Many of you have heard about MfgDay. What you may not realize is how it affects your future as a company. The US Department of Commerce says it is an opportunity for manufacturers to “highlight their work and their workers and to energize a future pipeline of skilled workers”. The first Friday of October is when over 2,600 manufacturing day events happen nationally and over 400,000 students, parents, and community members attend.
While MfgDay encourages students to take a peek into modern manufacturing careers, it may also be a way for you to recruit a veteran or encourage another community member to upskill their career and become play an integral part in manufacturing. This is an opportunity for companies to get involved with the community and illustrate what manufacturing looks like today rather than what it used to be.
On October 2nd, San Antonio Manufacturers Association (SAMA) is partnering with Caterpillar, Toyota, Alamo Group, M2Global and Cox Manufacturing for a virtual event to include a panel discussion to highlight important topics such as job openings, training opportunities, re-shoring, and the economic impact for their region. This year will look different. Instead of physical tours, there will be virtual tours to respect safety of others. There will be video plant tours of their companies to showcase products they manufacture and to whom it benefits.
There is still time to participate in MfgDay. You can register for the event at https://creatorswanted.org/. Here are some suggestions from The Manufacturing Institute who has teamed up with MfgDay and NAM. You can reach out to SAMA and/or regional groups to see if there is an existing event that you can co-host or participate in. Second, you can consider partnering with other manufacturers in your area or industry to produce a virtual event.
If you choose to host your own virtual MFG Day event, here are a few suggestions:
- Provide a welcome message from senior leadership.
- Offer an overview of the importance of manufacturing to the economy in your community.
- Lay out what your company does and give participants a sense of its career offerings.
- Film a video tour of your facility to show viewers the technology and tools you use every day.
- Record interviews with employees or a conversation with a panel to allow young people to hear directly from the people who work at your business.
- Create a survey to track how the event changes your audience’s perceptions of manufacturing—for example, asking participants about their interest in a manufacturing career both before and after your presentation.
Be sure to register and we will see you on October 2nd at MfgDay!
