GA Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) Georgia Tech

Driving Advanced Manufacturing in Georgia

By

Man operating a large machine at an aluminum manufacturing plant.

Advanced manufacturing in Georgia is a huge deal – the sector is responsible for 10 percent of state gross domestic product (totaling nearly $62 billion in 2019), 92 percent of exports, and employs more than 380,000 people. The sector’s importance is no accident. It’s the result of — according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Center of Innovation for Manufacturing — the pro-business climate in the state; a well-trained workforce; and a location and logistics network that allows companies to reach 80 percent of the United States in hours by truck, train or plane. The Port of Savannah, with its link to the rest of the world, doesn’t hurt either.

Georgia Tech contributes to this all-important economic driver in a number of ways, including through the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) and other programs of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, that support manufacturers through coaching, training, and on-site project implementation. These programs help to connect companies to other Georgia Tech resources including, the Advanced Manufacturing Pilot Facility (AMPF), an R&D facility that provides space for industrial, academic, and government agencies, while also serving as a teaching lab for graduate students. Funded by a $3 million gift from the Delta Air Lines Foundation, AMPF is part of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute.

Learn more about how Georgia Tech contributes to the manufacturing ecosystem in the state in the recent article, “High-tech Makers,” in Georgia Trend magazine.

Contact us for information on how GaMEP can connect you with resources at Georgia Tech and partner organizations. Thinking about implementing a new technology in your facility? Visit our Technology page, to see how GaMEP can help.

Why Is There a Shortage of Baby Formula?

By

Empty shelves at a grocery store during the baby formula shortage of 2022.

By now, everyone’s heard about the shortage of baby formula in the United States. It stems from the fact that over 90% of U.S. infant formula is made by only 4 companies: Abbot, Mead Johnson, Nestle, and Perrigo. But, how did this happen? There are three, primary causative factors:

  1. There has been a lot of consolidation across the food industry over the past few years, with big corporations buying-up other companies.
  2. The governmental food safety regulations for infant formula are extremely strict. Only companies with access to money and resources can produce these types of products. In addition, the FDA placed strict restrictions on imported formula, despite the fact that many countries have food safety standards that meet or exceed domestic standards. Because of this, the U.S. now manufactures 98% of our formula supply.
  3. About 50% of infant formula sales go through the federal Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which equates to about 1.2 million infants. WIC contracts utilize a sole-supplier methodology, so two companies (Abbot and Mead Johnson) account for about 90% of WIC contracts in the US.

Beyond the reasons listed above, baby formula manufacturers are currently facing the same supply chain and workforce issues faced by manufacturers across the world. Interruptions in the baby formula supply chain, coupled with the fact that the FDA shut down a major producer earlier this year due to an extensive recall, created a perfect storm for the shortage.

Read more about reasons for the baby formula shortage and what actions have been taken to help alleviate the problem, in this recent article that I contributed to in the Washington Post: US safety, savings rules set stage for baby formula shortage.

What can manufacturers learn from this and what actions can be taken by companies to guard against future shortages of other products?

  • Food manufacturers can take steps to put food safety and quality first, to avoid consequences such as recalls or shutdowns. Learn more about the food safety training and implementation services provided by GaMEP at our food and beverage industry page.
  • All manufacturing companies can review their supply chain and use strategies to diversify and mitigate risk. Contact us for more information on how GaMEP can help.

By: Wendy White, GaMEP Food Industry Manager

Creative Solutions to the Labor Shortage Problem

By

Manufacturing Worker monitoring a machine

The near-universal issue facing companies across Georgia right now is a shortage of people – finding and keeping good employees is a headache for companies large and small in just about every industry. The reasons are complex, involving a mix of demographics, pandemic-related changes in behavior, early retirements, and government policy, which means there is no simple fix.

In such an environment, it is crucial that companies make the most of the resources they have, devoting their employees’ skills to the most productive activities and minimizing wasted effort. However, that does not mean pushing people to burnout by asking them to work “harder” or put in longer hours. It refers instead to the thoughtful design of the process, the machinery, and the product to help your team reach its full potential.

The Process: If you’ve had any lean training in the past, you’ve probably been exposed to the Seven Wastes, attributed to Taiichi Ohno of Toyota in the 1950s. These categories of waste were designed to relentlessly root out inefficiencies so the company could match and later surpass the productivity of global competitors.

Now is the perfect time to focus on eliminating the Seven Wastes and using other lean tools to make your employees’ day-to-day experience more efficient and more enjoyable. If your team members are fixing defects, searching for materials, or waiting for information, for instance, you are squandering the time of the people you’ve worked so hard to get.

Working with employees to see and solve the problems that cause this waste is one path to maximizing output in a way that demonstrates one of the Toyota Way’s key principles, “Respect for People.” By acknowledging that the person who does the work knows the most about the work, you not only show respect to your team members, you also gain the best information available about the process you are attempting to improve.

The Machinery: The well-known test of automation has never been more relevant – if you have jobs that are Dirty, Dull, or Dangerous, you’re going to have a difficult time attracting and retaining employees in a market where better opportunities abound. Have you considered how you could use technology to improve the employee experience at your company?

When in past decades, incorporating technology or automation may have meant a multi-million-dollar robotics application, we now have many Industry 4.0 technologies that are connected, affordable, efficient, and can make the work better, safer, and more interesting for employees working alongside the machinery. The adoption of collaborative robots, asset monitoring systems, and other smart technologies, can free your team members to make more valuable and rewarding contributions to the business.

The Product: The third element to examine, which is often the most overlooked, is the design of the product itself. Techniques such as Value Engineering and Design for Manufacturability can reduce the material and labor required to produce a product.

The caution here is not to cheapen the product or to reduce the functionality or quality in the quest for savings. The idea is to take a focused look at the entire design process to find efficiencies while preserving or increasing the things customers like about your products. A structured approach to streamlining product design can yield productivity improvements throughout the production process.

GaMEP recently worked with a company to reduce the labor content of a metal structure product. After a thorough redesign using a lean product development process, the product is stronger and better-engineered, yet takes 30% less time to fabricate and weld than before.

Resources to help you use efficiency to overcome labor shortage challenges:

Efficiency is just one piece of the manufacturing labor shortage puzzle. There are also a host of other things you can do to become or remain an employer of choice in your market. However, once you find great people, remember to continue to look for ways to better use their talents through improvements in the process, the machinery, and the product.

By: Paul Todd, GaMEP Operational Excellence Group Manager

Are Virtual Food Safety Audits as Effective as Onsite Audits?

By

A remote auditor conducts a virtual food safety audit.

The food manufacturing industry utilizes governmental and third-party food safety audits to ensure the quality of the products being produced and the safety of consumers. However, over the past few years, as manufacturing companies have limited the number of guests in their facilities, many have wrestled with the question of how to conduct a food safety audit with a remote auditor.

GaMEP’s food-industry project manager and food safety expert, Wendy White, recently wrote an article for Food Safety Magazine discussing:

  • The pros and cons of virtual audits vs. onsite audits
  • The unique challenges of remote auditing
  • How wearable technology and other virtual audit tools have greatly improved in the past few years
  • How remote auditing helps meet the growing need for third-party food safety audits with a shortage of qualified auditors available
  • Whether virtual audits are an acceptable alternative for onsite audits for the long-term

Read the full article here: Advanced Technology for Improving Virtual Audits and Inspections

Find out more about how Wendy helps companies improve their food safety and quality programs: GaMEP Food and Beverage Industry Services Page

Hear Me Out: Creating and Maintaining a Safe Place to Work

By

Manufacturing Employees wearing Noise Reduction Personal Protective Equipment.

 

This is a guest post from our partner, the Georgia Tech Safety, Health, Environmental Services (SHES) program.

Every year approximately 30 million workers experience hazardous noise exposure on the job. Over 9 million are at risk for severe hearing loss from occupational exposure to noise, which remains a persistent cause of employee illness in the workplace, and can even put you at risk for heart disease.

Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most common occupational diseases and is the second most self-reported occupational illness or injury.*

Many manufacturing processes, machinery, and equipment produce high noise levels, which can lead to hearing problems. For reference, a normal conversation is typically about 60 dB, cars and trucks range around 70 to 90 dB, and sirens and airplanes can reach 120 dB or more. Anything over 70-80 dB is considered unhealthy.

Estimates suggest that roughly a third of people in Europe and the US are regularly exposed to unhealthy levels of noise, and numerous studies link chronic exposure to environmental noise like traffic and airplanes to a greater risk of high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, and increased stress.+

Providing proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and worksite health and wellness programs that target noise-exposed workers are several ways you can help employees feel safer. However, manufacturers also need to make sure their company complies with the OSHA regulation for noise hazards to maintain a safe working environment and avoid paying heavy penalties for serious violations.

Here are three ways that we can help identify and manage potential hazards within your facility:

  1. Get Educated – Register for our Introduction to Noise Evaluation and Control Course offered several times a year in-person or online as a self-guided class with live office hours.
  2. Be Proactive – Schedule a Free Safety Consultation with our experts. We will conduct noise monitoring at your facility to determine what actions are needed to protect your employees and keep you in compliance with the OSHA regulation.
  3. Think Long Term – Whether you are creating a safety plan, scaling up production or reassessing the plant floor layout, utilizing the 5s and 6s principles of Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain (and Safety), you can strategically turn work areas into clean, organized, and safe spaces.

To learn more about our safety training and services for manufacturers visit the SHES website at oshainfo.gatech.edu and sign up for our Quarterly Newsletter.

*Us, Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA Regional Instruction, Regional Emphasis Program (REP) for Noise Hazards, 2019

+Hansen, C., 2021, Why noise pollution is bad for your heart, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210315-why-noise-pollution-is-bad-for-your-heart