The Bi-Weekly Newsletter of the Council of Industry
December 21, 2023
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Council of Industry Updates
What's Happening in Your Association
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2024 Manufacturing Champion Nominations Open
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The Council of Industry's Manufacturing Champions Award is presented annually to individuals and/or organizations that “Through vision, dedication and tireless involvement have worked to overcome some of the many obstacles faced by manufacturers in the Hudson Valley and in so doing they have made it possible for manufacturers and their employees to prosper.” This year’s awards will be presented at the Champion's Breakfast and Workforce Developers Expo April 26th at The Villa in Middletown. Past Champions include owners of manufacturing businesses, key employees, teachers and educators, economic development leaders, educational institutions, economic development organizations elected officials and agencies supporting the manufacturing workforce pipeline. Follow the link below for a list of past champions.
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Registration Open for Spring 2024 (In Person) Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership Program
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For more than 26 years, the Council of Industry’s Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership program has offered attendees a range of leadership skills through a series of concentrated courses. Participants who complete the required courses are presented with the Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership by the Council of Industry. All classes will be held at DCC Fishkill from 8:30 – 4:00.
Fundamentals of Leadership – February 28 & March 6th
Problem Solving & Decision Making – March 19 or 20 (To be confirmed)
Environmental Health & Safety Essential – April 3
Effective Business Communication – April 17
Human Resources Management Issues – May 8
Making a Profit in Manufacturing – May 22
Best Practices & Continuous Improvement – June 5
Positive Discipline & Motivation – June 11
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SUNY New Paltz Engineering Launches 2023 Virtual Engineering Project Review
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The Division of Engineering Programs invites you to view the projects and prototypes of their Senior Design I students. Enjoy the video presentations and provide your valuable professional feedback in the comments section. Your feedback will help the students as they prepare to present their final Senior Design projects at the Annual Engineering Design EXPO May 3, 2024. Be sure to save the date for the EXPO!
The school thanks their EXPO Sponsors (Council members ELNA Magnetics and Central Hudson) and invites more firms to become sponsors.
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For information on advertising in this and other CI publications
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Manufacturing Industry News
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3 Challenges CEOs Must Meet Going Into the New Year
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The year 2023 has set records for CEO turnover, and many are not surprised. From shareholder activism to global unrest, inflation, fallout from the pandemic and the uncertain impact of AI’s infiltration into the workplace, CEOs face often impossible 24/7 challenges. As we approach the sunset of this year and set an eye toward 2024, let’s examine the advice of 20 organizational leaders who recently ascended to the top role. They give insights on what their key areas of focus will be in 2024.
The CEOs Chief Executive surveyed identified three main challenges they faced during their transition into the role: gaps on the senior executive team (88%), a lack of a transformational culture (65%), and unclear strategies and key priorities (53%).
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Taking Stock of Your Team: An End-of-Year Assessment
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As the year gallops into the final stretch, many of us look at this period of upcoming reviews and planning exercises as a series of hurdles to jump – just as we are fatiguing at the end of the annual race. Reframed, this can be a time to generate excitement and fitness for the new year. To make this happen, we want to think more broadly than planning a holiday party. To be clear, we are in favor of that, but it is just one component. Too often we default to "team-building" events – fun parties, work-style assessments, awkward ice-breaking and other team games – while not addressing the more comprehensive architecture required for high-performing teams. Instead, we need to consider the team’s development against the following three dimensions:
Direction: Are we clear, aligned, motivated?
Organization: Do the team’s structure, process, authority and incentives support our goals?
People: How effective is the boss, the team members’ skills and working relationships?
If you are interested in taking the pulse of your own team as a basis for developing a high-performing team, use the questionnaire in this article to get the ball rolling.
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6 Key Drivers of Effective Change Management
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At its core, change management is proactively managing change and minimizing resistance through structured processes and approaches to help transition employees, teams or an entire organization to a desired future state. APQC finds that six key drivers can successfully impact change: leadership, structure and resources, communications, rewards and recognition, engagement and training.
The role of leadership in change management involves active and visible sponsorship while guiding employees through the transition. Change initiatives often spark resistance and various emotions, so successful change is more likely when managers can empathize with the employee, mentor and coach them.
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Tales From the Transcript: Public-Company Leaders See ‘Stickier’ Inflation, Look to Offset Wage Growth
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A year ago Industry Week began scouring the transcripts of the earnings calls of the five largest companies in 10 sectors of the IW500 to gauge leaders’ outlooks on inflation, the labor market, supply chains and demand. The repeated the exercise this past quarter and they rated those forward-looking comments on a five-notch spectrum from fully positive to fully negative and then calculated composite scores.
Many executives were tempering expectations about near-term growth. To that point: The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow tool, which very early and very accurately predicted the bumper third-quarter boom of the economy, is now pointing to Q4 growth of 1.3%. Here’s what our latest round of forward-looking data-crunching turned up, with the categories listed from most negative to most optimistic.
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Secure By Design – Manufacturers and Software Developers Are Building Cyber Security Into Their Products
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As America’s Cyber Defense Agency, CISA is charged with defending our nation against ever-evolving cyber threats and to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every hour of every day. But, as we introduce more unsafe technology to our lives, this has become increasingly difficult. As a nation, we have allowed a system where the cybersecurity burden is placed disproportionately on the shoulders of consumers and small organizations and away from the producers of the technology and those developing the products that increasingly run our digital lives. Americans need a new model to address the gaps in cybersecurity—a model where consumers can trust the safety and integrity of the technology that they use every day.
Technology manufacturers are increasingly embracing their role in making consumer safety a priority. Technology providers and software developers must take the first step to shift this burden by claiming ownership of their customers’ security outcomes. CISA is providing some tools and best practices to help that.
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A Human Centric Approach - Navigating the New Wave of Manufacturing Technology
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Manufacturing has undergone a seismic transformation in the last decade, driven by technological advancements that are reshaping the landscape. Pillars like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are now table stakes, but they only lay the groundwork for what's to come. Today’s manufacturers are on the edge of a new industrial revolution driven by the collaboration between humans and machines to increase the focus on resilience and sustainability.
While the industry is only starting to reach widespread adoption of Industry 4.0 concepts (machine connectivity, efficiency monitoring, process standardization, etc.), many early implementors of these technologically advanced systems experienced limitations when faced with situations requiring rapid adaptability and creative engineering. The result is an emerging Industry 5.0 concept that isn’t replacing 4.0, but rather building on it with a human-centric approach to overcome these challenges. To successfully implement Industry 5.0, manufacturers must focus on technology investments, long-term people strategies, and upskilling.
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Manufacturers Are Benefiting from Automation-as-a-Service
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At its core AaaS refers to the provision of automation solutions as a subscription-based service. Overall, AaaS in manufacturing streamlines operations, reduces costs, and increases productivity by enabling access to advanced technologies without the capital expenditure and technical complexities of setting up and maintaining these systems internally. This model allows companies to access automation tools, software, and expertise on demand, transforming the way production lines operate.
One of the most compelling advantages of AaaS is its ability to streamline various facets of manufacturing. By integrating AR/VR (augmented reality and virtual reality), robotics, machine learning, and AI (artificial intelligence), AaaS solutions automate repetitive tasks, optimize processes, and facilitate data-driven decision-making. Some of the specific ways manufacturers are leveraging the power of AaaS today include Robotic Process Automation, Predictive Maintenance Systems, Combining with Immersive Mixed Reality and Generative Artificial Intelligence.
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ChatGPT Eyewear is the Next Evolution of Smart Glasses
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Lucyd has developed smart glasses that now include ChatGPT—the LucydLite 2.0 line. To do so, they developed an app (available in iOS and Android) that enables a voice interface for ChatGPT on the eyewear. By leveraging ChatGPT’s advanced capabilities, users can do much more than simple voice commands. They can engage in interactive conversations, get instant answers to questions, draft messages, and even schedule appointments without the need to touch their devices. With built-in microphones and stereo speakers, users can have fluid conversations through their glasses.
Connecting to your phone, PC or smartwatch through Bluetooth, the glasses have a 100-ft connection range, four speakers, and dual-noise canceling microphones so you can take a phone call through your glasses and listen to music or podcasts.
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5 Bad Habits Manufacturing Supply Chains Should Ditch in 2024
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In the rush to overcome the challenges of the past few years, manufacturers were forced to get creative quickly in order to survive. While this kept supply chains moving, many picked up a few bad habits along the way. It’s vital that organizations like yours don’t fall back into those old habits — habits that can leave you unprepared for the future, and slow your operations today.
Among the bad habits are: Working in silos, Relying solely on shipment visibility, Making decisions based on assumptions and Taking a reactive approach to disruption. This guide will walk you through these bad habits your teams could be clinging to, and how adjusting behaviors and processes could be your key to growth, improved revenue and reduced operating costs.
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Discussions on The State Of Manufacturing in the Hudson Valley
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Join us for a discussion led by the President of The Council of Industry, Harold King, to determine the current state of manufacturing in the Hudson Valley.
The program will include a brief presentation on current issues facing the sector followed by a facilitated discussion for all attendees to voice their opinions and outlooks on the current state of their business, predictions for 2024, and the challenges and opportunities that they have noticed.
This information will be utilized in discussions with lawmakers as the 2024 Budget process and Legislative Session unfolds in Albany and Washington DC.
Learn more:
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NEW Episode of Manufacturing Matters Out Now!
Dean Domenico, Partner Ethan Allen Workforce Solutions
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