Returning to a focus on soft skills will help industry find responsible employees.

For well over a decade, the number one question, complaint and concern I hear from businesspersons, regardless of industry or company size is: "Where is industry – any and every industry – going to find all the people necessary to actually build stuff?" And yet despite this serious workforce void, businesses continue to plan on a combination of reshoring product from distant lands or growing organically – which requires expanding their workforce. But how can you expand your manufacturing when the most critical ingredient – employees – is nowhere to be found?

Academia, from the earliest contact in elementary school to high school and right through university, has become misaligned with the real-world skills and education needed for a balanced and thriving economy. Yes, society needs doctors, lawyers, engineers and other more academically focused professions, but society also needs people with the interest and skill to touch and build product. In addition, there are real skills, education and training that together enable a worker to operate the complex and simple machinery and processes that successfully produce a multitude of technologically advanced, viable and sought after products. Maybe it is time to recalibrate our focus to some of the traits and skills that lead to success regardless of profession but appear to be currently missing in the workforce.

Quality management systems will not work without engaged personnel.

It was just a few bolts. What could possibly go wrong?

In industry, but especially in the electronics industry, nothing has changed more over the past several decades than the concept and implementation of quality management. In the early 1980s it was inspect, inspect and inspect again. In the late 1980s and through much of the 1990s, the concept of Total Quality Management, or TQM, became the rage. Manage the process and involve all the shop floor employees and stakeholders and better quality will result – requiring less inspection.

During the 1990s and continuing into the new millennium, TQM became overshadowed by Six Sigma. Applying Six Sigma, including certifying employees as green or black belts, enabled greatly improved quality. To be Six Sigma meant 3.4 (or less) defects per 1 million parts. Achieving this level was impressive for sure.

The tech industry – and world at large – could use some moderation.

Moderation and balance seem in short supply throughout the world these days. Between war on two sides of the globe and political extremes in vogue all over, the proverbial pendulum is swinging wildly, rarely landing in the center. And business and industry are no exception to current trends.

In business and especially technology, the hot area is everything artificial intelligence (AI). Whether hardware or software, AI is the holy grail de jour. The regulatory environment is similarly out of balance. With security leaks, loss of privacy and potential pirating that could lead to everything from automobiles to aircraft and even weapons being manipulated by the “bad guys,” layers of regulations, standards, audits and inspections have taken off in every segment of industry. Again, balance and moderation have given way to extremism.

In fact, industry has never needed balance and moderation more than now. “Reasonable” and “pragmatic” are two words that should be applied across a multitude of areas.

Over-the-top security controls can do more harm than good.

Is the bureaucracy of security making us all less secure? That is a question I find myself asking increasingly as layer after layer of bureaucracy in the form of forms, protocols and additional steps makes quoting, receiving orders, building product and then shipping and invoicing more cumbersome and time-consuming.

Don't get me wrong: I believe in quality and security, especially in the world we are living in and with the cyber-reliant environment we must utilize to communicate and share data among people and businesses. Increasingly, however, some measures that are intended to increase security instead have the effect of wasting time, adding cost and extending lead times to deliver much-needed product.