Chuck Spangler, CEO and President of SCMEP on Manufacturing
Upstate Business Journal featured a Q&A interview with Chuck Spangler, CEO and president of the S.C. Manufacturing Extension Partnership, including the use of Augmented Reality to solve the number one issue for manufacturing, identifying and recruiting a sustainable workforce.
When asked, “What areas do you see having the biggest need in the future?” Spangler replied:
“Workforce, workforce, workforce. SCMEP works with manufacturing companies of all sizes and industries around the state. The No. 1 issue is identifying and recruiting a sustainable workforce. Companies are now thinking of out-of-the-box solutions for how they recruit and retain their workforce. We see more companies moving towards a virtual/augmented reality training method to recruit younger workers, which in turn has a higher learning retention rate compared to traditional training methods.”
How SCMEP are attempting to help meet the future needs of the industry is vetting future needs of South Carolina’s manufacturers and identifying resources that will bring bottom- and top-line improvements to the manufacturing community. We are benchmarking what the top original equipment manufacturers around the globe are doing and determining what best practices/technologies can help small- to medium-size manufacturing companies in South Carolina. The main goal is to find resources at the right price to assist companies in adopting the technology.
Other topics discussed include the Upstate manufacturing community, the market conditions impacting manufacturers in the area in 2019. How they addressing the widening skills gap, funding sources and details of their competitiveness review.