The manufacturing industry is essential in achieving sustainable development goals (SDG) and also an essential employer. There are more than half a billion jobs in the manufacturing industry. Today, small and media-sized businesses that engage themselves in manufacturing and industrialization practices are critical in their initial stages, and they are the largest job creators in the world. However, many countries in the world are on their way to making use of complex industry-related services and manufacturing. The introduction of SDGs has come when match talk is on the erosion of trust, disruption, and megatrends. On the other hand, technology drives innovation at an unprecedented pace fueled by increased scarcity in resources and demographic changes.
The emergency of “economic sharing” is spearheading the significant change in ownership and business development. The manufacturing industry has to rethink its products’ production and the procedures and techniques applied in producing specific products (Griggs et al., 2014, p.4). Despite the advantages correlated with SDGs, some challenges may arise in the manufacturing business, such as taking full responsibility for the products manufactured from their supply chains integrity to the disposal.
The largest opportunity in the manufacturing sectors is the creation of a shared value. In this, we can see the importance of policy action, market potentials, and societal demands coming together (Berawi, 2019, p. 645). Notably, some of the opportunities for shared value in the manufacturing sector include sustainable products and production. Therefore, the main establishment of sustainable development goals in the manufacturing industry is to end poverty, end hunger, ensure a healthy lifestyle for all ages, ensure equality in education and achieve gender equality.
Discussion
In the least developed countries manufacturing sector is playing a huge role in poverty eradication through an increase and development in their production capacities. The manufacturing industry works hand in hand with the government to ensure that they produce high-quality local and international consumption (Li, Xue, and Huang, 2018, p. 3039). They also produce goods and services and incline in variety and sophistication. Through this, the sector creates employment opportunities resulting in stable growth. When the manufacturing industry succeeds, it helps the country reduce poverty, humanitarian aids and keep its best-educated citizens at home instead of losing them to job opportunities in other countries. Furthermore, establishing and enhancing productive capacities in the manufacturing sector comes from the market forces, the interplay of international action, public policies, and entrepreneurship.
Moreover, challenges make it difficult for the manufacturing sector to bring poverty to an end. Some of these hindrances include a lack of a skilled labor force (Bleischwitz et al., 2018, p. 736). In the least developed countries, skilled labor is low; hence it is difficult to get the right person for a specific job. Thus they end up outsourcing the labor force making it difficult to end poverty among the local people. Additionally, government policies are unfavorable for the local manufacturing industries; hence thriving, creating job opportunities, and producing goods gets challenged.
Additionally, in the spirit of eradicating poverty, there are opportunities for shared value. The first opportunity is allocating a research and development budget to the manufacturing industries for designing and producing products for the developing economies considering all the available market challenges and resource availability (Rassanjani, 2018, p.5). The second opportunity building supplier and retailer resilience in the emerging economies to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and social and economic shocks. They can also develop a commission whose role is to assess the manufacturers’ social, economic, and environmental impacts. To set the emerging economy, they need to increase the proportion of locally manufactured products, creating jobs and growing income in areas of high poverty rates.
Ending Hunger
The manufacturing sector has its hand in advocating for food security, enhancing nutrition, and endorsing sustainable farming. Agriculture is the cornerstone of the economy, especially in rural areas where most people depend on it (Dawes, 2019,p.155). The sector helps in hunger reduction among the people by modernizing agriculture. Besides this, it also helps in reducing dependence on agriculture as the primary source of income. The industry makes this possible through the creation of secondary and tertiary job opportunities. Exporting manufactured goods helps develop and uphold trade opportunities leading to increased foreign exchange. The sector provides farmers with affordable farm inputs, seedlings, planting machines, and a ready market for their produce.
Additionally, despite being determined to end hunger among the people, the manufacturing sector faces numerous agricultural modernization challenges. First, the agricultural machines meant to increase food production are of high prices (Tsalis et al., 2020, p.1620). In the last twenty years, there has been an inclination in these machines’ costs due to technological advancement. Therefore, farmers cannot purchase them; hence they shift to their old farming methods, resulting in low farm produce. Poor know-how among the people using modernized equipment, making an investment in agricultural mechanization less attractive and interesting. For instance, many tractor owners lack or have insufficient agribusiness knowledge and lack business acumen.
However, despite the challenges, some opportunities can help end hunger. First, the sector should develop chemicals, agribusiness machinery, and tools to make farming and food processing easy (Bleischwitz et al., 2018, p. 738). They can also use data analytics for hydroponic production of greens and vegetables through data collection and analyzing heating, light, and irrigating accordingly. They can also advise farmers on the best supply chains, increase their yields, storage, transportation, and sustainability. Furthermore, purchasing biomass from the farmers to produce the manufacturing process’s energy raises farmers’ income.
Ensure Healthy Lifestyle for All Ages
The manufacturing sector is essential in helping people achieve healthy lifestyles for all ages. Due to advancements in technology, the manufacturing industry is continuously developing new machines that make it easier to detect illness in patients and recommend the right treatment (Griggs et al., 2014, p.6). In developed countries, they use high-tech machines to detect terminal diseases like cancer in their initial stages. The availability of these machines helps the health sector diagnose patients and administer the right treatment early. The manufacturing industry contributes a lot in ensuring low infant mortality by developing suitable medical machines and producing drugs prescribed to patients.
On the other hand, some challenges hinder the manufacturing industry from ensuring a healthy lifestyle; inadequate finances to purchase modern medical equipment. Most of the least developed countries have challenges acquiring them; due to advanced technology, doctors have to constantly undergo training to learn how to operate the new machines, which might be expensive for the health sector. Despite technology advance being important in the health sector, it’s also a challenge due to the increased cybercrimes concerns and security breaches. The manufacturing industry has always to report adverse events concerning medical services to the government.
Notably, there are opportunities for shared value, such as investing and developing low-cost processes, materials, and distribution networks to manufacture and sell medical services. All these are essential for low-income countries to help purchase and maintain medical equipment (Griggs et al., 2014, p.6). Improving the employees’ working environment and conditions includes supporting the lactating mothers and providing employees and their beneficiaries with active medical insurance covers. They should also enhance their staff’s safety, resilience, and any other individual within the value chain. Additionally, they should also develop huge disaster risk mitigation and preparedness procedures.
Ensure Equality in Education
Interactive and collaborative arrangements between the manufacturing and academic institutions are essential in ensuring equality in the education sector. Traditionally, industries employed students who underwent internship training in their organization, making it easier for them to secure job opportunities (Van Zanten, and Van Tulder, 2018, p. 210). Professional institutions are now seeing the importance of working closely with employers for various reasons, such as understanding the industry’s needs to equip learners with the right skills. Through these professional institutions, the manufacturing industry usually promotes equality in education by offering fair internship opportunities for both men and women. They provide education sponsorship opportunities to both genders, making the system equal both in and out of school. They have also developed schools in areas close to the industry providing education opportunities to the community.
Further, the manufacturing sector faces a challenge in enhancing equality in education, especially if society is against it. Some cultures believe that boys are superior to girls; hence, they do not need to take girls to schools (Van Zanten, and Van Tulder, 2018, p. 210). Local communities can also pose a challenge if they are against the construction of the industry near them. There are also government policies that may be too harsh for the sector to develop or sponsor educational programs. However, there are opportunities that the industry can use to promote education, such establishment of vocational training schools.
Achieve Gender Equality
Gender equality in the workplace is essential to offer opportunities for everyone. The manufacturing industry promotes gender equality in different ways, such as providing training to create awareness and encourage similar behavior for both genders in and out of the workplace. They also offer vouchers, family and friends policies, and provide childcare facilities for both genders. They shine a spotlight on successful women both internally and via the media (Wu and Cheng, 2016, p. 259). The sector also establishes equal and fair pay for both genders working in the industry.
Besides that, the industry is finding it difficult to enhance gender equality because of various factors such as sexual harassment. Many women in the sector face a different form of sexual harassment while on duty (Wu and Cheng, 2016, p. 261). They also get promoted less than men even after having good qualifications and being more than men in the industry; women rarely get encouraged. On the other hand, race also plays a huge role in determining how women get treated and reimbursed in the workplace.
There are opportunities the manufacturing industry can use to ensure they enhance gender equality. First, they can develop manufacturing facilities, processes, and culture to promote female employees’ recruitment, development, and retention (Wu and Cheng, 2016, p. 262). Identify and include done businesses owned by women in the manufacturing supply chain and develop their capacity. Ensure they increase the number of women in the manufacturing sector top management levels, endorse policies and strategies that aid women, and spur the industry to keep them.
Recommendations
The manufacturing sector is a huge industry that involves both men and women; I would first recommend application gender equality SDG that will help end all forms of gender discrimination against women in the industry. Eliminate gender violence against all women in the workplace and support equal job opportunities and remuneration of women. Ensure that women get equal opportunities in leadership in the industry. I would also recommend the application of end poverty SDG. The sector should aim at eradicating poverty in all sectors connected to it. It should create job opportunities and produce products that are fit for consumption both locally and internationally. It should also support the country’s pharmaceutical sectors to ensure that they spur each individuals’ good health and well-being.
Furthermore, it’s important to look keenly and block all production areas that may lead to the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Equality in education is essential since it will help women compete fairly with men in the job market. It can achieve this by establishing schools and vocational training institutions for the communities around them and offering to sponsor those who struggle with paying school fees.
Conclusion
To sum up, the manufacturing industry, despite being a good employer its essential in achieving SDGs. Manufacturing has to consider its products and its methods to produce its products. There different types of SDG goals; however, the major ones in the manufacturing sector are, enhancing equality for women and girls, ending poverty, ending hunger, and improving equality in education. Equality between women and men is essential, especially in work, to complete violence or discrimination against women. The sector also offers job opportunities to help reduce poverty in the areas where they are. They also establish schools for the communities around them and produced mechanized agricultural equipment to increase their income level.
