By now, just about everyone in manufacturing knows the score when it comes to the state of their industry. Manufacturing continues to face the long-term challenges of market globalization, changing workforce and customer demographics, cost and efficiency pressures, and the need for relent-less innovation as the industry pivots to restart growth following the slow recovery from the recession.
As it does so, manufacturing also continues to enjoy great strengths. In the United States, for example, manufacturing represents 12% of GDP, contributing $1.6 trillion to the economy. U.S. industry produces 21% of global manufactured products, compared with 13% for Japan and 12% for China. And more than 18 million people are employed in the various sectors that make up manufacturing. But none of these strengths are guaranteed going forward. They have, in fact, been under pressure for years, if not decades. As a result, innovation, efficiency, and business transformation have become key watchwords of the manufacturing faithful intent on creating a better future.
The linchpin of that brighter future, of course, is leadership. What’s required of manufacturing leaders as they grapple with long-term market forces beyond their own four walls as well as national boundaries? What should define leadership in the second decade of the 21st century? How should a manufacturing company be organized today and in the years ahead? And what kind of relationship should a company have with its customers as new forms of communication and interaction take hold in our wired and increasingly wireless society?
These are just some of the critical questions in front of manufacturing leaders in every country and in every sector of industry. To get some answers, Managing Automation Media, with its Managing Automation and Manufacturing Executive publications, recently fielded its first-ever reader poll on leadership. More than 200 senior-level manufacturing leaders from across the industrial landscape weighed in on how they think about the leadership role, the emphasis they place on key activities, how they are organized today and wish to be in the future, and how they expect customer engagement to change going forward ((see chart 2).