News in the manufacturing sector in recent months has been filled with conversations about the challenges companies face, including low commodity prices, slow growth in China and emerging markets, and the strong dollar. Todd Zakreski, president of Waukesha-based automotive parts manufacturer Husco Automotive, thinks manufacturers would be best served by focusing on what they can control.
Zakreski thinks that will mean an emphasis on innovation in a company’s product and its processes.
“You can’t separate those two,” said Zakreski, who will be a presenter at the Northern Trust Economic Trends Conference presented by BizTimes Media on Jan. 29.
It also means thinking about how to best serve customers today, while preparing for what customers will want in the future. Zakreski is uniquely aware of that need, with vehicle manufacturers still making investments in internal combustion engines while also pouring money into the powertrains of the future.
“The industry is going to change,” Zakreski said, suggesting there might be more changes in the automotive industry in the next 10 years than there were in the past 50.
Companies that are not looking at making decisions to improve in both the short- and long-term are putting themselves in a precarious position, Zakreski said. Among the automotive industry examples he gave were the impact of self-driving cars on seats, doors without door handles and shifting attitudes among millennials toward car buying.
“You better be connected with what your customers are thinking,” he added. “And even your customers’ customers.”
At Husco, that means taking steps into other areas of the powertrain and developing products to support the next generation powertrain.
He said the process side of innovation will see more automation of factories, which Zakreski said is necessary to compete with low-cost countries.
Husco leaders have decided in many cases to do the work of automating production in-house. Zakreski said much of the equipment can be pretty sophisticated and involves a lot of hydraulics, although he acknowledged that for a company with a more straightforward setup, it may make sense to look elsewhere.
While the growth in automation to some people means a loss of jobs, Zakreski said it should be thought of as a shift toward jobs focused on fabrication, electrical, hydraulics or other areas.
“Those create better, higher-paying jobs,” he said.
The need for a workforce with a more advanced skillset is increasingly an issue for companies, and Zakreski said business leaders are starting to see efforts to bridge the gap in available talent pay off. He cautioned that “it’s still pretty early” and long developed cultural norms pushing students toward four-year programs and away from technical schools won’t disappear overnight.
Adding to the challenge is the fact that plant closures often receive plenty of headlines. He noted closures happen in all industries and manufacturers need to convince people the skills they need to work in the industry are transferable to other jobs.
