EMS@C-LEVEL

BONUS - What's the SCOOP - 2022 Trends with Microart's Mark Wood

December 22, 2021 Philip Spagnoli Stoten
EMS@C-LEVEL
BONUS - What's the SCOOP - 2022 Trends with Microart's Mark Wood
Show Notes

Here's what Microart Services CEO Mark Wood sees as the key trends in 2022. In this interview we dig into those predictions a little deeper. 

"You know it’s hard not to be excited and stressed, in almost equal measure, as we look forward to 2022. On one hand our orderbook is the strongest it has ever been, with more and more North American companies ordering their products in North America, and longer commitments. And those localized shorter supply chains make a whole lot of sense, not just because of the issues and doubts over the security and viability of low cost Asian manufacturing, but also because shorter supply chains lowers dependence on logistics and makes sense environmentally. What is more, benefits like the same time zone, the same language, cultural similarities and ease of travel make conducting business simpler, more robust and adaptable. 

Customers seem to be bullish about their orderbook and we’re bullish about ours. Meanwhile, shortages and supply chain challenges are an everyday reality for the manufacturing industry. We’re constrained by the component shortages and what’s more we’re constrained and stressed by potential talent shortages. I am sure you are even experiencing it in your personal lives, longer lead times for car parts or repairs, some services now requiring deposits and other financial commitments, short staff at your favorite restaurants, the list goes on.

With respect to component shortages, this problem doesn’t feel like it’s going away any time soon, definitely not before 2022. It’s raised our inventory hugely, it’s slowed our WIP, it’s delayed shipment and it’s stressed our customer relationships. We’re understandably proud of the long term partnerships we’ve developed with our customers, and we equally understand they want their product out of the door and with their end users. This is hurting the entire product value chain and we’re working 25/7 to fix each and every issue as it comes up. We have planned ahead to support our customers. We invested in inventory, worked our partnership agreements to fund inventory with our customers and moved to a completely transparent quote model to tackle the ever changing supply constraints.

With respect to talent, readers might have heard the term “the great resignation”. This is going to amplify the talent challenges the manufacturing industry has had for some time. Staffing costs are rising and we are working hard to retain our team, against increased demand and the desire of competitors to poach our highly trained staff. We are working hard to change the term to “the great retention”, we are hiring in several departments and looking at market needs regularly to ensure we are positioned for another year of double digit growth..

In short, having spent the last two years riding an endless roller coaster, we aren’t expecting to get off anytime soon!!" 

This season of What's the SCOOP is sponsored by Koh Young America (https://www.kohyoung.com) the leaders in manufacturing inspection solutions.

Like every episode of EMS@C-Level, this one was sponsored by global inspection leader Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Adaptable Automation Specialist Launchpad.build (https://launchpad.build).

You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.