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JULY 2020 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 53 Matties: How do you deal with reskilling or retraining? Do you have internal training, or do you rely on external training? Murphy: Both. In fact, we partnered with ManpowerGroup to develop an Academy of Advanced Manufacturing where we support those very similar needs on behalf of our cus- tomers. In that transition of the skills required to get work done, many manufacturers need more technicians—either light or fully techni- cian capable individuals—and yet they're not growing on trees anywhere in the world. It becomes even more intriguing in terms of how we're going about doing that. This was set up with a partnership between our two compa- nies to recruit military veterans coming off ser- vice who may have incredible aptitudes from a technology, logistics, and leadership perspec- tive, but they don't have a job. We put them through the paces of several weeks of accel- erated technical training, getting them compe- tent in supporting control technologies within manufacturing, and then we place them into full-time roles within our customers and some- times within our own plants. That's one method, but there are all kinds of internal and external partner training that is deployed to help be about that upskilling and reskilling. It's a real need because we all know that the workforce availability and transition that's taking place is creating some challenges for the industry at large. Matties: When you start on the journey, in many cases, you have to start with the basics like how to have an effective meeting. Murphy: Absolutely. It isn't always about know- ing the difference between a capacitor and a resistor or how to troubleshoot a microproces- sor-based application; it's often about how to effectively engage with each other. The rela- tionships that exist on the shop floor today are vitally important, as well as the interde- pendencies that exist between associates. Largely gone are the days where someone sim- ply works in one station on one line, conduct- ing a task that doesn't require them to even look to the left or right. When you're digi- tally enabled and integrated, the manufactur- ing environment is significantly different, and the need to communicate effectively with your colleagues throughout the workday takes on added importance. It often gets down to the important foun- dational basics of interacting clearly and thoughtfully with each other, and it's not just associate to associate; it's about supervisor to associate, as well as associate to engineer and salesperson that might bring customers through, which is an increasingly frequent opportunity because of sharing the story of how we do things in our plants. It's exciting but challenging. You must give it the energy, time, and commitment required to make sure that the human element is as capable as