Moving Manufacturing Forward 2022 MFG Summit Explores Industry Trends, Challenges

Moving Manufacturing Forward

2022 MFG Summit explores industry trends, challenges

By Keith Stamm, Director of Workforce Development, GRCA

The Greater Reading Chamber Alliance (GRCA) hosted its annual manufacturing summit Wednesday, Oct. 26 at the Miller Center for the Arts. This year’s summit brought together manufacturing professionals, educational and community partners as well as community leaders to celebrate the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing holds the number one spot as both the largest industry sector based on employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Berks County. Manufacturing contributed the largest portion of GDP in 2021, $4,799,310,000, accounting for nearly 20% of Berks County’s economy.

This half-day event recognized and celebrated manufacturing while bringing together manufacturers throughout the area to discuss common trends, current challenges and exciting, future possibilities. Tim Simpson, Ph.D., Penn State University, was the keynote speaker for the event. Simpson is a Paul Morrow Professor of Engineering Design & Manufacturing. His presentation titled, “Manufacturing in the Metaverse” focused on the intersection of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), the internet of things (IoT), augment and virtual reality (AR/VR), cloud and edge computing and 5G. He discussed the convergence of these technologies and how this will impact and shape manufacturing in the years to come.

“Digitalization will define the 21st century similar to how industrialization shaped the 20th century,” Simpson said.

He explained why it’s so important for companies to understand these technologies and how they will impact the future of business.

His presentation was followed by an expert panel of regional manufacturing professionals moderated by Alexia Pursley, Human Resources Manager, Arkema. The panel shared insights and experiences on how organizational culture plays in attracting critical talent and retaining them. The resounding theme from the panelist

centered around creating a culture that is not only welcoming, but also supports employees and helps them grow personally and professionally. They talked about the importance of investing in your employees’ growth, creating learning opportunities and articulating clear career advancement pathways to help retain top talent. Panelists shared how their organizations approach these strategies as well as lessons they learned along the way.

In this tough talent environment with low levels of unemployment and the high rates of quitting, companies need all the information they can get to make informed, strategic decisions. Nic Thomas, from Gage Personnel, presented a local wage and labor market analysis and examined some current trends as well as pitfalls for companies to know. Through an interactive polling activity, Thomas was able to illustrate some patterns between attendees including what businesses they compete with for talent, where the workers are, and the shortcomings in data collection and reporting that attendees are experiencing. He shared which talent metrics companies should be focusing on besides wages and the importance of understanding the true cost of turnover.

The event wrapped up with Karen Norheim, President & CEO, American Crane Equipment and Dan Fogarty, COO, Berks County Workforce Development Board, giving an overview of the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Competitiveness Playbook, which was recently released by the PA Manufacturing Advisory Council. This report identifies three overarching game changers for PA manufacturing and 10 specific recommendations to turn around Pennsylvania’s economic performance in manufacturing. Some of these include: provide a unified voice to advice the Governor and legislature on the needs of manufacturers, deliver training in automation to upskill incumbent employees and attract new workers, and strengthen regional manufacturing workforce pipelines. This playbook provides strategies to ensure the viability of Pennsylvania’s manufacturing sector for many years to come. If you are interested, you can review the playbook here: pamanufacturingcouncil.com/playbook.

Anyone who is interested in more information about the Manufacturing Industry Partnership of the Greater Reading region can contact me at kstamm@greaterreading.org or 610-898-7776.