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PDP Solutions was featured in the current issue of Automation.com. The article authored by manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler was titled, “Beyond Manufacturing Automation: Employee Engagement.”

PDP Solutions was featured in the current issue of AutomationMedia.com. The article authored by manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler was titled, “Automation Success Only Possible through Employee Engagement and Communication.” Cutler discussed how employee engagement in manufacturing requires a systematic and tested method of reaching employees with important messages. According to Cutler, “Balancing the sheer volume of communication is congruent with lean manufacturing policies and principles. Employees on the plant floor can ill afford to be deluged with emails. Aggregating mass email messages and reducing email overload is a best practice.”

Like it or not, the global economy brought higher pressure and thinner margins right to your doorstep. Nobody feels this as keenly as the production managers and shop foreman in the small manufacturing operation. These key individuals must constantly pace the shop floor to eyeball the process and look for problems, shepherding workflow and throughput through a mix of first-person viewpoint, second-hand information, and a variety of tracking systems. These methods can include disconnected spreadsheets, phone calls, emails, face-to-face conversations, and the good old scheduling whiteboard, which is frantically updated as demands and challenges change. In the midst of all this chaos manufacturing leaders are failing to communicate with shop floor employees.

Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler was interviewed by radio host, Todd Schnick of IntrepidNOW and sponsored by PDP Solutions. The interview series is called, "Effective Communication in the Workplace." The fifth part of a six part series examines the recent survey results about manufacturing leadership. Cutler explained, "We wanted to figure out the real manufacturers' pain points. We learned how manufacturing leaders communicate with shop floor workers." Cutler's firm surveyed 1500 small- to mid-sized manufacturing CEOs and asked them about the greatest barriers, challenges, and fears. Statistically significant findings were both interesting and unexpected.

Apeksha Kaushik, for the Economic Times report that with an added push from the 'Made in India' campaign, the manufacturing and its sub sectors will need approximately 97 million skilled workers by 2022. Among these, software engineers will be most sought-after. There will be plenty of jobs for the skilled candidates. The manufacturing & engineering industry employs approximately four million skilled and semi-skilled workers and accounts for 27 percent of the total factories. These are important data and many US workers will be enticed to move to India for far better wages. US manufacturers will need to do a better job of communication to keep the best and brightest on board.

Manufacturing is a critically important part of the US economy. Despite fluctuations over the years the value of the sector cannot be ignored. Sadly manufacturing executives are admittedly poor communicators and hurt the sector's growth, employee engagement, and employee retention.

In business, 3PL has a broad meaning that can be applied to any service contract that involves storing or shipping things. A 3PL service may be a single service such as transportation or warehouse storage or it can be a system-wide bundle of services capable of managing the entire supply chain. The term 3PL was originally coined to differentiate logistic providers who used the Internet to enhance their services from those that did not. Ultimately with same day and next day delivery expected by the consumer manufacturers have no option but to use 3PL to meet these new high demands. The same is true with the internal communication paradigm.

A company interested in establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) has a wide range of options in tailoring a plan that is best suited to its particular needs and goals. A large, publicly traded company, for example, would handle the creation of its ESOP somewhat differently than would a smaller firm. In general ESOPs are better communication companies because of the focus of ownership culture.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the manufacturing industry saw middle management hollowed out and was introduced to part-time/contract labor forces, and the replacement of routine work by robots, software and outsourcing. Factories were left with a smaller set of "knowledge workers" — the ones who could think for themselves as well as use their intuition and personal skills. Since then, those skilled workers that remained "aged out" and retired. Onboarding new replacement manufacturing labor teams requires a different set of requirements, especially as those under 30 are used to constant feedback and recognition for work performed.

Reshoring is great. It means more jobs back in the United States. It does not, however, solve the problem of poor communication on the part of manufacturing executives.

PDP Solutions is being hired by manufacturing firms who are outsourcing communication with plant floor employees.

Six months ago U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced Fred Dedrick, Executive Director, National Fund for Workforce Solutions, as one of 27 individuals selected to serve on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). The Council operates as an independent entity within the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), which is housed within the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Manufacturers are not doing a good job of communicating with their employees and distributors, reported Chief Executive magazine. Many are finding third party communication experts, such as PDP Solutions, to be an efficient solution. Increasingly, manufacturers focus with operational imperatives, are leaving the strategic communication leadership to experience vendors who can continue to articulate the culture of the organization. Nowhere is this imperative more urgent than in ESOP organizations.

The culture of kaizen is irrelevant if manufacturing executives do not communicate it with the plant floor workers.

Call it the "steel ceiling" – and the next challenge for women's employment opportunities in the 21st Century. A U.S. Department of Commerce study shows only one in seven engineers are women, and women account for as little as 27 percent of all computer science workers. While advances for women have been made in fields such as healthcare and law, sexism or at best gender preference, still exists in technical fields.

Karen Martin recently discuss the human side of value stream mapping (VSM) as helping businesses—and the people within them—be their best. In Quality Digest, Martin asked when one thinks of value stream transformation, what are the most common desired outcomes that come to mind? Shorter lead times? Higher quality? Reduced expenses? Expansive thinkers often go beyond these classic performance indicators and aim for improvements such as quicker time to market for new products, greater market share, smoother acquisitions, and less painful annual budgeting cycles.

President of PDP Solutions, Louise Dickmeyer was recently interviewed by Todd Schnick of IntrepidNOW regarding manufacturing leadership communication. The interview series "Effective Communication in the Workplace," explores the importance of effective communication at the workplace.

PwC's report recently published includes a special section on human capital, which reveals a continued shortage of skilled workers across the manufacturing sector as 64% of respondents cited a need to fill certain skill gaps in their business in the next 12-24 months. Further highlighting the issue, over the past year, two-thirds of manufacturers also reported having open positions that they were unable to fill with experienced or skilled employees. In order to begin filling the gap, 78% of manufacturers plan to hire new skill function employees over the next 12-24 months. Ironically if these new hires do not feel engaged they will not stay on the job, which is why more manufacturing executives are turning to third party vendors to assist in the communication process with plant floor workers.

Career Track researchers asked women across the country to describe their toughest communication situations. Having analyzed over 800 circumstances and compiled these top 10: confronting others, delivering criticism, controlling emotions, being more assertive, receiving constructive criticism, using confidence not uncertainty, getting cooperation, dealing with the anger of others, setting limits, improving presentation skills, and taking charge. Similar research found that many manufacturing leaders would rather outsource communication to third party vendors than acquire these skillsets.

In the personality profile of most manufacturing leaders the word motivational is missing, yet it is completely required, even if tasked with a third party organization to share with shop floor workers.

Craig Barner recently reported in Forbes that merger & acquisition activity could get brawnier as smarter approaches to manufacturing make product assembly leaner and more responsive to demand. Production concepts, such as lean manufacturing, six sigma and total quality management, have been around for decades, but now new ideas, such as distributed manufacturing, are being tried. Whatever the approach, these models seek to improve the way products, from furniture to automobiles, are made. In addition, powerful new tools—robots, laser cutters, printed electronics, computer-numerical-control (CNC) milling machines, three-dimensional printing and scanning systems—are increasingly being employed in manufacturing.

By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the U.S. and Canadian workforces, meaning that pinpointing what drives millennial engagement, and also understanding how companies can help different generations work cohesively as a unit, is essential to running a successful workplace. Dale Carnegie Training recently conducted a study focusing on how to engage millennials at work, and found that 86% of millennials are significantly more likely to be engaged at work compared to baby boomers. The study also found that this generation of workers places a significant value on a number of attributes that they find are missing from their workplace including: doing work that is varied and interesting, open and honest communication with senior management, and the ability to learn and develop beyond their current job. Understanding these values, as well as the differences and similarities between millennials and baby boomers, is crucial for manufacturing executives to understand so they can successfully motivate all of their employees.

Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler was interviewed by radio host, Todd Schnick of IntrepidNOW and sponsored by PDP Solutions. The interview series is called, "Effective Communication in the Workplace." The fifth part of a six part series examines the recent survey results about manufacturing leadership. Cutler explained, "We wanted to figure out the real manufacturers' pain points. We learned how manufacturing leaders communicate with shop floor workers." Cutler's firm surveyed 1500 small- to mid-sized manufacturing CEOs and asked them about the greatest barriers, challenges, and fears. Statistically significant findings were both interesting and unexpected.

Good employees are hard to find, so bosses across the country today will be showing their employees just how much they value them with company parties, free lunch, acts of kindness, gifts, a team spirit day, even massages and a half-day with pay. But appreciation goes beyond just one day of recognition. Companies that provide health insurance, dental and vision, retirement plans, paid vacations, and sick leave, often gain and retain happy employees over those that do not. Benefits are a critical piece of an employee compensation package with health benefits and time-off as the most popular, according to a study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. The study also found that employee benefits have a significant impact on staff retention and most employees were happy with their employer's offerings.

From the first day every new employee who joins a manufacturing company is an opportunity to the C-level executives to build rapport, connection, and communication. From the first day new manufacturing employees start on the job, they begin to make judgments about the company, their manager, their peers, and the job they have been hired to do. Too many first days are wasted days with new employees sitting around doing nothing while they wait for their managers to pay attention to them. According to Louise Dickmeyer, President of PDP Solutions, there are effective ways to on-board a plant floor worker without them feeling overwhelmed and it starts with leadership communication. Often they are funneled into half-hearted orientation programs and bombarded with information overload. PDP Solutions revamps the communication strategy of manufacturing leaders from day 1 of a new worker joining the firm.

PDP Solutions' president, Louise Dickmeyer discussed why manufacturers need to outsource communication in the company's recent blog. Dr. Marvin Marshall shared in Reliable Plant magazine that without trust in the workplace, communication and teamwork will erode. Additionally, morale decreases while turnover rises. He suggests three approaches to build shop floor employees' trust in management, thereby making the workplace an environment filled with innovation, creativity, and ultimately higher profits for all.

While manufacturing continues to be a high-growth economic opportunity in the region of Georgia and Tennessee, manufacturing employment grew 3 percent last year ending in October, nearly twice the national average of 1.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The labor force in the North is not keeping up the pace which is why PDP Solutions is working to help manufacturing executives attract and keep capable young talent.