Think, Share & Learn

Women have been helping move manufacturing forward for more than a century, from the plant floor to the lab to the executive team. This feature celebrates the leaders, engineers, organizers, and operators who helped shape the industry and what their legacy says about manufacturing today

A practical guide for managers on how to address ongoing attendance issues with a clear improvement plan, set expectations, document next steps, and use a ready-made template to support consistent follow-through.

The automotive labor shortage is not abstract. It shows up in missed stations, slower cycles, extra overtime, rising quality risk, and shift targets that get harder to hit even when the line never fully stops.

A single absence can hit labor, production, and supervisor time all at once. Learn how to calculate the full cost in manufacturing.

Manufacturing lines run as systems, not headcounts. See how one absence can shift bottlenecks, slow cycle time, disrupt quality, and create measurable productivity loss across the entire line.

Writing a warning letter is never fun, but when faced with an employee who is excessively absent, it's necessary. Learn how to write a warning letter that is both to the point and constructive.

Why staffing “by the numbers” fails in manufacturing, and a look at a framework for measuring and closing skill coverage gaps that create hidden staffing risk.

Why talking to your hourly employees and getting to the root cause of excessive absenteeism is more effective than automatic disciplinary actions.