To kick off season two of the Thomas Industry Update Podcast,Thomas Insightswelcomed a very special guest: Brian McCarson, vice president and senior principal engineer of the IoT division of Intel.
Alongside host and Thomas CMO Shawn Fitzgerald, the duo discussed everything from detecting pixel defects to collaborating with the next generation of the workforce, including how Intel keeps its competitive edge in the semiconductor manufacturing industry – as a nearly $72 billion company, it sure has some secrets to success.
But what are these secrets, and how can you use them to propel your industrial business forward? Here’s what McCarson cites as the key factors driving innovation at Intel.
"Relentless Pursuit of Moore’s Law”
First and foremost, McCarson cites the "relentless pursuit of Moore’s Law” as a pillar of opportunity for Intel’s innovators. What is Moore’s Law, you ask? According to Investopedia, Moore’s law states that "The number of transistors on a microchip double about every two years, despite the cost of computers halving.” Naturally, Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel, made this observation in 1965, and it continues to drive operations for the company, despite the transistors doubling on a microchip in a much shorter time span than two years in the 21st century.
"Achieving greater and greater transistor performance with every generation meant there was always something new and exciting to work on,” McCarson explained. "Every time you hit a breakthrough, that’s old news because you’ve got another breakthrough you have to make in the coming months.”
Translating Moore’s Law into Industry
So how does an Intel founder’s law about transistor performance translate into your industrial performance, you ask?
It’s the continued drive towards improvement and innovation just to keep up with the industry. As industrial leaders, businesses are no longer afforded the luxury of utilizing existing methods just because they "work.”
COVID-19, and 2020 as a whole, taught us that preparedness for disruptions needs to happen long before the actual disruptions occur. McCarson looks to Intel’s operations, where employing industry 4.0 technologies long before the pandemic essentially "COVID-proofed” Intel.
"We’ve been well-prepared for the pandemic for, well over a decade,” McCarson explained. "Not because it was pandemic readiness, but because simply it’s cost-effective operations and improving our quality and throughput times.”
Essentially, McCarson’s advice can be translated to always looking for opportunities to improve and get ahead, whether that’s through technology or processes among your workforce. Pursue it, relentlessly.
Give Your Team the Opportunity to Explore New Roles
Just as some believe that we have no one soulmate, your team members have no one role that they’re perfect for. This philosophy is one we can adapt as we look to reduce employee turnover among the young workforce; oftentimes young professionals need to explore different opportunities before they find their perfect match.
McCarson explains that Intel encourages internal workforce position changes within its workforce, and even goes so far as to say that’s why he’s stayed with the company for so long. "
"Rotation and exploring new businesses and new roles within Intel is something that’s highly encouraged and appreciated,” he said. "So for someone like me who has career attention deficit disorder, I’m always looking for something new and exciting to work on, and being able to do that in a company that actually appreciates and rewards that is the reason I’ve been able to stay at Intel for 20 years and not have been through 10 different companies over that same timeframe.”
What can your industrial business learn from McCarson’s self-labeled "career attention deficit disorder?”
Giving your employees the opportunity to explore and grow within your company, or even just making it known that you want your employees to succeed in their careers, can work wonders on retaining your younger workforce. In an era of an industrial skills shortage and resulting poaching among companies, this one strategy could solve employee turnover.
To watch the extended video cut of McCarson’s episode, click here.
