Why aren’t you paying attention to your manufacturing business?

After nearly two decades of research on manufacturers, you might think that MPI could report  that documented best practices — benchmarking, training, etc. — are now common everywhere, driving massive performance improvements around the world.

Alas, nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, our MPI 2021 Manufacturing Study found many manufacturers struggling with — or outright failing at — the basics of improvement.

It goes without saying that the effects of the pandemic can be seen in our Study data. Nonetheless, the overall Study results are shocking: they highlight dismal levels of mediocrity in management and performances across many facilities and industries. Somehow — despite improvement initiatives, major investments, and the best efforts of consultants, associations, technology vendors, and others —  vast swaths of manufacturing remain mired in an unproductive past.

How bad could it be, you ask?

Well … pretty bad.

We found manufacturing malaise and mismanagement across five critical areas of operation, as illustrated by these practice and performance findings:

Human Resources:

  • Practice — 39% of plants DON’T train employees more than 20 hours annually.
  • Performance — labor turnover was a massive 37% (average) in 2020.

Operations:

  • Practice — 57% of plants DON’T have a continuous improvement program.
  • Performance — On-time delivery in 2020 averaged just 77%.

Supply Chain:

  • Practice — Half of plants DON’T have a supplier-management program.
  • Performance — Two-thirds of plants saw component and material cost increases over the past 12 months.

Capital Equipment and Information Technology:

  • Practice — 49% of plants DON’T use predictive maintenance tools and techniques.
  • Performance — Machine availability in 2020 averaged just 73%.

Green/Sustainability:

  • Practice — 72% of plants DON’T have a formal green corporate program.
  • Performance — Energy costs per unit of product output increased 5% in 2020 vs. 2019.

Manufacturing leaders, please: this is not rocket science. There’s no mystery about what works in driving improvement, and what doesn’t. If you need a list of best practices, download a copy of the Executive Summary of our 2021 Study here, or read nearly any issue of IndustryWeek. Or — if you want to go all out — buy a book (you might start with Nincompoopery: Why Your Customers Hate You — and How to Fix It; I’m told it’s useful and funny). But whatever you decide, DO SOMETHING. Manufacturing mediocrity doesn’t require much effort, but it isn’t much fun, either. But DOING SOMETHING — comparing your metrics vs. ours, listening to employees, asking a customer why he or she is so rightfully angry with you — will be harder, but we can promise that the profits (and the satisfaction) will more than make up for it.

What are you waiting for?