Modern manufacturers are focused on adopting advanced machine and engineering technology to remain competitive in an ever-evolving industry. These technologies are helping manufacturing companies increase efficiency, optimize workflows, and maximize output.
But implementing new machines and technologies requires more than just adding them to processes or the factory floor. Manufacturers must prepare their human workforce for these changes and ensure buy-in from employees. Otherwise, leadership risks failure to adopt, or a workforce that doesn’t take advantage of all that new tech has to offer.
The key to success when adopting new advanced machine and engineering technology is to ensure the workforce understands how to use it and is ready to embrace it. This is more than just a company issue — it requires a transformation of the broader manufacturing workforce to ensure the industry is ready to fully adopt industry 4.0 and move into the future of manufacturing.
A Holistic Approach: Why Tech Adoption Needs Systems Thinking
Utilizing advanced technologies to solve manufacturing and engineering problems isn’t a quick fix. In today’s manufacturing environment, resolving issues often requires systems thinking, which is “a holistic approach to understanding complex problems by focusing on the interconnected relationships and interactions between the parts of a system, rather than just the individual components.”
This approach came about as a way to align new technology adoption to the organizational systems that already exist within a manufacturing plant. It doesn’t matter how advanced a facility is — they all rely on interconnected manufacturing systems that can create bottlenecks when companies are looking to rapidly adopt new technologies.
The current human workforce largely drives these systems at a company, which compounds this issue. When manufacturers ignore legacy systems while implementing advanced machine and engineering solutions, the workforce often underutilizes this tech and isn’t operating to the full range of its capabilities.
To avoid this, manufacturing company leaders should implement system updates along with technology upgrades. The focus shifts from new equipment and tech to changing workflows and processes. Manufacturers must update individual roles and responsibilities, revise team performance metrics to align with expectations around new technologies, and adjust decision-making and approval processes. Most importantly, leaders need to facilitate training to allow their workforce to learn and adapt to new systems and technology to advance operations.
Manufacturing runs on a system of interdependent components, so it takes more than just a new technology to drive progress at a facility. Utilizing systems thinking alongside upgrades removes the silos within a facility, allowing the whole organization to benefit from improvements. Coupling workflow and technology updates enables the rapid change manufacturing leaders are looking to achieve when adopting new tech to optimize operations.
New Report Identifies Next-Gen Job Needs and Skill Sets
It’s important for manufacturing leaders to consider their current workforce when adopting new advanced machine and engineering technology to properly invest in required training and implement new workflows. However, when it comes to the next generation of manufacturing workers, there is a whole new skill set this workforce will need to succeed in industrial jobs.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlines these skills in a new report. This report, entitled “Analysis of the Manufacturing USA Occupation and Competency Framework,” expands on a 2025 framework released by Manufacturing USA. In the report, NIST outlines 235 knowledge, skills, and abilities, or KSAs, that manufacturing workers require to utilize new technologies across several different manufacturing sectors.
NIST organizes the KSAs into 13 competencies and 68 sub-competencies to expand upon the framework and highlight the transferable and in-demand skills the next generation of manufacturing workers will need to succeed. Workers don't necessarily obtain all of these prior to entering the workforce, so NIST’s report serves as guidance for future industry training programs.
Organizations release reports like this to accelerate workforce development for the manufacturing industry. As manufacturing advances, these new skills are required to succeed in an industrial landscape driven by new, interconnected technologies. While industry evolves around these technologies, the workforce must keep pace to ensure success in industry 4.0.
Addressing Skill Gaps With Microcredentials, Apprenticeships and Partnerships
Though it’s important to identify the skills and competencies needed for the future industrial workforce, the current workforce has a skills gap that the industry must resolve to transition to a smart manufacturing ecosystem. To close this gap caused by advanced machinery and technologies, the manufacturing industry is investing more in apprenticeships, short courses that offer microcredentials, and technical school partnerships.
The industry is evolving so quickly that the skills gap is affecting workers across generations. Even newer manufacturing workers who came out of school or training programs a few years ago find their knowledge outdated due to the rapid pace of technology advancement.
Manufacturing companies are working to upskill the workforce on advanced manufacturing technologies, recognizing that employees who can use new technologies are better in smart factory environments. This is especially true of younger workers, who tend to be more technologically savvy and have more experience working with these technologies prior to entering the workforce. However, these workers tend to lack soft skills, from communication and professionalism to collaboration and accountability, and can benefit from apprenticeships or experiential learning options that help develop such skills.
Meanwhile, more experienced manufacturing professionals benefit from microcredentials — short courses that offer quick competency on in-demand skills. These classes are becoming a lot more common, with 45% of workers in the United States having an alternative credential according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Microcredentials enable workers to build in-demand skills to keep pace with quickly evolving manufacturing technology.
Partnerships with high schools, trade schools, and technical colleges are also becoming more common amongst manufacturers. These allow companies to work with educators to create a curriculum that includes the tools, software, and systems these manufacturers use every day — effectively preparing students to succeed in technical jobs.
Apprenticeship programs are also growing, and they may be the option with the best return on investment for a manufacturing company. Data from the United States Government Accountability Office cites over 900,000 participants in registered apprenticeship programs in 2024. This is a clear sign of pipeline growth for manufacturers looking for new, skilled workers.
All of these diverse education models are more adept at ensuring the manufacturing workforce can keep up with technological change in the industry. Traditional learning models aren’t evolving fast enough to keep pace with technology innovation, meaning manufacturing training programs must evolve and adapt to maintain a skilled workforce. This requires programs to foster a mindset of lifelong learning and continuous upskilling to ensure manufacturing’s future workforce understands the advanced machine and engineering technology driving the industry forward.
Building an Advanced Manufacturing Workforce
With the manufacturing industry advancing, there must be methods that enable the workforce to advance along with it. New technologies are spearheading industry progress, and often evolving too fast for the current workforce to effectively learn and understand them. Even those in industry education and training programs may be learning information that is outdated by the time they enter the workforce.
This requires a shift in how companies train the current workforce and the creation of new programs that can evolve alongside advanced manufacturing technologies. To succeed, manufacturers, educators, and legislators must work together to implement programs that facilitate continuous learning, agility, and adaptability. The manufacturing workforce, both today and in the future, must realize that industry is changing, and workers require a new mindset as well as a new skillset to prosper in a professional manufacturing position.
If you’re a manufacturing professional looking to stay on top of industry trends and issues like the labor shortage and skills gap, explore attending the 2027 Manufacturing Technology Series of events. These four regional events attract manufacturing leaders and experts from throughout the country and help attendees keep a pulse on what’s happening in industry. Don’t miss your opportunity to network, learn, and collaborate at some of the country’s top manufacturing events.