The Bi-Weekly Newsletter of the Council of Industry
November 16, 2023
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Council of Industry Updates
What's Happening in Your Association
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SOLD OUT! Annual Luncheon & Expo November 17th – FBI Cybersecurity Expert to Keynote, Leadership Certificate Recipients Recognized.
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The Council of Industry’s Annual Luncheon & Member Expo will be held on Friday, November 17th at the Grandview in Poughkeepsie, NY. The Event will open with the Member Expo beginning at 11:15. The Luncheon program begins around noon with the presentation of Manufacturing Leadership Certificates to more than 40 individuals who have completed the program since last year’s event.
SUPPORTING SPONSORS
Thank you to all of our sponsors for your generous support.
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Happy 9th Annual National Apprenticeship Week (November 13-19, 2023)!
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National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) is a nationwide celebration where industry, labor, education, and government leaders showcase the successes and value of Registered Apprenticeship for re-building our economy, advancing racial and gender equity, and supporting underserved communities. NAW is an opportunity to highlight how Registered Apprenticeship, a proven and industry-driven training model, provides a critical talent pipeline that can help to address some of our nation’s pressing workforce challenges.
In the Hudson Valley, the Council of Industry leads the Manufacturing Intermediary Apprenticeship Program (MIAP). MIAP is an employer-led program to help manufacturers upskill their workforce utilizing New York State Department of Labor registered manufacturing apprentice trades. Apprenticeship has two basic elements, On-the-Job Training (OJT), consisting of a skilled employee person capable and willing to share their experience with an apprentice, in a hands-on manner, and Related Instruction (RI), the learning of more theoretical or knowledge-based aspects of a craft. This program makes apprentice training accessible to all manufacturing firms in the region.
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We are pleased to present the Fall 2023 edition of HV MFG., the magazine by, for, and about Hudson Valley Manufacturing. Thanks to Ad Essentials and Maar Printing for helping us design and print HV Mfg!
In this issue:
Workforce: The changing demographics of the Hudson Valley and its impact on the workforce.
Workforce Development: Area high schools are partnering with industry to build the manufacturing workforce pipeline.
News Briefs: Industry, regulatory and legislative updates.
Resource Guide: A list of legislative representatives and organizations that support Hudson Valley manufacturers.
Advertisers: The supporters that make HV Mfg Possible.
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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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Managing Your Core Business Is the Best Strategy in Uncertainty
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It is easy for leaders to lose track of what matters. When times are good, they focus on growth and expansion. When times are tough, they focus on cost-cutting and retrenching, sometimes too much. The core business is essentially the heart of any business. It is what it strong and sustainable for the future. It needs to be managed with intention and attention. Often that is not the case. Companies venture into strategies that dilute the core and redirect cash to non-essential initiatives. That can be deadly.
Over time, if not managed carefully, the core weakens either because competition catches up or because the company loses track of what matters. Sometimes both. With today’s incredible level of uncertainty about what the future holds, I propose that any company should go back to the core and pay close attention to its level of differentiation and attractiveness. It is not a matter of deciding whether to invest in the core or not. It is a strategic imperative to do so. Here are some activities to make that happen.
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Why American Manufacturing is Becoming Less Efficient
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Advocates of industrial policy have long argued that manufacturing possesses special powers. Industry’s demands lead to technological progress; the goods it produces must pass the muster of global markets, which drives up efficiency. Some then take things further. When countries grow richer, manufacturing moves overseas as firms seek to reduce labour costs. This, they say, justifies tariffs and subsidies to protect manufacturing and boost growth.
The problem is that, of late, manufacturing’s powers seem to have vanished. Nearly 80% of US GDP is now made up of services, but one might expect manufacturing at least to pull its weight, given its supposed powers. In fact, labour productivity in manufacturing fell by 0.2% at an annualised rate, meaning that the boost to growth was driven by services. To make matters worse, productivity in the manufacturing sector has been in secular decline since 2011—the first decade-long fall in the available data. Some economists think it is probably also the first such fall in American history.
What has prompted the reversal? America may be a technology superpower, but when it comes to using tech in the physical world it lags behind others. It ranks seventh out of 15 countries in the adoption of robots per worker, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think-tank.
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The Cost of Federal Regulations on Small Manufacturers? NAM Study Says $50K per employee in 2022
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The National Association of Manufacturers, members of the NAM’s Council of Manufacturing Associations and Conference of State Manufacturers Associations launched Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations to address the impact of the current regulatory onslaught coming from federal agencies. To ensure manufacturers remain competitive, NAM is calling on the White House to designate a senior-level adviser to coordinate efforts within the White House to ensure that federal regulators are implementing policies that align with the president’s promise to promote the growth of manufacturing in America.
The NAM’s benchmark Cost of Federal Regulations study finds that the total cost of complying with federal regulations in 2022 is an estimated $3.079 trillion (in 2023 dollars), an amount equal to 12% of U.S. GDP and larger than the manufacturing sector’s entire economic output. This regulatory burden threatens the competitiveness of manufacturing in America, chilling manufacturing investment, job creation and wage growth and blunts the positive impacts of tax reform, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act.
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You Can't Always Measure Transformation
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How can you justify the time and expense of an organization-wide digital transformation when you can't really measure the most important benefits? Jerry Grunewald, vice president of operations transformation at advanced materials manufacturer Invista, runs the Koch Industries subsidiary’s Industry 4.0 initiatives. Invista manufactures materials such as nylon and polypropylene and employs around 3,000 workers at 13 sites globally. Invista’s ops transformation program began in late 2018 as Grunewald targeted four workstreams:
· Process control
· Asset performance management
· Material flow automation
· Learning and development
The plan was to pilot separate technologies for each workflow and then weave the technologies together into a unified, connected worker system. While the final product improved operational efficiency, that’s ultimately not the point nor the long-term goal. “If we bring all these [IoT] tools to bear and fundamentally do the job the way we’ve always done it, maybe just a little bit better, that’s not transformation. That’s incremental improvement at best. [But] if you have the new knowledge, you can hopefully now do different work, do things that weren’t possible before. If you can do that, then you get the last piece, which is transformative value,” he says.
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Supply Chain: Artificial Intelligence Will Improve and Optimize All Aspects of Operations
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Manufacturers hear a lot about digital transformation and modernization. But, that was yesterday's challenge. What manufacturers struggle with now is trusting what the data tells them and then putting that digitized data to use, to increase operational productivity and power the strategic engine of growth. On the sales side of their business, leaders have long trusted and relied on what their customer relationship management (CRM) system has revealed. Add in more insights from marketing, production, supply-chain management, and other data sources and those demand signals are current, easy to capture, and easy to convert into action.
Signals from the supply side, however, have always been a bit less clear — and less timely. Couple that with continuing global supply chain issues and a still-in-process pandemic rebound, and the sales and operations planning (S&OP) process becomes a guessing game at best. It’s bits versus boxes: The demand side is largely automated and flush with digital bits. The supply side is still very physical, with the most reliable information coming from someone seeing the boxes as they’re loaded onto a truck. So how can manufacturers solve this disconnect in the manufacturing signal chain?
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From Vulnerability to Resilience: A Guide to Cybersecurity in the Manufacturing Sector
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Being an integral part of complex supply chains, the manufacturing sector is prone to cyberattacks. Any security vulnerabilities might enable attackers to gain unauthorized access, introduce malicious codes or even disrupt operations. In addition to disruption of services and taking the whole supply chain down, the attack surface can spread easily from here if gone undetected. Additionally, the rise of industrial IoT devices and the growing interconnectivity between endpoints has further catapulted the threat landscape. Their access to networks has transformed every connected device into a potential gateway for attackers.
Zero trust architecture (ZTA) is a security framework that assumes no trust in any user or device, regardless of their location or network. ZTA ensures that access to critical infrastructure is strictly managed, limiting the risk of data breaches or theft. By implementing strict identity verification, multifactor authentication and granular access controls, manufacturers can safeguard their most valuable assets. The same architecture can be extended to the supply chain, ensuring that partners and vendors are subject to the same rigorous security measures.
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Boeing Data Published by Lockbit Hacking Gang
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Internal data from Boeing one of the world's largest defence and space contractors, was published online on Friday by Lockbit, a cybercrime gang which extorts its victims by stealing and releasing data unless a ransom is paid. The hackers in October said they had obtained "a tremendous amount" of sensitive data from the aerospace giant and would dump it online if Boeing didn't pay a ransom by Nov. 2. According to a post on Lockbit's website, the data from Boeing was published in the early hours of Friday morning. The files mostly date to late October.
Boeing said it "remains confident" the event does not pose a threat to aircraft or flight safety, but declined to comment on whether defense or other sensitive data had been obtained by Lockbit. Lockbit ransomware, first seen on Russian-language-based cybercrime forums in January 2020, has been detected all over the world, with organisations in the United States, India and Brazil among common targets, cybersecurity firm Trend Micro said last year.
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Israel-Gaza War Confounds CEOs
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Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine created the biggest geopolitical shockwave for business in decades. So it’s jarring that just a year and a half later, CEOs find themselves in the midst of another geopolitical shockwave nearly as large. This time, though, it’s not the direct economic impact that’s making the waves. The war has not spread—yet—to other parts of the region, and oil prices—so far—have remained calm. Instead, CEOs are struggling to manage a different problem—a boiling caldron of outrage that is roiling their teams, many of whom have been directly or indirectly affected by the conflict.
Top communications advisers are fielding nonstop questions from CEOs on a broadening array of related issues. Does the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza merit any less outrage from corporate communicators than the killing of innocent women and children in Israel? If employees use internal company communication channels to push for the rights of Palestinians, is that inherently offensive to Jewish employees? Do statements of support for Israel translate into a denial of the rights of Palestinians? Should employees be allowed to participate in proliferating protests staged by both sides? Emotions on these issues are running high, and employees are looking to their employers for support.
There are no easy answers here.
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5 Leadership Lessons We Learned From the Movies... All Wrong
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Who are your models of leadership? If you were so lucky as to meet great leaders in real life, they may be a former inspiring teacher, maybe a super-boss. But, even then, at least some of your ideas about great leadership are likely to come from the silver screen. Witness the deluge of articles and social media posts that synthesize leadership wisdom from the movies.
Finding valuable leadership lessons in popular films is facilitated by the elasticity of leadership definitions in our minds. “Leadership” seems to mean anything from “behaving in a way that inspires me” to “learning deep lessons about self.” But, if we stick to a textbook definition of leadership, “influencing others to achieve a common goal” (Northhouse, 2019), Hollywood has often given us the wrong idea about it.
Here are five misconceptions about leadership that we have acquired from our favorite movies:
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Succession Planning Success Stories and Failures
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Join the Council of Industry and Associate member Affinity BST for a presentation on the importance of succession planning.
This unique presentation will feature Affinity CEO Nick Preddice sharing case studies of both successful and unsuccessful successions and will draw lessons on how your family business can best prepare.
This event intends to explore the triumphs and hardships when it comes to succession planning and will take place in Newburgh, NY with further details to come.
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Making a Profit in Manufacturing
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Tuesday, October 28 to Wednesday, October 29
8:30 AM - 12:30 PM (EDT)
Online Classroom
Should we add another shift? Can we afford that new machine? How much should we charge our best customer for the new widget we are making? What is the cost of scrap and wasted set-up time? To know the answers to these and countless other questions you need to be able to think like a Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Let’s face it, manufacturers are in business to make money. Through case studies and examples participants will learn how a manufacturer can use financial ratios and other measures of financial performance to monitor its operations, effectively reduce risk, and maximize return. Topics of discussion will include understanding basic financial statements such as the balance sheet and income statement. We will also learn key performance ratios and how to apply them.
This online class will take place from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm on 11/28 & 11/29.
Who should attend:
- Supervisors
- Team Leaders
- Lead People
- Department Heads
- Anyone with budget or financial decision making responsibility
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NEW Episode of Manufacturing Matters Out Now!
Oliver Stauffer, CEO of PTI Inspection Systems
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