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Last Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a large-scale operation at an electric battery manufacturing facility in Georgia, detaining 475 undocumented Korean workers.

The workers were released following diplomatic negotiations between ICE and South Korea's Foreign Ministry, though details of the agreement haven't been made public.

This wasn't a random enforcement action. Local media outlets have reported on this plant for several years, documenting workplace accidents and safety violations linked to the systematic employment of undocumented workers. The facility had been on ICE's radar due to multiple complaints about working conditions and employment practices that violated federal labor laws.

For the manufacturing sector, the enforcement action reinforces that competitive advantages built on illegal employment practices carry significant operational and legal risks. The incident also raises questions about supply chain vetting in the rapidly expanding electric vehicle battery sector, where production pressure often conflicts with proper due diligence on labor practices.

So the World Economic Forum dropped their "Future of Jobs Report" last week, and I had to laugh.

All these consultants and think tanks running around talking about "reskilling for 2030" like it's some revolutionary concept. Meanwhile, every plant manager I know has been developing these exact skills for decades.

Look at their "Core Skills for 2030" list:

• Technological literacy • Analytical thinking
• Resilience, flexibility and agility • Creative thinking • Leadership and social influence

Sound familiar? That's literally the job description for every manufacturing executive I've worked with.

While Silicon Valley was busy chasing unicorns, we were already building these capabilities on the plant floor.

I spent 15 years watching manufacturing leaders navigate:

Technological literacy? Try integrating a new MES system while keeping production running. Or explaining why the AI-powered predictive maintenance solution the vendor promised would be "plug and play" needs six months of custom configuration.

Analytical thinking? Every OEE calculation, root cause analysis, and capacity planning session is analytical thinking in action. We don't call it that because we're too busy actually solving problems.

Resilience and agility? Remember March 2020? While other industries were figuring out remote work, manufacturing kept the lights on, pivoted supply chains overnight, and somehow increased output. That's not a skill you learn in a workshop.

The WEF report basically confirms what I've been saying: manufacturing isn't behind the curve on future skills. We've been living in the future while everyone else was catching up.

The real question isn't whether manufacturing professionals can develop these skills. It's whether we're positioning ourselves to get credit for already having them.

Stop undervaluing your experience. That time you led a digital transformation project? That's not just "implementation" – that's change management, strategic thinking, and technological literacy rolled into one.

Document your wins. Those process improvements, cost reductions, and efficiency gains aren't just operational metrics. They're proof of analytical thinking and creative problem-solving.

Own the narrative. When someone talks about "future skills," remind them that manufacturing has been developing these competencies since before it was trendy.

While everyone else is scrambling to build "2030 skills," manufacturing leaders are already there. The challenge isn't developing these capabilities – it's making sure the rest of the business world recognizes we've had them all along.

The future of work isn't coming to manufacturing. Manufacturing has been defining the future of work.

Now we just need to make sure we're the ones telling that story.

What's your take? Are we giving ourselves enough credit for the skills we've already mastered, or are we too busy solving real problems to worry about buzzword compliance?

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And that’s all folks!

Till next week,

The Industrial Executive