___________________________________________________________________________________________ Plant Construction
Your people aren ’ t an afterthought
Employees with valuable skills are scarcer than ever , yet recruiting is often left to the project ’ s later stages . It can take a long time to hire and train workers . The last thing you want to do is stumble across the finish line because you don ’ t have the right people in place .
You can start this process by developing a comprehensive training strategy . You may have employees who lack the experience needed to operate and maintain your assets effectively or may not understand how to solve problems – this can be a costly , production-halting failure if left unaddressed .
This is also a good time to take an honest look at any existing cultural elements that may not help attract and retain the skilled employees you are looking for . Once you ’ ve got your workers , you ’ ll need a plan to reskill , upskill , and retain your labor base .
Setting your plant up for digital manufacturing success
Some would say the solution to our problems is technology – implementing AI programs , sensors , virtual reality , or automation certainly sounds appealing . But technology itself isn ’ t the fix ; it ’ s the accelerator . The most important part of your digital transformation goals should be putting the right foundations in place . And what better time than before your plant gets up and running ?
This means defining how you will manage the life cycle of your assets . Any AI or machine learning technology needs to be trained to optimize results – it needs the correct data and ‘ experience ’ to calibrate and monitor the contextualized data , and then draw accurate conclusions . This means you can ’ t simply ‘ set it and forget it .’ If you don ’ t provide the context or calibrate your technology , you won ’ t set your employees up for a smooth start up .
Shaping the economic landscape for years to come
We ’ re seeing billions of dollars funneled into building new facilities across the country and manufacturers are being encouraged to relocate their operations back to America . But the decision to build a new plant requires a careful and deliberate assessment of the advantages and risks .
Success stories do exist – large companies that built a new facility , expanded their manufacturing capacity , found and / or retrained workers with the right skills , and created well-defined processes based on years of experience and lessons learned . Other companies may find themselves with little or no experience and unsure of the path forward . If you ’ re in the latter category , find a consulting partner who has the right knowledge , experience , and tools to help guide you through the process . ■
For a list of the sources used in this article , please contact the editor .
Rick Wheeler www . lce . com
Rick Wheeler is Vice President of Professional Services at Life Cycle Engineering ( LCE ). With a broad range of experience in the pharmaceutical , chemical , and nuclear industries , LCE helps organizations in private industry , public entities , government organizations , and the military to improve operational effectiveness .
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