Canadian manufacturers are restructuring their businesses in response to the challenges they face in global markets.
They are not alone. The emergence of new market opportunities and disruptive low-cost competition, the rapid development of new technological capabilities, more demanding customers, a more demanding public, and intense bottom-line pressures are changing the nature of manufacturing worldwide.
There is a revolution occurring around the world in the business of manufacturing. Business strategies are changing. Manufacturers are entering new markets and striving to meet new and changing customer needs. They are outsourcing more components and services to suppliers on a global basis. Production processes are using the latest in automated technologies. Manufacturers are restructuring their internal operating and information systems and re-engineering production processes to eliminate waste and lower costs. And, they are changing the nature of their organizations by partnering with other companies in complex supply chains and business networks that now extend around the world. Even more changes are to come as businesses respond to the globalization of industrial markets, production systems, supply networks, and competition.
The business of manufacturing is being redefined by changes in the market place and how companies react to them. Manufacturing is being transformed from a traditional model of individual companies working with mechanical mass production systems to produce standard products for local markets. Now, companies are operating with flexible and highly automated production systems, producing customized goods and services, and are both part of and dependent on supply chains with global reach. Manufacturing is a knowledge-based and service intensive business where success depends on delivering customer solutions, not simply producing things.
Workforce capabilities will be an even more important determinant of competitive success in a manufacturing world where knowledge and capital are the prime assets and business growth is driven by the continuous acquisition, deployment, protection, and funding of new knowledge.
The growing complexity of tasks and the pace of change with respect to technologies, organizations, and business objectives will mean that the core competencies of Canada’s manufacturing workforce in 2020 will be substantially different from those of today. They are likely to entail: