Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1531325
Workforce challenges/solutions Labor market challenges are nothing new, but companies are getting creative about hiring, and some are beginning to see progress. Isherwood's 70-person company made 15 hires in 2024, and expects to continue hiring through 2025, both to replace retirees and support growth. "One of our strategies is employee retention, because we know that without our existing employees, we would struggle," Isherwood said. A lot of Burke Aerospace's training is in-house because of the company's niche market; it has also begun hiring employees right out of high school and college. Isherwood says wages have to be competitive with those offered at the OEMs, and the company also offers a robust career ladder and benefits like tuition reimbursement. Haley Nemeth is the third generation of family leadership at Jonal Laboratories in Meriden. The company makes rubber seals for aerospace applications. INDUSTRY OUTLOOK | HEALTH CARE HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 13, 2025 31 INDUSTRY OUTLOOK | MANUFACTURING Artificial intelligence Another trend expected to grow in 2025 is the use of AI in health care. Hogan says AI "will gain wide- spread use in healthcare delivery, helping clinicians to identify and better coordinate and manage treatment and to drive and measure superior outcomes for patients." He said using AI in those ways will reduce fragmented care, as well as wasteful services and spending. Trumble said AI will enhance diagnostic accuracy in radiology, pathology and other specialties. "AI tools are timesaving and help physicians spot anomalies that may otherwise be missed, which could help reduce costs to patients and the system," she said. AI will also help predict patient needs, she added, "which can reduce reactive care, improve patient outcomes and lower costs." Medicare scrutiny Another trend cited by Barwis, who also is a director of the American Hospital Association and chairs its regional policy board for New England, is increased scrutiny of Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Advantage, or Part C, is a Medicare-approved plan from a private company that offers an alternative to original Medicare. "The focus on fixing these plans for enrollees is not a partisan issue in D.C., which is great news," he said. "Connecticut has a high percentage of seniors covered in these plans, so the improvements — which are largely focused on prior authorization delays and denials of needed care — will have a significant positive impact on access, timeliness and outcomes for Connecticut seniors." Trumble, on the other hand, said such plans, as well as original Medi- care, may face rapidly rising costs in 2025. That may cause "lower-performing plans to leave the market, even as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the new administration aim to encourage more beneficiaries to enroll in managed-care products like these," she said. Paul S. Lavoie Haley Nemeth Jeffrey J. White Brittany Isherwood is the president and CEO of Farmington-based Burke Aerospace. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER How will potential tariffs impact CT manufacturers/supply chains? It's a key issue in 2025 By Harriet Jones hjones@HartfordBusiness.com T he change of administration in 2025 along with wider global instability brings questions and uncertainty for Connecticut manufacturers, and these factors may drive some of the dominant trends to watch in the coming year. The focus on supply chain issues could intensify, sparking creative solutions including reshoring and collaboration. Technology transfor- mations may also gather pace in the coming year, not least as a way to mitigate a still-tight labor market. Here are some manufacturing industry trends to watch in 2025. Boosting the supply chain Connecticut's Chief Manufac- turing Officer Paul Lavoie expects the trends toward reshoring and near- shoring production to accelerate in 2025, as companies, partic- ularly large original equipment manufac- turers (OEMs), try to reduce their exposure to the risks of global instability. "We will see manufacturing companies shorten supply chains, move manufacturing back to Connecticut from overseas and work to build out domestic supply chains," he predicted. That movement could also be driven by domestic policies, like incoming President Donald Trump's promise of steep tariffs on imported goods. New Britain's Stanley Black & Decker is among those who have already said they will shift production to different parts of the world in order to mitigate the effects of tariffs. "Everyone wants to talk about the 'T' word – tariffs," said Jeffrey J. White, who leads the manufac- turing industry team at law firm Robin- son+Cole. "We will be monitoring these developments closely, including on the raw material side." White, who provides counseling and dispute resolution advice for manufacturers and distributors, said it's also important not to lose sight of the impact of tariffs on foreign companies that have operations in the United States. "Several of our clients who have subsidiaries based in Connecticut are discussing whether to expand their manufacturing operations in Connecticut," he said. "The potential expansion is related to tariffs, but also to maintain flexibility in their operations throughout the world." Digital transformation Many of the companies that make up the supply chain are busy with their own forward planning. Brittany Isherwood is president and CEO of Burke Aerospace, headquartered in Farmington. The company has provided electric discharge machining and milling services to the aerospace, industrial gas turbine and defense industries for over 60 years. She's bullish about the coming year in aerospace. "We're seeing continued growth, both driven by the military and commercial demand, which is excellent because there's been times where it was only one product line that was growing, but we're seeing growth on both military and commercial," she said. Isherwood's company is some way into a digital transformation, investing in equipment that's entirely run on a network and can implement the model-based definition standards being encouraged by many of its OEM customers. She says that transforma- tion will continue, but it also brings its own challenges. "There's always going to be an increased risk of cyber threats," she said. "Before we even made the huge investment in equipment, we invested heavily in helping to use better firewalls, encryption, multi-factor authentication." Lavoie confirms he's seeing a will- ingness across many companies to invest in new technologies, including additive manufacturing, robotics and automation, and artificial intelligence to drive efficiency and productivity in a tight labor market. White adds that cross-company collaborations are becoming more common as a way to meet the evolving needs of big customers, including for federal contracts. "There are pros and cons to such collaborative efforts, and we have been advising clients how to avoid the major pitfalls with sharing your intellectual property with other companies, including competitors," he said. "In 2025, I expect these collaborative efforts to continue." Continued on next page