The reality of small and medium sized manufacturers is that you spend all your available time chasing deliveries and emergencies instead of working proactively to improve your company’s overall performance. This is the reality that most companies find themselves in because they do not have enough staff, time, or training to improve their situation.

By: Todd Weinstein, President of ESG OWL

Sustainability can be overwhelming with acronyms and terminology. If you’re trying to build a foundation of key sustainability topics and terms, you’re in the right place.

In today's world, where environmental concerns are at the forefront of global discussions, organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of adopting sustainable practices. Among the various frameworks available, ISO 14001:2015 stands out as a comprehensive standard for environmental management systems (EMS). This blog aims to provide an overview of the requirements outlined in ISO 14001:2015 and how organizations can leverage it to enhance their environmental performance.

This is an original article from MFG Empire.

By: Matt O'Reilly, VP, MFG Empire

Credit: MFG Empire

In the evolving landscape of recruitment, social media has emerged as a game changer for
connecting with potential candidates, particularly in the manufacturing sector. With a vast
majority of the workforce active on various social media channels, leveraging these platforms for recruitment marketing can significantly enhance a company’s ability to attract top talent. Let’s explore some effective strategies for using social media channels to reach, capture, and engage your target audience in the manufacturing sector.

“THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL MEETINGS IS NOT THE ‘BIG MEETINGS’, BUT THE SHORT AND POWERFUL DAILY HUDDLE” (Growth Institute Blog)

Working with numerous small to medium sized, mostly family-owned manufacturing companies, I have found there is an ongoing struggle in their lean transformation away from a traditional approach to manufacturing. Why is that?

This is an original article from Veryable.

By: Matthew Babich

Credit: Veryable

Imagine yourself sitting at a table, attempting to complete a puzzle blindfolded. Without the use of your eyes, you find your hands scrambling around the table, hopelessly feeling edges and shoving pieces together at random. With the use of your eyes, the information needed to complete the task efficiently is clear, like where the colors match and where they don’t.

You probably have seen this plastered across social media, a strong company culture attracts and retains top talent, keeps employees engaged, and creates a collaborative team environment, yet you find yourself like many manufacturers crunched for time, pressure, and cost. Your time, efforts, and money are spent on requirements to meet legal compliance. Yet according to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers, 74% of executives identified attracting and retaining talent as their primary challenge¹.

You have navigated your new employee through socialization, position training, and overall integration into the organization. They are now confidently going through their day and meeting other co-workers. You have noticed they attend your check in conversations with excitement and suggestions for improvement and began answering questions for newer hires joining the organization.

Now, let’s dive into the core of the onboarding process. If you missed the blog about pre-onboarding, I suggest reading that first and then coming back to this one. We went through the first impression, now the new hire has officially arrived for their first day: the first moment of onboarding. This stage is where the new hire becomes an integrated and productive member of your team. Let's explore this critical phase in the employee journey.

Physical safety is a priority for manufacturers, yet we continue to see high incident rates of injury in the industry. In 2020, there were 373,300 total cases of nonfatal injuries and illnesses recorded in the private manufacturing sector according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, of those 36% had days away from work and 29% had days of job transfer or restriction.  Injuries can occur due to equipment failure, yet an often-overlooked contributing factor could be our biases and the immediate recipient of our bias is our employees.