Paul Neblock

❌ FIVE MANUFACTURING MYTHS❌ As I shared previously (https://lnkd.in/dVKMKi8r) I recently spoke at The City Club of Cleveland on the so-called demise of manufacturing and the myths that hold us back from our full potential. (You can watch the speech here: https://lnkd.in/dQSsKpwQ) I’m sharing the five myths in a series of posts... Here's MYTH #3...Manufacturing is our past NOT our future. Been there done that, we need something new. Really? Why are we so obsessed with new? Back to the Superman theme that inspired my City Club speech…. Superman was the first superhero, debuting in 1938. Hundreds of shiny new heroes have graced the big and small screens since then, but we haven’t thrown out Superman. 13 movies, 15 TV shows, thousands of comic books. Superman will never go extinct, and neither will manufacturing. Northeast Ohio was built on manufacturing. It’s in our DNA. For the past 100 years, even in the worst of times manufacturing has always been the single largest driver of Northeast Ohio’s economy. We don’t need a new “superhero" industry. We just need to invest in the one we have. And we can’t be constrained by what we THINK manufacturing is. Yes, we still make more airplane and truck parts than any other state. Yes, we do all the traditional things. But innovation is also in our DNA. We were the Silicon Valley of the steel age. And that’s who we can be again. The next medical marvel could be invented and made here. Water could be cleaner and safer because of technology we’re pioneering here. EVs could be more affordable because we make the parts more efficiently, right here. Virtually all the advances we need in our world right now involve manufacturing. Why would we want to move away from this? When you watch the news and see all the jobs and companies we’ve attracted and grown here with incentives…80% of all those incentives go to manufacturing and manufacturing-related companies. Manufacturing is very much our future. Here’s Lincoln Electric’s Past CEO and Executive Chairman Chris Mapes on the opportunity he sees in front of us. MYTH #4 coming next! #smartmanufacturing #makeitbetterohio #industry40 #northeastohio MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network

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❌ FIVE MANUFACTURING MYTHS❌ As I shared previously (https://lnkd.in/dVKMKi8r) I recently spoke at The City Club of Cleveland on the so-called demise of manufacturing and the myths that hold us back from reaching our full potential. (You can watch the speech here: https://lnkd.in/dQSsKpwQ) MYTH #1...AI and robots are going to take all the manufacturing jobs. REALITY: AI and robots are going to keep our jobs here. MYTH #2...Manufacturing jobs are dead-end jobs that we’re pushing all our black and brown kids into. REALITY: Manufacturing jobs change lives. MYTH #3...Manufacturing is our past NOT our future. REALITY: Manufacturing is our future and that’s where we need to focus. MYTH #4...There’s a silver bullet for Northeast Ohio. REALITY: The only "silver bullet" is decades of reinvention, resilience, and really hard work. MYTH #5... Economic development agencies are going to save us. REALITY: Powerful partnerships will save us. And there you have it…five manufacturing myths BUSTED. I hope this also debunks the granddaddy of all myths: manufacturing is dead. For all you Hamilton fans out there…the death of manufacturing has indeed been greatly exaggerated. :-) It’s true, there’s been a cloud of suspicion hanging over the industry since the tough times decades ago. But it’s time to let that go. It’s time to trust manufacturing again. Four years ago, I spoke at the City Club just weeks before the pandemic hit. I made the case for why Northeast Ohio had earned the right to hope. Despite all we’ve been through, today I have even more hope for our future. WHY? Because we survived crisis after crisis. Because we continue to thrive. We’ve proved we have everything we need to lead in smart manufacturing, we just need to do more of it. But none of us can do it alone. There’s no superman here. And shooting just wrapped on the movie, so there’s not even a superman on the streets of Cleveland anymore. We are the heroes. We need to come together. Save our future. And refuse to let anything hold us back. As superman famously said… "There is a superhero in all of us, we just need the courage to put on the cape." It’s time for all of us to put on our metaphorical capes and get to work! Together, we can make manufacturing better. And that will make life better for everyone who lives here. (And big thanks to everyone who followed along with this series of posts! I appreciate all your comments and shares!) #smartmanufacturing #makeitbetterohio #industry40 #northeastohio MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network

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❌ FIVE MANUFACTURING MYTHS❌ As I shared previously (https://lnkd.in/dVKMKi8r) I recently spoke at The City Club of Cleveland on the so-called demise of manufacturing and the myths that hold us back. (You can watch the speech here: https://lnkd.in/dQSsKpwQ) I’m sharing the myths in a series of posts... Here's the last myth standing, #5...Economic development agencies are going to save us. Maybe you think you haven’t heard this one. But I can’t tell you the number of times in the past 15 years I’ve heard “Why isn’t this organization doing that?” or “They dropped the ball – that’s why we didn’t get that company.” On and on… These organizations are important, no question. I wouldn’t be running one if I didn’t think so. But it’s not economic development agencies that are going to save us, it’s the way we DO economic development. No organization or campaign or government pot of gold is going to get this done alone. The problems we face are so massive, the opportunities so complex, that no one company, no single deal, no individual leader or nonprofit can do it. That’s the leadership conundrum. The only way to transform our economy is to come together in powerful partnerships and make things happen. Easy to say, hard to do. Our economic development sandbox is incredibly overcrowded. There are 86 different organizations!  Far more per capita than similar size cities. Every one of them is doing good things. But in the last 15 years I’ve seen three main failure modes… One, we chase windmills and sometimes invest in bad ideas. Two, we don’t sustain our focus for long enough. And three, we don’t focus enough period–because we’re doing 86 different things! We all know this way of doing economic development is not sustainable. But the good news is…we’re seeing positive change happening. In the last two years I estimate we’ve seen double the number of organizations collaborating in coalitions, alliances, and clusters. MAGNET merged with EDGE, another economic development organization, last year. Case Western Reserve University, Greater Cleveland Partnership and dozens of other organizations are working together on a $160 million opportunity to make Cleveland a hub of sustainable manufacturing. Akron’s Polymer Industry Cluster secured $50 million to create more sustainable rubbers and plastics. On the workforce side, dozens of manufacturers, nonprofits and community groups created the Workforce Connect Manufacturing Sector Partnership - Cuyahoga County to fix broken workforce systems. Amazingly, in the last two years, this group helped 1,500 people get into manufacturing–mostly people of color. They closed the talent gap by 50%–something no one else has been able to do. Partnerships are where power, and potential, come to life. Here’s Andrew Jackson, President of Elsons International talking about how we are exponentially stronger together! #smartmanufacturing #makeitbetterohio MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network

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❌ FIVE MANUFACTURING MYTHS❌ As I shared earlier this week (https://lnkd.in/dVKMKi8r) I just spoke at The City Club of Cleveland on the so-called demise of manufacturing and the myths that hold us back from reaching our full potential. (You can watch the speech here: https://lnkd.in/dQSsKpwQ) I promised to share the five myths so here goes... MYTH #1...AI and robots are going to take all the manufacturing jobs. Immediate no on this one. Actually, the reverse is true. Technology is going to SAVE the jobs in our industry. We have 20,000 vacant manufacturing jobs today and 10,000 of them are perennially open. We simply can’t find people to fill them. And this is a national demographic problem. There are 0.75 people available for work in the U.S. for every open job! There are 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day. This isn’t going to get any better. The talent shortage is here to stay. We just have to continually manage it, like productivity or quality. AI, robots and cobots – robots that work with people – will fill that gap so production lines don’t grind to a halt. So, more factories don’t close. In fact, MAGNET just did a survey that confirmed this. 80% of local manufacturers told us flat out they’re using Industry 4.0 to improve productivity and safety, NOT replace workers. In the past it was a different story. Since the Model T, automation has been symbiotic with manufacturing progress. As a result, it’s been the single biggest driver of job losses in the past 40 years. Automation is the reason we now make more goods with 70% fewer people. This transformation was awful for workers. But it’s what we – the consumers – wanted and continue to want – cheaper stuff and a bigger variety of stuff. Automation has already come for our manufacturing jobs. So, we can stop worrying about it. What’s happening now with Industry 4.0 is different. It’s making the manufacturing jobs that are left – and the ones we’re creating – better, safer and more high-tech. Listen to the clip below where I. James Cavoli, President of Swagelok, calls cobots "a freedom tool" that frees people up from doing dull, dirty and dangerous jobs. I love that! Instead of being afraid of AI and robots we need to embrace them like Swagelok has. And we need to do it fast. Only 28% of manufacturers in Northeast Ohio are currently using Industry 4.0. Every day we fall farther behind. In 2022 China installed more manufacturing robots than the rest of the world combined. We are in a high-tech arms race and if we don’t catch up, we will lose everything. MYTH #2 coming next! #smartmanufacturing #makeitbetterohio #industry40 #northeastohio MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network

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Are you measuring the wrong things? So many manufacturing leaders fall into the trap of focusing on vanity metrics—data that looks good in a report but does nothing to drive real improvement. If your KPIs aren’t connected to what truly moves the needle, your Lean efforts are going to stall, and the ROI will be non-existent. Here’s the harsh reality: It’s easy to show numbers that “improve” over time, but what’s harder (and far more valuable) is driving performance-driven KPIs that actually transform your business. Metrics like OEE, cycle time, and lead time are important—but only if they’re tied directly to operational outcomes that matter. Here are 3 ways to stop the vanity metric madness: Focus on outcomes, not activity: Instead of tracking how much you produce, track how consistently you meet customer demand on time. Make KPIs actionable: Every metric should have a clear action tied to it. If it doesn't drive decision-making, ditch it. Use metrics that drive behavior: The best KPIs encourage continuous improvement and motivate teams to make adjustments that count. It’s time to stop celebrating empty wins and start tracking the real data that delivers results. How are you using data to drive improvement in your organization? #LeanManufacturing #KPIsThatMatter #ContinuousImprovement #LeadershipAdvice #OperationalExcellence #MadeInAmerica #Fabtech17139

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