The Importance Of Human Capital In The Modern Culture
Technological Advancements and the Modern Culture
According to recent research, technology has had an impact on the improvement of employee engagement, culture and organizational design. It appears technology is impacting every industry in a variety of different ways. Digital transformation and technological advancements have provided the opportunities for managers and leaders to handle some of the most important and challenging initiatives in the workplace. The most important are engagement and culture. Despite the fact these advancements can be taken advantage of by every industry, the sector of manufacturing has been performing a lot of work in this area. This may be a wide field impacting numerous lines of business and organizations, but it is an area of fascination for many individuals. The number of manufacturing companies beginning to embrace modern technology is expanding.
Technology is being used to overcome the challenges of the industry regarding employee retention, efficiency, engagement and talent acquisition. Manufacturers in the past were stunned by the fast progress of innovation. The manufactures were rattled as they attempted to remain current with the pace. They spent enormous amounts of money to remain on top, modernize and retool. As time passed, the manufactures continued their modernization by thinking of technology as a means of replacing their workforce. This was when the trouble in the manufacturing industry began. The belief machines could replace the workforce led to dispirited and unengaged workers. Manufacturers lost their best possible asset, human capital. The culture of the plant and the workforce simply became part of the automation.
The workforce became responsible for performing repetitive functions time and time again. The work became much less meaningful. The workers began to perceive their jobs as meaningless. One of the biggest problems the industry is currently facing is the development of a new generation for the workforce. The Manufacturing Institute has revealed approximately 3.5 million jobs in the manufacturing sector must be filled during the next decade. If there is not enough adaption within the industry, two million jobs will remain empty. The industry must begin rebuilding an innovative culture in order to survive. The process begins by leveraging the human capital on the floor of the plant. The bottom line is this situation is now all about the people.
The best computer in the world is the human brain. The power of the mind cannot be matched by any computer currently being used in American manufacturing. The most important factor is the greater the complexity of the machine, the more often break downs will occur. One the machine breaks down, humans are necessary to repair them. The most successful and best path forward is the development of ownership and engagement among the workers. This is a culture encompassing complete accountability. When the employees are trusted with responsibility and held accountable for their actions, the result is engagement. The creation of a productive and positive culture is based on these two keys.
Accessing the Actionable Data
Responsibility on the plant floor setting begins when employees are delivering data in real time. They are able to improve performance and spot issues while performing their tasks. Creating a culture of consistent improvement involving the best abilities of the workers at every level starts with trust. Leadership must believe their workers can be given challenges and respond efficiently. A good example are the Navy SEAL teams. They refer to their environments as VUCA. This stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The floor of the plant is also a representation of a type of battlefield. This floor is a complicated environment with a fast pace. Data is constantly being received by the workforce. This data is currently being reviewed after the event has already occurred.
By the time the workers can act on the data, it is already old and outdated. This is like the mission planning briefing being received by the SEAL team after the mission. When the workers on the plant floor are unaware of what happened for hours or days, the concept becomes deflating and uninspiring. The information is useless if the workers are unable to act. If the old data revealed a production error for the day before, the work for an entire shift may need to be redone. No employee working any job wants to realize they wasted their efforts. The idea is to give every employee live and meaningful data. There are available cloud-based technologies to provide each station on the floor of the plant with live and meaningful data. This inspires workers with accurate, powerful data so they can solve problems, ask the correct questions and create an efficient workplace.
Accountability and Transparency
Every individual in modern society has been given immediate information through mobile technologies. The latest generation of workers have more transparency than any generation before them. Manufacturing is growing and must embrace this trend. Mobility technology must be leveraged to provide every worker on the plant floor with access to the workings of the floor all the way up to the level of the c-suite. When the view of the operations are transparent, the workers on the floor can identity flaws and operation trends and recommend improvements. Workers become more efficient by becoming productive and active members of the team working together. Once transparency has been embraced by the company, the workers are engaged in the operations. This is when the activity of accountability begins.
No employee can hide in a completely transparent landscape. Issues can be handled quickly when they arise. This process engages the employees in the work more because the entire team can see their work. This creates a culture of rapid application and learning and a continuous loop of feedback. It is important to understand this is unrelated to big brother, The scary burden of making a mistake decreases when the entire team can view everyone else’s work. The workers become more engaged in their responsibilities, errors are addressed quicker and the efficiency of the operations improves. The leadership of the company has to accept each team member can halt production when an error is spotted. The CEO and manager will not relinquish this control lightly.
Giving up this control enables issues to be solved in real time as opposed to hours afterwards when the data is finally reviewed and corrective actions can be taken. The environment becomes accountable and transparent, issues are solved faster, downtime is decreased and the production increases. Technology can be an excellent driver for contribution, ownership and engagement. A good example is Leading2Lean. This manufacturing technology company uses CloudDISPATCH, a lean execution system that is cloud-based. This system is used by some of the biggest companies on the globe to drive business results and engagement. The software offers every workstation on the floor full transparency. The real-time data access enables the workers to prioritize, identify and solve the major issues occurring on the plant floor.
This technology is not futuristic or science fiction most companies are unable to access. The technology offers clear results and is currently available. Significant increases including reducing product cost and increasing productivity are being experienced by the companies using Leading2Lean. This is because the workers are driving improvement through this technology. A good example is the automotive safety supplier Autolive. In 2017, all 82 of their plants began using Leading2Lean’s CloudDISPATCH. This resulted in a thirty percent quicker response rate to issues with the equipment, a decrease of twelve percent in spare part cost and a production improvement in the availability of equipment as high as 23 percent at some locations. The engagement of the employees led to business improvements.
The Personal Value
The biggest problem for manufacturing is the development of the workforce for the future. The biggest draw for workers of the past was money. The current environment is low employment. The employees are now able to choose the company where they work. Manufacturing can only remain strong with a change in perception regarding the work’s nature, while providing encouragement for individuals to take a job in manufacturing. The industry must begin demonstrating the floor of the plant is dynamic, driven by technology, rewarding, challenging and necessary for the economy. The personal values of the future generations of employees must be matched by the industry. Software such as Leading2Lean are using technology that matches the new generation’s talents. The new generation has been weaned on electronic game playing and mobile technology.
In order for new generations of workers to be attracted to the manufacturing industry, the language the workers have learned must be matched. It is just as important for companies to create cultures that will make the workers proud. Employees can be held accountable by the other workers when they have received access to necessary information and are trusted with the responsibility to make their own decisions. When the job of every worker becomes essential to the company, a company culture is created. This results in the workers having something worthy to take home and discuss with their friends or spouse. When every employee becomes a hero every single day, the company wins.
