Although American manufacturing is in a time of flux due to several factors, the biggest crisis facing manufacturers is one of talent. While many companies will face challenges due to retiring employees, it is not inevitable that productivity will suffer significantly. Innovative software solutions can now transfer not only information, but also valuable insights and expertise to even the least experienced workers.
Losing Expert Talent to Retirement
The most impactful part of these retirement crises is that the employees leaving are often the most seasoned, experienced and knowledgeable. Replacing them can be difficult. No matter how qualified a new hire is, they cannot replicate the unique company dynamics, history and decision-making that come with years of experience in that specific role.
Companies can try to address this problem through policies that require veteran employees to share their knowledge with newer ones and document their processes. This is a valuable best practice for building continuity in relationships and company culture. However, it is not always sufficient. No matter how thorough the approach, some knowledge gaps will persist. Additionally, if the most skilled employees are spending most of their time teaching, productivity many decline until new employees are elevated to that level.
A solution to mitigating this is through technology. You might think, "We already have a technological solution in place. We have searchable databases for everything and various automation tools in our processes." However, more may be needed. There is a big difference between technology that simply provides information and technology that offers insights and grow alongside data.
Technology that Enables Insights
It is important to understand the difference between information and insights. This distinction is crucial for bridging the knowledge gaps caused by retirements. It also represents a significant shift in how software solutions are designed in today's world. As an example, CADDi enables users to analyze and search for everything in technical drawings, from their labels and metadata to handwritten notes and the dimensions and shapes of the parts themselves.
While this saves time, it also offers something else: useful strategic insights. By connecting PDM, PLM and ERP data, users create a centralized hub for any data needed to inform future designs or purchases. The key is that all this data is linked by the part's design. Users do not need specific part IDs or tags; a general idea of what it should look like (even a hand-drawn sketch) is enough to start exploring.
The challenge with databases is that for inexperienced users, they can appear as a mass of numbers and labels, navigable only with numbers and labels. This creates frequent difficulties when the task is based on a drawing, such as designing, procuring or creating a quote for a part that meets specific requirements.
If a new employee needs to find a bearing with specific dimensions and a particular finish, how do they find it in a spreadsheet using numbers and labels? They find it slowly. Even if one manages to account for all desired specifications, use consistent labeling for every feature and maintain this information across all systems (a significant challenge with tens of thousands of drawings), learning this encoding takes a long time for new employees. It takes even longer when the experienced employees who knew it intimately are retired.
This new era of insightful software can eliminate the reliance on coded language to make connections. In smart manufacturing, CADDi enables users to find every similar part they have worked with in the past, along with all the material data, QA history and prices: everything a new employee needs to find a suitable bearing at the best possible price.
Previously, software provided only abstractions: records in a database that could be searched or sorted, but were always a step removed from the actual object. This new era allows companies to discover, iterate and analyze the object itself, searching based on the relevant qualities. Instead of requiring years of experience to synthesize information into valuable insights, this software brings users directly to the answers, even uncovering insights they had not consider asking for.
Authored by CADDi
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