Episode Summary:
A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has achieved a breakthrough in electromagnetics, producing the most powerful magnet in the world. Working with MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the high temperature superconducting magnet can generate a sustained magnetic field of more than 20 T, which the team believes is enough to allow Commonwealth’s compact tokamak to achieve net energy from fusion. If successful it will be a historic first for fusion energy.
Industry advocacy group the Manufacturer’s Alliance has released a survey of US manufacturers about their challenges during Covid-19 and beyond. With strained supply chains and rising costs, flexibility is the watchword, and workers agree. Novel labor arrangements and new ways to organize production processes will be needed for manufacturers to staff their operations optimally in a labor short US market.
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Transcript of this week's show:
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Segment 1: Hardly a week goes by without some new breakthrough in fusion energy development, and this week there is a big one. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinoff, and MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center have announced the successful test of the world’s most powerful electromagnet. Magnetic containment is the key to the tokamak technology which is under development around the world for commercial scale fusion energy production.
The magnet uses high temperature superconductors, and compared to other devices that attain very high-field densities for short periods of time, the new development is achieved a sustained magnetic field of more than 20 T. Commonwealth fusion predicts that this field strength is sufficient to allow the company’s SPARC compact tokamak to achieve net energy from fusion. This would be a historic first, as significant as Fermi’s first fission reactor in Chicago in 1942. Commonwealth’s approach is the opposite of large-scale tokamak research like the ITER project, and uses a very small device.
This requires very high magnetic field strength, although stronger magnets should be beneficial at any scale. 160 tokamaks have been built around the world, and Commonwealth hopes that their physically smaller devices will allow faster development, lower costs and a quicker path to net energy. The new high temperature superconducting magnet will be installed in their SPARC tokamak, which is under construction in Massachusetts.
The teams hopes to demonstrate net energy from fusion by 2025, followed by a commercially viable power plant demonstrator called ARC. It’s an exciting time for fusion energy research, with competing technologies ranging from tokamaks, stellarators, lasers, mechanical compression among others. Several have reported very high temperatures and real progress in achieving scientific and even engineering break even. We’ll be watching closely will report back as all projects advance.
Segment 2: Talent management will separate how manufacturers perform in the future in ways unimagined before the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Manufacturer’s Alliance, entitled "The Future of Flexible Work in Manufacturing: Workforce Priorities for a Hybrid World". The report, produced in collaboration with business services firm Aon PLC found five major drivers of success for manufacturers as they shift out of the pandemic and into the future.
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Talent acquisition, development, and retention is paramount, with more than half of executives ranking talent availability as a top factor shaping the future of work.
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The hybrid work model will prevail for salaried workers in manufacturing, as 80 percent of companies expect to formalize a flexible remote and in-person approach for employees during the next 12 months.
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85 percent of companies are empowering leaders across the organization to define their hybrid models, rejecting an entirely corporate-led approach.
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Despite important organizational learning during the pandemic, cultural resistance to change is seen as the biggest barrier to future-of-work strategies and priorities for 59 percent of executives.
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Emerging priorities such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) will likely shift to long-term imperatives, as reflected in a ranking of function priorities for leaders in finance, human resources, legal, and compliance.
Another significant finding from the report is the continued acceleration of change and the importance of leadership skills for adaptability. Digital skills shortages are anticipated to last for years, and talent shortages in general are now amplified by rising demand, new technologies, and other job opportunities. All these factors contributed to near-record levels of openings in the manufacturing sector this spring, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
A key take away from the report? Adaptability is the key to survival post-Covid, and that extends from worker skills on the shop floor to HR practices in the front office. The regular 9 to 5 work day may be a thing of the past and successful companies will need to adopt alternate staffing models, flexible work hours, incorporation of part-time or split shift work and alternate sources of skilled talent, such as older workers. Great people are in short supply, and manufacturing needs a lot more of them.