Some 12,838,000 million Americans held manufacturing jobs in April 2019. That's 12 percent more than in April 2010, it's the highest total since December 2008.
The fourth industrial revolution has begun and with it, comes changes to the way manufacturing work is done. New technology, such as collaborative robots, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and machine learning, aims to make manufacturing safer, more efficient and faster than ever before.
A little positive feedback at work can go a long way toward improving assemblers' long-term mental health and well-being. Engineers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the European Factory2Fit research consortium are studying the effects of work performance.
INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana has 85,000 unfilled jobs because employers can’t find skilled workers. To help solve that problem, the state spends some $1 billion annually on workforce development programs.
Our government could do a lot more to level the playing field for manufacturing. While the Reshoring Initiative does not support individual candidates, we do recommend policies that will bring manufacturing back from offshore, and we try to document candidate positions on these issues.
AIKEN, SC—Diesel engine manufacturer MTU America hosts an annual Girls Day event at its assembly plant here. The goal of the event is to educate young girls on careers in manufacturing and to encourage their interest in a typically male-dominated field.
There’s clear agreement that a company’s most important asset is its people, but there’s no consensus on the best recipe to develop them. And nor should there be, as every company’s situation is different. But are there major themes that cut across the spectrum?
