OK, audience. I’m going to divide you into two groups. Everybody whose company is a member of AGMA, please move over to the left-hand side of the room, and everybody else, please move over to the right.
Last year, when I wrote this column about our annual State-of-the-Gear-Industry survey, I urged most of you to consider whether you were working for one of those gear industry companies engaged with the future or one of those ignoring it. I feel like I could run the same words again, and they would still apply.
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Since our founding in 1984, Gear Technology’s goal has been to improve your knowledge, bringing you the best possible technical information about gear design, manufacturing, inspection, heat treating and much more. We keep you informed about the business of gear manufacturing, including the trends and technologies that will shape your companies in the coming years.
Electric vehicles are changing the gear industry. If your business is at all attached to the manufacture of automobiles, construction equipment, motorcycles, aircraft, I hope you’re paying attention. The gears you used to make are going to be changing if they haven’t already. E-mobility isn’t going away anytime soon.
I’m a fan of The History Channel’s survival competition TV series Alone, where contestants are left in the wilderness to fend for themselves with limited resources in extremely harsh conditions. They have to build their own shelters, find food and survive. The last one to tap out wins.
At first glance, the gear industry might seem like a small industry, easily navigable for someone new to it. But it’s only small in terms of the number of people involved. In fact, once you’re in it, you quickly realize the gear industry is extremely broad.
This year’s State-of-the-Gear-Industry survey generated a wide variety of responses. The industry doesn’t seem to be moving in just one direction, but rather, in multiple. In some cases, this is a story of the haves and the have-nots. Depending on what’s going on the world, companies serving one industry will outperform companies serving another. But overall, companies that are well positioned—those that have invested in technology, found ways to hire and maintain a skilled workforce and who have anticipated and prepared for paradigm shifts like the electrification movement—seem to have a much more positive outlook.
Almost every time I have the opportunity to meet with professionals in the gear industry, the topic of training and education comes up. Maintaining a stable workforce continues to be one of the chief struggles of manufacturing companies.