We, at Scientific Management Techniques, decided to pull together data from our forty-six years of mechanical hard skills assessments into a simple but effective chart.  The results demonstrate a clear, steady decline in mechanical troubleshooting skills over the past four and a half decades.  And we don’t need the data to know this, we hear it from the ground every day from our global manufacturing clientele.

Used to collect the data, the Standard Timing Model (STM), our mechanical skills assessment tool, is used to identify mechanical skills and competencies when hiring Maintenance Professionals, Machine Operators, Electro-Mechanical Personnel, Assemblers and Technicians. There are varying degrees of assessment difficulty depending on the position you’re hiring or evaluating.  In addition, the STM is an effective tool for determining mechanical aptitude and determining training needs.

Our assessment programs have been validated thirty-eight times at the Ph.D. level, proving their effectiveness at identifying the most skilled, most capable, and most trainable candidates and incumbents.

The end result is that the manufacturing skills gap is real, and it will continue to significantly impact the bottom line of manufacturers globally.  What has led to this skills gap could be debated at length, but we believe it is critical to move forward with a solution-based skills strategy to embrace your manufacturing workforce pipeline.

If you’d like to know more about the unique, hands-on skills assessment and training solutions we offer, please contact us, we’d welcome the opportunity to customize a program for you and your team.

The post The Manufacturing Skills Gap – A Look at the Hard Data appeared first on Scientific Management Techniques, Inc..

Any type of workforce skills gap is often the result of many forces that have evolved slowly over time, intertwining to create a complex social, political and economic problem.  Therefore, constructing arguments based on survey data (realistically, only a snapshot based entirely on perception) can be unreliable.  Both sides of the manufacturing skills gap argument have used survey data to frame their conclusions.

In the article, one of the authors even states this himself, “The claims and the data sets that are out there often don’t involve the direct measurement of skills, so people are looking at vacancy rates across the entire economy or all manufacturers,” he said. “There’s very little data in which people go in at the plant level and measure what skills U.S. workers need to have.”

How do you make conclusions about the hard skills of the US manufacturing workforce without actual skill data from US workers?

Since 1971, Scientific Management Techniques has been measuring and recording hard skill data using our Manufacturing Skills Assessment Programs across many manufacturing industries and geographical areas.   SMT’s assessments have been delivered millions of times over the course of this time period.  These programs utilize Validated, Hands-On, Performance-Based Assessment Machines that identify the most skilled, most capable, and most trainable candidates and incumbents.  In other words, our assessment programs directly quantify the hard skill levels of the manufacturing workforce.

From our decades of data, we have seen a sharp decline in overall assessment performance in the last 15 years.  We consistently hear about the struggles of manufacturers to find the right talent, and that is why they come to us for a solution.  Our manufacturing clients (such as Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Pfizer, Honda) deploy our Skills Assessment and Training Solutions because they know that without them, the impact of the skills gap to their bottom line would be significant enough to stifle productivity and profitability goals.

Clearly, we can assume the skills required by the manufacturing industry has not declined, and with the acceleration of technology and automation, they have in many areas increased.   With labor skills declining and the required skills increasing, a skills gap has developed.

This is not a judgement on the worthiness of the US workforce as one author states in the article.  This is the result of many socio-economic and political forces aligning against the manufacturing industry and the skills needed to see it thrive through the next century.

Of course, the solution required is multi-faceted, and certainly, coordinating supply with demand is at the heart of the issue. Outside of industry, SMT regularly partners with community colleges and workforce development initiatives to align their offerings to this goal.

If you are interested in more information about our Manufacturing Skill Programs or want to discuss skill data for your region or state, please contact me at ebarksdale@scientific-management.com.

The post Manufacturing Skills Gap Doesn’t Exist? It does, and here’s how. appeared first on Scientific Management Techniques, Inc..

Before we apply a training program, it must be comprised of the following basic elements, all of which are tightly interwoven:

1. Effective – In order for training to be meaningful, it must translate directly to the bottom line. Workers must be able to apply what they learn to their operations, improving productivity.
2. Efficient – Training programs must be designed to be efficient in their time delivery. Taking staff off the production floor while maintaining full operations is challenging.  It is not that programs must be delivered quickly, but the time allotted for training must be maximized.
3. Easy to comprehend – Like any training curriculum, it must be easy for students to understand. None of the above is possible if material cannot be understood and applied.

The above elements can only be achieved if employees are only given the training they need.  A “shotgun” approach, while seemingly easier, will only end up costing more in the long run.  Not only is it more expensive, but employees are more likely to disengage if they feel they are not learning.

At Scientific Management Techniques (SMT), we have developed a unique Demand-Driven Training System that targets training specifically to the needs of the individual based on their real, hard skill levels.  We accomplish this by cataloguing their current skills through our Hands-On Skills Assessment Programs.  These validated assessment machines are designed to evaluate the skill levels of both potential new hires and incumbent employees.

By creating standardized benchmarks and analyzing skill gaps, we then develop a customized curriculum unique to the individual.  Along with a host of pre-determined operational metrics, we close the circle by administering post-training assessments to determine the effectiveness of the training, readjust and reapply.  SMT’s skill training system has been utilized to train thousands of Fortune 500 manufacturing employees in 38 countries.

When done properly, skills training is a fundamental building block for any growth oriented organization.  Not only does it help improve the bottom line, but gives employees a sense of purpose, growth and loyalty integral to any company’s success.

The post A Manufacturing Dilemma – Who Needs What Training? appeared first on Scientific Management Techniques, Inc..

Large Fortune 500 manufacturing companies have a vast workforce, and it is not always easy to maintain an accurate picture of the skill development of their employees.  This is where our clients see the many benefits of implementing a Hands-On Skill Assessment Program.

Scientific Management Techniques has developed 5 skill assessment machines for the selection and evaluation of roles that include maintenance mechanics, machine operators, industrial electricians, PLC technicians, electro-mechanical personnel, process control technicians, and CNC operation personnel.

The SMT Skill Assessment Program has been developed and utilized for over 44 years and has 38 validation studies to support the efficacy of the program.

There are many benefits of assessing the skill levels your incumbent workforce.  The ability to identify skill gaps and training needs is often the most highly recognized.  However, clients have provided feedback that by using SMT’s Assessment Machines, they have discovered they had entry level operators with potential far beyond their current role.  These individuals were perhaps hired to fill an immediate need on a production line, but had high levels of mechanical aptitude and were destined to become highly accomplished senior maintenance staff.

These individuals become the backbone of any manufacturing organization.  It is critical for productivity and profitability of every organization to recognize, train and promote these types of skilled individuals as they become increasingly rare.

SMT’s Skill Assessment machines not only allow for manufacturers to identify and hire the most highly skilled individuals, but allows for easy identification of incumbent skill levels for training, promotion and workforce development.

The post Finding Hidden Talent in your Manufacturing Workforce appeared first on Scientific Management Techniques, Inc..

• Six out of 10 manufacturing positions remain unfulfilled because of the talent shortage.
• 82% of executives say the skills gap will impact their ability to meet customer demand.
• 78% of executives indicate it will be hamper their ability to implement new technologies and increase productivity.
• Two million workers will be needed to cover the projected shortfall as only 1.4 million out of 3.4 million positions are expected to be filled over the next decade.

There is a solution to curtail the problem immediately.  At Scientific Management Techniques, we implement a 2 part, Hands-On manufacturing skills program that helps manufacturers and community colleges to address the manufacturing skills shortage. Fortune 500 manufacturers have been using this solution for decades including Unilever, Diageo, P&G, Mars/Wrigley, Reckitt Benckiser, Coca-Cola, Cummins, Merck, Alcoa, AstraZeneca and many more.

It utilizes one of a kind, Hand-On Assessment Machines to identify manufacturing skill sets both for hiring and for identifying skill gaps/training needs.  The efficacy of the assessment program has been confirmed by over thirty validation studies conducted by Industrial/Organizational PhD’s and by over forty years of success driving productivity in the field.  Here are a few of the benefits of the assessment program:

The second part of the skills program includes a 100% demand-driven curriculum. The curriculum has been built by and for industrial operations professionals over the last 40 years.  It involves over 200 Hands-On training aids and a curriculum that is constantly evolving to meet the needs of industrial clients.

Put these two unique solutions together and any manufacturing community or stakeholder can solve their skills shortage.

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