TN Chamber Event: The Transformation of Manufacturing, Session 2
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
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Event Description:
The Transformation of Manufacturing, Session 2 - East TN Location: Smart Factory Institute, 7469 Volkswagen Drive, Chattanooga, TN The manufacturing industry in North America is undergoing its fourth evolution into a high-technology, digitalized, and data-driven industry. This Industry 4.0 period began long before the COVID-19 pandemic affected global society at all levels but has been accelerated in response to many of the challenges associated with this pandemic. In this 3 part series, we examine and explore the current manufacturing industry in North America and the challenges and opportunities it faces as adoption of Industry 4.0 thinking, tools, standards, and processes becomes more widespread. Session 2: Industry 4.0 Impact on the Worker The industry-changing impacts of Industry 4.0 advancements can only be fully realized when there are corresponding changes in the manufacturing workforce. In general, these impacts are likely to be seen and experienced in terms of changes to: (a) the design of manufacturing work; (b) the manufacturing worker experience; (c) critical worker knowledge, skill, ability, and competency requirements; and (d) numerous other talent management considerations involving talent acquisition, retention, and training/development needs. The positive impacts of Industry 4.0 technologies on manufacturing will only be realized if the existing workforce can be reskilled and retained, and if the size and training of the emergent workforce is also tuned to meet the new demands and respond well to the new opportunities presented by Industry 4.0.