Many manufacturers are beginning to feel the strain of pared-down workforces combined with increasing customer demand. As the Great Recession moves into the not-so-distant past, the challenge to maintain efficient customer deliveries with smaller, overworked staffs awaits in the near future.
Last year global manufacturers told MPI that they planned to increase staff at their plants this year: 76 employees in 2011 (median) vs. 72.5 employees in 2010, according to the MPI Manufacturing Study, and an increase was more likely among U.S. plants than international plants. But without a sound HR strategy and management structure in place to meter workforce growth commensurate with demand growth, plants could end up facing lower margins due to overstaffing or late or poor-quality customer deliveries due to insufficient staffing.
Most manufacturing executives recognize the importance of human-resource (HR) management to their plant’s success during the next five years: 28% rate HR management as “highly important” and 38% rate it as “important” (a combined 66%). But one in 10 plants (11%) rate HR management as “not important” or of “minor importance.” What is the likelihood that these facilities will be adequately staffed with an engaged, high-performance workforce when their markets return in force?
How important is human-resource management to plant success, service to customers, and the ability to engage a workforce? Nearly half of manufacturers (46%) that rate HR management as highly important or important had fully achieved or made significant progress toward world-class manufacturing status, vs. 22% of other manufacturers that had a lower opinion of HR management. Manufacturers that rate HR management as highly important or important report a 94% (median) perfect-delivery rate (the percentage of goods on time, of perfect quality, and to customer specifications), vs. 90% (median) of other manufacturers. And 46% of manufacturers that rate HR management as highly important or important have a majority of their production workforces engaged in empowered/self-directed work teams, vs. 34% of other plants with a majority of their workforces participating in such teams.
As you anticipate better economic times and, thus, more business, do you have HR management and strategy in place to profitably meet the opportunity?
By George Taninecz, VP of Research, The MPI Group
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