Digital Tools Can Help You Manage the Changing Industrial Workforce, and Its Impact on the Supply Chain

Earlier I wrote that many of our customers are affected by three mega-trends: sustainability; the changing industrial workforce; and a move toward open, standards-based automation technology. While you will continue to hear us speak loudly about sustainability, it is almost as critical to discuss how the changing global workforce is already driving new business and supply chain dynamics.

This change is happening chiefly for two reasons. The first is the diminishing Baby Boomer workforce. Boomers, who not long ago made up the majority of the workforce, are today only its third-largest cohort, behind Millennials and Gen X’ers. Why? It’s because they are retiring at an astonishing and quickening rate. By the end of this decade, every Boomer will have turned 65. More than 10,000 of them reach retirement every day, and more of them retired last year than in any other year.

The second thing driving change within the global workforce is COVID-19. In a July 2020 McKinsey & Company survey, two-thirds of business executives said they were stepping up investment in digital strategies, including automation and AI, to help overcome COVID-related business issues and manage the fluctuating needs of today’s workforce.

The move toward a more digitally enabled organization has spotlighted how, where and when work is and will be done. As an example, a different McKinsey study found that more than 20 percent of the workforce across all sectors, not just industry, is likely able to begin working remotely. According to McKinsey, “that would mean three to four times as many people working from home than before the pandemic,” which “would have a profound impact on urban economies, transportation and consumer spending, among other things.”

If remote work persists at that level, many of our customers will be meaningfully affected because it will significantly change how, when and how often people will consume the energy, fuel and other goods they manufacture. New variability and complexity within the industrial workforce are having a ripple effect on the worldwide supply chain.