Testing Scandal, Tired Teamwork and Are Manufacturers Breaking US Child Labor Laws: IndustryWeek’s Weekly Reads

A fair amount of concerning manufacturing news captured the attention of our IndustryWeek manufacturing audience over the past week: a rise in U.S. child labor violations, an automotive testing scandal among Japanese automakers, and manufacturing’s continued No. 1 position as a recipient of cyber attacks.

A few hints of better news also surfaced, however. IW’s Anna Smith wrote about how companies are promoting STEM education in unique ways, and contributor Stephan Liozu shares best practices for scaling sustainability.

That said, what follows are the Top 10 most-read articles on IndustryWeek.com over the past seven days, plus one Editor’s Choice.

Japan Automakers Including Toyota Hit by Testing Scandal: Toyota said it would suspend shipping of the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross after reporting inadequate data in pedestrian and occupant protection tests.

Does US Manufacturing Have a Child Labor Problem? Incidents of child labor violations in the U.S. have risen since the pandemic.

Fix Your Operations First, Then Technology Can Shine: Digital transformation can help you get to your goals, but the foundational work needs to happen first.

Manufacturing Is #1 in Cyber Attacks for Third Straight Year. What Can Be Done? Eighty-five percent of incidents could have been mitigated with patching, multi-factor authentication or least-privilege principles, an IBM study found.

When Is Teamwork Transformative, and When Does It Just Sap Energy? We often ask our people to demonstrate greater teamwork but ignore the fact that we have set them up to behave as competitors.

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’s Reshoring Problem: Why is the pharma industry hesitant to build a domestic supply chain?

Putting Manufacturing, STEM Into the Hands of Middle and High Schoolers: CoorsTek and Deloitte make education anything but boring.

ISM Report: Manufacturing PMI Continues Contraction in May: Seven out of 14 manufacturing industries reported growth last month.

Caterpillar, ABB, L3Harris: How Industry Leaders Are Scaling Sustainability: Manufacturers unsure where to start can look to these models in four key areas.

Riskier Supply Chains Call for Better Data, Savvier Strategy: Jabil's 2024 supply chain survey finds that as manufacturers journey from recovery to resilience, they must consider how to thoughtfully integrate technologies like AI and automation.

Editor’s Choice:

Manufacturing Executives Confident But Careful Heading Into Summer [Tales From the Transcript]: The leaders of our public-company cohort still feel good about a second-half demand upturn but commentary on labor and input costs remains divided.