The Bi-Weekly Newsletter of the Council of Industry
March 16, 2023
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Council of Industry Updates
What's Happening in Your Association
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The Council of Industry is pleased to announce its 2023 manufacturing Champions! The Council of Industry's Manufacturing Champion Award is presented annually to individuals and/or organizations that work in the sector or provide direct support to the manufacturing sector in the Hudson Valley.
The 2023 Manufacturing Champions are:
- Marty McGill – Vice President, Allendale Machinery Systems
- Elisha Tropper – President, Cambridge Security Seals
- Joe Andriac – General Manager, Elementis
- Mathew Leifeld and Noah Smith – Teachers, Hudson Valley Pathways Academy
The Champions Breakfast will be held May 18th at Villa Venezia in Middletown. The event will include a manufacturing workforce developers expo and a live broadcast by WKIP’s Hudson Valley Focus Live with Tom Sipos (2018 Champion).
Past champions can be found here.
Event details can be found here.
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Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership Series Begins March 23rd
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The Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership program provides participants a range of leadership skills through a series of topical courses focused on the manufacturing workplace. Participants who complete the required courses are presented with the Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership by the Council of Industry.
The Spring Session begins March 23rd and will be held at Council of Industry member Fair Rite Products in Wallkill, NY (Ulster County).
Course Schedule:
- 3/23 & 3/30 Fundamentals of Leadership including DiSC Profile (2 Sessions) - Rebecca Mazin
- 4/6 Human Resources Management Issues - Jackson Lewis
- 4/20 Problem Solving & Decision Making- Ben Kujawinski
- 5/4 Effective Business Communication - Rebecca Mazin
- 5/17 Making a Profit in Manufacturing- Steve Howell
- 6/8 Environmental Health and Safety Essentials - Ron Coons
- 6/21 Best Practices & Continuous Improvement - Joe Guarneri
- 6/28 Positive Discipline & Motivation - Rebecca Mazin
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Last chance to register! - Just a few seats remaining.
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For information on advertising in this and other CI publications
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Council of Industry Partners With Clarkson University to Provide Asynchronous Courses in Digital Transformation and Project Management
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The Council of Industry is pleased to partner with Clarkson University, one of the nation's premier engineering and business universities, to deliver training in Digital Transformation in Manufacturing and Project Management. Designed to support experienced and emerging manufacturing executives, these asynchronous modules are available to Council members at a discounted rate.
Courses:
- Foundations of Digital Transformation - Learn More
- General Project Management Topics for Leaders - Learn More
- Managing Project Risks - Learn More
- Project Portfolio Management - Learn More
- Strategic Project Management Methodologies - Learn More
- Advanced Project Management Tools & Techniques – Learn More
Each module takes approximately 10-12 hours to complete and are delivered by Clarkson faculty. Learners earn a digital micro-credential (badge) at completion issued by Clarkson. Badges indicate proficiency in the subject area of each successfully completed course.
Additional courses in Budgeting and Finance, Technical Sales, Fundamentals of Negotiations, Supply Chain Management and Critical Conversations are in the works!
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Manufacturing Sector News
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A CEO Follows the Product, Turning up a Slew of Hidden Profit
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From the time this product left the factory until it reached the ultimate end-user, it changed hands as many as six times. And every time the product changed hands, it was resold at a higher price than it did when it left our factory. Imagine the profit all the intermediaries were making. Profit that we could have since we are the original manufacturer. Just because intermediaries were capturing a large portion of my profits didn’t mean I could wave a magic wand and capture those profits. My pricing to the end-user had to be carefully determined so it was attractive to them.
So how did it turn out? I began selling directly to the end-user, raised my prices and therefore profit by a whopping 60%. At the same time, the end-user paid 40% less than prices from the intermediaries. That is what I call a win-win.
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5 Skills Needed to Become a Supply Chain Leader
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“Ultimately, the supply chain is a people’s business, no matter what you’re building. It’s about getting the best from individuals and building strong, cross-functional teams,” says Jim Rowan, CEO of Volvo.
According to an article from the World Economic Forum, five specific skills are necessary for a leadership model called CHAIN (Collaborative, Holistic, Adaptable, Influential and Narrative) The authors of the article spoke with leading CSCOs and COOs, to develop this model. (Below is an expert of the model.)
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Augmented Reality in Manufacturing: Virtually Impossible to Ignore
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Augmented reality (AR) is one of the most exciting and impactful experiences making its way into today’s manufacturing industries. Unlike virtual reality, that creates a fully virtual environment around its users, augmented reality creates an illusion, as if virtual objects coexisted within the physical world. Simply put, AR is a means to present operational information in a completely new way – enveloped in a person’s view of their real environment and acting as the perfect ‘digital assistant’.
This article shows how can manufacturers improve productivity, safety, compliance, and training of their workforce with the help of readily accessible AR technologies which are also engaging to use. It also looks at what kind of immersive solutions are already there or being developed to provide unique connected experiences and tangible outcomes for manufacturers. And what manufacturers can do differently – and better – with AR.
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MIT: Industrial Automation Has a Strong Business Case
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Many US manufacturers have not yet brought industrial robots on board and could be missing opportunities to optimize production, says research scientist Ben Armstrong, executive director of MIT's Industrial Performance Center. Despite the conventional belief that automation will displace employees, "firms that invest in automation equipment like robots or advanced software end up being more profitable and hiring more people," says Armstrong, who explains how companies can adopt the technology.
Slightly less than 10% of U.S. manufacturers have deployed industrial robots, due to design limitations, workforce challenges, and high integration costs. Slow productivity growth among small and midsize companies over the past few years is one indicator that there might not be enough technology deployed to drive competitive advantage, he said.
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A New Era of Jidoka: How ChatGPT Could Alter the Relationship between Machines, Humans, and their Minds
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Jidoka is one of the Toyota Production System house’s pillars. It allows machines to work and stop automatically when a defect occurs, freeing up the operator to work multiple machines simultaneously. And because machines stop only when a problem occurs, it enables rapid problem identification and solving.
ChatGPT may usher in a new era of jidoka. But the relationship it may transform is not between humans and machines but between humans and their minds. The positive consequences include higher productivity, particularly in white-collar jobs, and accelerated learning. But the negative consequence is it may make it hard or impossible to detect problems in human development.
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More Women Join the Manufacturing Workforce
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Fresh off International Women’s Day last week there’s some encouraging news on the labor front: more women are coming back to the workforce in manufacturing a Female employment in the industry reached its height this year, with a total of 3.77 million workers, according to NAM calculations based on BLS numbers. Women now account for 29% of the manufacturing workforce.
Female workers last edged higher than men on U.S. payrolls in late 2019, before the pandemic sent nearly 12 million women out of jobs, compared with 10 million men. The child-care disruptions and health concerns that made many women leave the workforce during the pandemic are diminishing, while employers offer historically high pay and increasing numbers of remote positions.
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Building a Better Domestic PPE Supply Chain
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It is time to ensure America is better prepared for the next pandemic. Currently, major American firms such as 3M, Honeywell and Prestige Ameritech have several manufacturing facilities in the United States that can produce N95 respirators, surgical masks and other types of PPE. However, because the demand for PPE is stable in normal times, these firms do not have excess “just in case” capacity to cope with surging demand during rare emergencies. Because of obsolescence, it is too costly for the government to store a high amount of PPE inventory in the Strategic National Stockpile.
Relying on smaller domestic firms that entered the market during the pandemic to fill the gap has not been sustainable financially. To better prepare for the next pandemic, the U.S. government must work with private firms and universities to develop resilient and financially viable PPE supply chains to protect the public and healthcare workers. I propose two suggestions. Reserve Production Capacity and Innovation.
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GE Lends Helping Hands to Jet Engine Suppliers to Sidestep Supply-Chain Challenges
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General Electric Co (GE.N) sent 12 machinists from its Rutland, Vermont, facility across the country last fall to help a sub-supplier in Arizona that was so short of workers it could not add a second work shift. GE's action on the day after Thanksgiving was not an isolated case, Chief Executive Larry Culp said. The company has deployed its machinists and hundreds of engineers to suppliers and sub-suppliers in the United States to address the bottlenecks that are hampering production of its jet engines.
The measures are working. For example, its engineers last year also helped a supplier reduce inspection time for a critical rotating part used in a jet engine to 30 minutes from 6 hours, company executives said. Yet Culp said it is a "daily battle" to keep up with booming demand at the company's aerospace unit due to persistent shortages of labor, parts and raw material.
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Manufacturing Tops Nonresidential Categories for Construction Spending Gains
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Nonresidential U.S. construction spending posted historically strong numbers in 2022, and momentum is slower but steady early in 2023, according to government and industry data. The latest Commerce Department figures showed nearly $1.3 trillion was spent on construction of U.S. manufacturing projects during 2022, including new facilities, expansions and renovations. That was up about 34% from 2021 and the highest rate of annual improvement among all nonresidential categories.
Manufacturing projects are being spurred in part by the trend of several industries now “onshoring” and “reshoring” manufacturing and logistics to domestic locations, to avoid overseas supply chain disruptions rampant in the early months of the pandemic. It is being further fueled by government programs supporting domestic private production of computer chips, electric vehicles and EV batteries.
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Wednesday, March 29
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM (EDT)
2022 saw an upswing in organizing activity and 2023 promises more of the same. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been aggressive in its pro labor interpretation of rules at the expense of employers. All employers should be aware of these changes and take steps to ensure compliance as well as working to create an employment environment that tis fair, consistent and supportive of workers.
In this webinar James McGrath III, attorney with Bond Scheneck and King, will outline recent policy changes at the NLRB and discuss how employers should adjust and prepare for this new playing field.
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HR Network: Compliance Update and Current Environment with Jackson Lewis
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Thursday, April 27
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (EDT)
The regulatory and legal playing field is constantly changing and it seems like the changes are coming faster than ever in the past 12 months.
At this HR network meeting attorneys from Council of Industry Associate Member, Jackson Lewis will provide an update on state and federal labor and human resources regulatory changes, how they impact your business and compliance best practices.
Items Tom McDonough and Rob Guidotti will discuss include:
- Changes to the Federal Independent Contractor Rules
- Changes at OSHA
- Developments at the NLRB
- New York State Wage and Hour Laws
- And More
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