Thermoforming Report

Managing Generational Turnover

We’ve tackled this topic before, but the noise from our partners is growing louder by the month: “We need new Production Associates!”

The long-predicted Big Baby Boomer Exit – the BBBE – has finally reached a breaking point. And with it, the ripple effects across industries are massive… manufacturing included.

2025: A Tipping Point

The year 2025 marks a major demographic milestone: about 11,400 Americans are turning 65 every single day. According to seniorsite.org, demographers call it “Peak 65.” By year’s end, roughly 73 million Baby Boomers – over one-fifth of the U.S. population – will be 65 or older.

That stat alone is jaw-dropping! But the ripple effects are even bigger. One in four U.S. workers today is a Baby Boomer, which means up to 25% of the workforce could retire in the next eight years. When they leave, they don’t just leave open positions – they take decades of know-how with them.

At the same time, Generation Z has now officially outnumbered Boomers in the workforce, marking a true generational hand-off. The transition is being felt in every industry, and the numbers tell the story. Between 2011 and 2023, the share of workers 55 and older rose in several key fields:

• Architecture and engineering: 25% → 27%
• Construction: 17% → 21%
• Manufacturing: 20% → 25%

And according to Seniorsite.org, the industries bracing for the steepest worker shortages include:

• Healthcare: expected loss of about 2.1 million workers
• Manufacturing: about 1.8 million
• Construction: about 1.2 million
• Education: about 1.2 million

The numbers make one thing clear: as Boomers leave, it’s not just bodies walking out the door – it’s decades of hard-earned tribal knowledge. Capturing and passing that knowledge on is critical!

For Your Current Team: Extraction

There’s no shortage of advice out there about leveraging AI – on the shop floor, in planning, everywhere. But we all know it comes down to one thing: good information. Good programming starts with good data, and good AI is no different. The scary part? Most of that information isn’t sitting in a file somewhere – it’s tucked away in the heads of your long-time employees. This article hilariously calls it the “Just Ask Nancy” approach. I love that – it’s 100% accurate!

I remember in my early days as a Process Engineer, it was “just find Ricky”.  And they weren’t kidding! Ricky had seen it all and then some. He was a walking encyclopedia of solutions, tips, and tricks – and thankfully, he shared freely. (Much better than the folks who hoard knowledge thinking it makes them indispensable.) But here’s the thing: all that knowledge was trapped in Ricky’s brain and was only useful if he happened to be on shift when things went sideways.

Turning this tribal knowledge into real organizational capability means capturing it from the Nancy’s and Ricky’s before it walks out the door. The same article outlines a clear framework:

1. Capture What Matters: Document top performers’ workflows and reasoning in both written and visual formats.
2. Standardize the Exceptions: Define logic, thresholds, and approvals even for one-off situations.
3. Gather ‘Knowledge’: Centralize articles, videos, and instructions so answers are easy to find.
4. Build the Knowledge into Systems: Embed know-how in CPQ, CRM, and workflows to replace hidden spreadsheets.
5. Foster a Culture of Transfer: Make knowledge-sharing part of everyone’s job; a decade later, employees should still be referencing it.

Start small, focus on high-impact areas, and watch your team’s tribal knowledge become a long-term asset. Follow these steps, and you’ll transform from relying on a few key people to a team that carries the knowledge forward – no matter who’s on the floor.

For Your New Team: Attract, Empower, and Train to Retain

Capturing tribal knowledge is only half the battle! Next comes attracting and developing the next generation – the big hand-off. Our April Blog looked at how to bring Gen Z into the fold of manufacturing.  As we noted then, it won’t be easy, but getting it right is absolutely critical.

Why? Because this latest generation is so connected, one miserable experience in manufacturing can influence a whole network to not even give it a chance!

Plastics Today recently highlighted a success story worth sharing. The author makes a key point: many of the mechanical skills we learned as we grew up simply aren’t happening anymore. Sure, Gen Z is comfortable interfacing with shop floor control panels… but many don’t even know how to turn a screwdriver!

As the article notes:

“These electronic wonders have come at the expense of mechanical skills that were once near universal. For example, few of today’s young workers had the opportunity to take a shop class in high school. Those who grew up on farms may have learned to fix a few things on their own, but are more likely to have learned from YouTube videos than their parents, much less through any formal training. Many people looking for manufacturing jobs today have never done a mechanical task as simple as changing a bicycle chain. And despite the amount of time they spend playing video games on their phones, most have no understanding of basic electrical principles. You are going to have to develop your own people from now on.”

Plastics Today

Yep. And developing them needs to be done well. 

There are plenty of strategies to make this happen. The article above does a great job highlighting a few:

• Train on real-world equipment to give them hands-on experience.
• Lead with a positive attitude, being encouraging, approachable, and, yes, even fun!
• Leverage internal expertise, including recently retired ‘Nancy’ or ‘Ricky’ types.
• Teach interpersonal skills alongside technical ones.

And don’t forget the basic all-important incentives: pay structure, career growth, and work conditions. [For all you thermoformers with zero conditioned manufacturing space – listen up! It doesn’t have to be perfectly ambient, but controlling your environment not only helps equipment perform, it also helps retain employees.]

At the end of the day, attracting and training the next generation isn’t just about filling seats – it’s about making sure the hard-earned knowledge of your current team gets passed on and put to work for years to come.

Do It Now!

We hit the “Peak 65” mark in the Baby Boomer era this year. “By 2031, when the youngest boomers reach full retirement age, there will be approximately 75 million people over 65 in the United States” (seniorsite.org). Within a decade, the workplace landscape will look VERY different.

Investing time now to bring a new generation into manufacturing isn’t optional – it’s critical. It takes time to get people up the training curve and to extract the invaluable knowledge and experience from your most respected long-term employees. 

The sooner you start, the smoother the generational hand-off will be – and the stronger your workforce will emerge on the other side.

Boomers are out the door, and Gen Z is at the threshold – make sure the torch is passed before it hits the floor!

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