Are you getting the most value from your engineering department? Do engineers have time for tasks that are critical to your company’s long-term success, or are they so busy with today’s projects that there’s too little time to mitigate tomorrow’s risks?
In a recent survey from IHS Engineering360 Media Solutions, many engineers reported tighter resource constraints, a faster pace of work, and increasingly complex designs. What does this mean for your manufacturing business both today and tomorrow?
A quarter of America’s engineering workforce plans to retire by 2020, and over 30% of engineers say that they’re unlikely to be working for their current employer five years from now. At the same time, 40% of the survey’s respondents claim that their companies lose knowledge and expertise faster than they gain it. Yet only 43% of these engineers’ employers have formal practices in place for knowledge management. With the loss of engineering talent and without knowledge transfers, how well would your company compete?
For many manufacturers, meeting today’s challenges already requires significant resources. For engineers, customer satisfaction (60%) and product quality (57%) remain the most important metrics for measuring their department’s success. Demand for environmentally-friendly and sustainable products continues to increase, but a majority of engineers cite challenges posed by more regulations, more frequent regulations, and greater regulatory complexity.
Do your engineers have all of the information that they need to succeed? Do they have the time and the institutional support to record their knowledge, and help train your company’s future workforce?
