Imagine this: you are on a beautiful bike ride, miles away from any sign of civilization – you may be a casual biker, or you belong to the bikepacking community (people who go on remote bike trips for days or weeks at a time). The essential devices that keep you safe and connected are in a dire state: a cell phone is on the verge of dying, lights are dead, your external battery pack is running low on juice. What do you do?
Written by Michael Taylor, Mechanical engineer and project manager at NIST MEP.
Now that you’ve taken time to investigate the idea on implementing stay interviews to help retain your workforce, to the next step is to explore the types of skills you will need as an interviewer. Being a successful leader includes holding meaningful conversations - a skill that requires effort and practice. Instead, there are a handful of proven skills that transform the ordinary into extraordinary.
2020 tested companies’ agility and adaptability to the unforeseen. The fortunate companies that were able to keep their doors open, have been learning day by day what is needed to survive and thrive in the future.
One essential piece continues to be pertinent – employees. Employees are the ones who are continuing to generate revenue, produce quality goods, and satisfy customers. Being reminded of this, it is critical to retain those skilled workers during these possible trying times. So, ask yourself, how can you truly make each individual employee a priority? – Through conducting stay interviews.
2020 has taught us that Hope, Reflection and Gratitude, and the simple meanings behind each can be quite difficult to do or demonstrate in today’s environment…..as individuals, members of a community, manufacturing team members and leaders, each one of us has our own unique vantage point and an individual story on how this pandemic has affected us both personally and/or professionally.
2020 highlighted the resiliency and significance of our manufacturers. Illinois manufacturers have been on the forefront as heroes during challenging times, contributing to efforts to become leaders in global competitiveness. Manufacturing leaders understand that in times of uncertainty, it is much better to navigate the unknown together with other forward-thinking leaders who are finding innovative ways to solve current challenges and build a stronger future.
Dedicated to cultivating ideas and sharing knowledge that can help Illinois manufacturers solve challenges and thrive through uncertainty, IMEC launched Manufacturing Leader Buzz Sessions over the summer. Buzz
The IMEC Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Services (AMTS) service is the strategic incorporation of nine (9) core Industry 4.0 technologies along with all the enterprise’s other continuous improvement initiatives. Looking at AMTS, we see the confluence of several process mapping tools come to bear, ensuring that the enterprise has a unified, well-coordinated and well-integrated improvement system for achieving their strategic and operational goals / targets.
An original article from the NIST Manufacturing Innovation Blog.
As a proud son of the Midwest (yes, my family does exchange holiday cheese, and yes, it’s delicious, we have no regrets), I was particularly interested in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Partnership Extension (NIST MEP) virtual round table for Midwest manufacturers. All our nation’s manufacturers are important to me and, of course, we at NIST MEP love them all equally, but there’s always a certain extra curiosity about how the home team’s doing, isn’t there? On Aug. 26, 2020, we brought together manufacturers virtually as part of a series of conversations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic impact. Our goal in hosting these listening sessions, which we call the “National Conversation with Manufacturers,” was to discern how best to support manufacturers through the current uncertainty and beyond.
This is an original article written by Katie Rapp, Writer/Editor for the MEP National Network.
