Manage the Skills Gap with an LMS for Manufacturing

By 2030, more than 4 million jobs in manufacturing will need to be filled. Research from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute found that up to 2.1 million of those jobs could go unfilled if there is no influx of talent into the industry. The manufacturing sector is rapidly growing, but the pandemic greatly impacted the availability of talent as many workers left the field. Manufacturing as a whole has yet to recover the number of jobs lost during that period. To sustain growth and prepare for the future of the industry, acquiring, developing, and maintaining talent is essential.

Deloitte issued a manufacturing industry trend report highlighting the steps industry leaders must take to sustain business growth and keep the industry moving. Among the trends, talent management and digitalization are key factors. For the industry to make up for lost talent, companies need more proactive engagement and skills development strategies as well as a strategic approach to digitalization.

Digital training using an LMS platform is the best way for manufacturing companies to address current challenges and prepare for industry growth.

What is the manufacturing skills gap?

The manufacturing skills gap has resulted from a lack of available talent in the field and the mass exodus of workers during the pandemic. Manufacturing companies are now left with smaller workforces and fewer highly-skilled workers. Leaders must act now in order to mitigate the effects of those looming 2.1 million unfilled jobs.

Digital manufacturing training is the step companies must take to address the skills gap now. Through reskilling, upskilling, and ongoing training programs, manufacturing companies can equip a new workforce to operate production plants and manufacturing facilities effectively. Here’s how to begin.

An LMS for manufacturing training

Distributing manufacturing training must be strategic and also put the learner at the center. This means ensuring that training is engaging, relevant, and flexible, so manufacturing employees are compelled to continue learning and growing in the field. Manufacturing companies must also manage compliance across the organization as a whole. These two initiatives will not be successful if they are disjointed. Manufacturing companies need an LMS software with integrated compliance features and tools for skills development.

Chief among training managers’ concerns is the ability to ensure safety on the job in alignment with industry compliance standards. But to achieve this at scale, the process requires a certain degree of automation. Again, a digital LMS platform will help manufacturing companies bridge this gap by automatically assigning and tracking compliance training across the organization and at the individual level. Rapid reporting instantly reveals the overall compliance status of the organization and, in a few clicks, training managers can identify a specific learner’s current and upcoming training needs.

How does using an LMS for manufacturing reduce training costs?

One of the biggest benefits of using an LMS for manufacturing is the reduction of training expenses. With a more streamlined and digitalized system, companies can readily train new team members and scale their training programs as the company grows. Instead of sending training managers from site to site for in-person training sessions and spending valuable production time in large-group learning sessions, manufacturing companies can train their teams more efficiently through digital training. For companies with globally distributed workforces, this could mean a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on training.

For manufacturing companies, the ROI of a learning management system will be seen in the rapid way that training can be distributed and adopted, as well as in the simplification of the overall process. By using an enterprise LMS platform to train teams with an ongoing program, companies can create an always-on training strategy that is ready for new employees as they join the team. And even further, the time to training distribution is considerably shortened by this digital process.

Instead of relying on in-person scheduling and halting work in the process, a training manager can simply create or source a training course and instantly publish it to the LMS. This removes the need for complex scheduling processes altogether. And, even further, it won’t be necessary for training managers to manually remind team members to complete essential compliance training. A digital LMS platform automates this process by sending reminders to learners based on their training status. Learners receive a notification when required training courses are assigned, when deadlines are past due, when their compliance status has expired, and when compliance deadlines are approaching. Compliance tracking and reporting are streamlined using the digital LMS platform.

How to transform manufacturing training for the digital age

Of Deloitte’s manufacturing trend predictions, digitalization was a critical factor. Deloitte tied digitalization to resilience in the industry. Training is most certainly part of this equation. But training in the manufacturing industry needs an overhaul. Learners require greater flexibility and more personalized experiences in order for training to be effective and meet their needs.

Transforming manufacturing training will take multiple steps. First, manufacturing leaders need a clear understanding of the modern learning environment. The mass exodus of talent in the manufacturing industry has been attributed to the industry’s general inability to offer remote or hybrid work during the pandemic. And while this is still the case, that most of the manufacturing talent pool must operate on-site and in a functioning facility, it does not mean that those learners don’t require flexibility and adaptability. In fact, it’s fair to make the case that manufacturing workers may need greater flexibility because of the hands-on nature of their jobs. And this is the key change that must take place in the field: manufacturing companies need to digitalize the learning process. They can no longer rely on legacy training platforms. A digital LMS platform will offer the flexibility, adaptability, and usability that modern workers require alongside the data and distribution that manufacturing companies need.

The best training platform for the manufacturing industry is an LMS that offers learners the ability to train on their own time and terms. For example, an LMS mobile app is essential for manufacturing training because it enables learners to access critical information when they are on-site but away from computers. Or, should their work require them to visit multiple sites over the course of a week, always-on access means training won’t be hindered by a fluctuating schedule that takes the worker away from their desk.

There are many other LMS features for manufacturing that are beneficial, like interactive courses with quizzes interspersed throughout the content to act as knowledge checks. LMS gamification can incentivize learning and an observation checklist can help managers and their teams identify gaps in training.

To bridge the existing skills gap in the manufacturing field, corporate leaders must take a proactive approach. By building scalable, adaptable manufacturing training programs today, companies can address current gaps and prepare for the growth of the industry across the decade. It is digital training technology that will enable companies to rapidly train new talent and upskill existing talent. A digital LMS is the best training platform for manufacturing.

Ready to turn your manufacturing training strategy digital and future-proof your organization against the manufacturing skills gap? Let us show you how. Contact us today for a free demo.