, but a panel of factory CEOs remained committed to relying on human capital to ensure and extend their companies’ success. At a roundtable discussion during Chief Executive’s 2021 Smart Manufacturing Summit in Indianapolis, business leaders cited difficulties keeping up with robust growth after Covid-19 greatly exacerbated a lack of qualified labor that was already a big problem for American factories. Leaders reported having to resort to a kind of alchemy that combines their traditional reliance on skilled labor with an accelerating push to automate functions. “There’s science behind what mill operators do, and there’s technology in the black arts behind it,” said Kevin Marks, president of Lock Joint Tube, a steel-tubing maker based in Granger, Indiana. “And that’s the challenge, because our mill operators are 58 to 62 years old, and they’re retiring.” Several years ago, the conversation about automation versus people was very much that automation is expensive and difficult, and “the robot never works.” Now, however, the extremity of manufacturing companies’ talent needs has them turning to automa-
tion significantly more often, and sooner than they’d expected. “Today, automation is looked at as a requirement to grow your business, as opposed to just cost reduction,” said Bill Norman, president of consumer packaging for North America for plastics manufacturer Berry Global. “The investment is getting better because wages are off the charts. Without people, you can’t grow, so most of our companies are restraining growth. “We’ve moved from this cost-sensitive economy to this growth economy, with all the money that’s out there. And everybody’s reacting to that, and we’re all fighting each other for the same people, trying to get them through the door.”
Companies are really trying to partner with our community colleges and some of our high schools for training programs.” —Brock Herr, Indiana Economic Development Corp.
CEO MAGAZINE / FALL 2021 / 95
