Smaller manufacturers can get advice at a conference in downtown Pittsburgh this week on how to make room for the rapidly changing technology that is transforming their industry.
The Smart Manufacturing Experience will showcase robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, 3D printing and other high-tech applications. The biennial event takes place between Tuesday and Thursday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
“Historically, small and medium manufacturers have been fighting for survival and focusing on day-to-day operations rather than planning future growth,” said Dave Morton, the group director of events for Smart Manufacturing Experience, a manufacturing trade group based in Michigan.
“A shortage of skilled workers, lack of interoperability through proprietary systems, advancing technology, cybersecurity concerns, scalability constraints – all these challenges for small manufacturers are the focus of what we're doing at Smart Manufacturing Experience,” he said.
Southwestern Pennsylvania is home to thousands of manufacturing companies, most of which are considered small businesses. Morton said a manufacturer is considered to be small when it employs 50 or fewer workers, while medium-sized operations have between 51 and 500 employees.
Nationally, two in every three manufacturers report they are preparing strategies to digitize and automate their operations or have already begun implementing or testing such a plan, according to a recent survey by the Smart Manufacturing Institute. But another third said they do not have a strategy to make similar upgrades.
“Those are the people that I'm most concerned about because we need to have … companies … position themselves for growth … because there's no turning back – this is happening,” Morton said of the companies that lack a smart manufacturing strategy.
The new survey found that companies with a smaller geographic footprint were generally less likely than their larger counterparts to prioritize technological change. Yet two-thirds of them said technological advances would make them more competitive.
Morton noted that automation allows factories to produce more goods with fewer workers. And comprehensive data collection can limit the scope of a product recall by enabling plant operators to trace where in the supply chain a breakdown occurred, he said.
The survey shows, however, that a majority of factory leaders say they can’t afford the cost of such investments.
“They need help with being shown how to do it,” Morton said. “It's showing them the math. It's showing them that the investment pays back. … Then they need help applying for a grant, or they need help in doing all the paperwork.
“So we’re just looking at how we can help bring more information and ways of easing the journey to these companies on their smart manufacturing transition because it is a journey.”
And while that journey will likely lower the overall need for labor, Morton said plants will continue to need skilled workers.
If “we reduce the mundane, repetitive work that someone would be required to do, and we replace that with automation, someone still needs to monitor and manage the automation,” he said.
So, machinists and welders will still need to run floors full of equipment, he said, and design engineers will continue to develop new products.
This week’s conference includes sessions on attracting more students and workers to careers in manufacturing and how to build their skills. It also includes presentations on machine learning, supply chain management, and predictive data modeling, among other topics. Vendors will display products in an exhibit gallery.
Morton expects the three-day event to attract 1,300 attendees. He said it will again take place in Pittsburgh in 2024. The region leads the nation in manufacturing and tech development, he said.
“There's a lot in Pittsburgh to be discovered when it comes to supporting advanced manufacturing,” he said. “And we as an organization, and our partners, would like to help tell that story because we need to replicate a lot of what's happening in Pittsburgh around the country.”
