Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 14

INDUSTRY 4.0, SKILLS ENHANCEMENT AND WORKFORCE READINESS R ight now, the ultimate job of every foundry related business owner, general manager, and shop floor supervisor has to be figuring out how to keep the work that has been re-shored from going back overseas – without losing money. Other hats that you’ll have to wear in 2021 are: • How do we stay in business with potential on-going pandemic issues? • How do we keep socially distant workspaces? • How do we maintain headcount? • How do we get ahead of a potential retightening of workplace safety and environmental regulations? • How do we increase profits for the short term and long term? Continued on next page WILLIAM SHAMBLEY President New England Foundry Technologies ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS: • New technology requires training to succeed • Recent graduates offer a fast track to adoption of new technology • Management buy-in to training and modernization is a key to future success • Make a tech roadmap and assign team ownership to onboarding new technology The solutions to many of the foundry problems: scrap, safety, environmental monitoring, labor efficiency, worker training and retention, etc. are already in the field – there have been tools available since the old Industry 3.0 “revolution” happened and now we are in Industry 4.0. The keys to all these issues are sitting in your chair, they’re on the factory floors and some of them are wearing smart devices already. Most of the smart ones are already wearing PPE on the shop floor – COVID hasn’t really changed their day-to-day level of protection. Some of the keys to success are graduating from Foundry Education Foundation certified schools, but the odds are they are graduating from somewhere else. The keys to success that are needed in most of the foundries I’ve walked through are: • Leadership committed to being involved and useful • An engaged, multi-generation workforce • Investments in training from the top down and bottom up to stay current • Simple process monitoring solutions • Automation or semi-automation tools 25 ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS