A fragmented ecosystem
Greenwood heads a new Chamber of Commerce initiative, the Greater Philadelphia Growth Partnership, that aims to overcome the fragmentation of economic development efforts. The program will help manufacturing and other targeted sectors connect with workers, with the goals of increasing employment, reducing poverty and helping industries grow, she said.
The effort is backed by $5.4 million in initial funding from corporate and philanthropic investors, including Wawa, Jefferson Health, Independence Blue Cross, Cencora, Pew, JPMorganChase and Essential Utilities.
In addition to recruiting and transportation, the panelists cited a number of other challenges faced by mid-sized manufacturers in the region, like supply chain holdups. Those issues could be eased through better cross-industry coordination, they said.
“Your supply partner could be in the next county, but there’s no way of really knowing this, because we don’t have that community. We failed because we fragmented and started meeting in little clusters that were just convenient for us, or that worked for us, or where we were invited,” she said. “By bringing us all together, the opportunity exists for us to bring our supply chain closer, to have faster delivery times to our clients, better pricing. We just haven’t gone down that road.”
Court said manufacturers must also figure out how to update their training methods. Past workers learned by watching experienced hands do their jobs, but that won’t fly with younger generations who grew up using digital devices, he said.
“If we keep using the model on how they were trained to train our new employees, we’re done. We’re toast,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how to engage this next generation of workforce. We as manufacturers have to have a collective strategy where we have a common way to approach and retain young talent to get new talent in. That’s going to require us to change how we do business.”
Disclosure: Drexel University, Independence Blue Cross and JPMorgan Chase are among WHYY’s financial supporters. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.