Trends from October’s Top Virtual Manufacturing Events

These virtual events were a great way to connect with manufacturing professionals and discuss some of the industry’s top challenges and topics – workforce transformation, learning and development, lean manufacturing, and autonomous maintenance.

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October was an exciting month in the virtual manufacturing world! Augmentir had the pleasure of participating in several virtual events including the American Manufacturing Summit, Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo, and the Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit (EWTS). Each of these virtual events were a wonderful way to connect with manufacturing professionals and discuss some of the industry’s top challenges and topics – workforce transformation, learning and development, lean manufacturing, and autonomous maintenance. 

EWTS

The Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit (EWTS) is the longest-running and most comprehensive event dedicated to the business and industrial applications of wearables, including AR/VR/MR glasses and headsets, body-worn sensors, and exoskeletons. This year’s event took place in four bite-sized conference days (every Wednesday from October 6-27, 2021), with community, networking and additional content drops throughout the rest of the month. This unique format allowed for great networking as well as some very valuable sessions. In one of the polls, 32% said that Remote onboarding and training was the top use case for immersive/wearable technology at their company.  

American Manufacturing Summit

The American Manufacturing Summit is a leadership focused meeting designed to bring global manufacturing, operations, engineering, quality and supply chain leaders together to discuss current trends, strategic insights, and best practices in an ever-evolving manufacturing environment. Dave Landreth, Augmentir’s Head of Customer Strategy, had the opportunity to lead a fire-side chat in discussing how Artificial Intelligence and Connected Worker technologies are key pillars of the Industrial Workforce Transformation. We also enjoyed the 1:1 meetings that took place as part of the American Manufacturing Summit. 

Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo

The Gartner supply chain conference offers attendees a one-stop-shop to access research-backed sessions, get expert advice and problem-solve with colleagues. The main focus of this event is to address the strategic needs of CSCOs and supply chain executives and showcase new technologies that adapt to the ever-changing environment in which they’re operating.

Sessions from the event dealt with purpose-driven supply chains and learnings from the pandemic for the healthcare supply chain, risk assessment and global trade, top trends for smart manufacturing, the future of quality management and supply chain planning, and resolving the dichotomy of logistics outsourcing. 

Key announcements from the virtual manufacturing events:

Continuous improvement, connected worker technology, AI, and data-driven technology were among the top trends from these events. Manufacturing organizations are looking for Connected worker software, like Augmentir, to integrate frontline workers and improve productivity, training, and quality. In addition, as we continue to work remotely and see more supply chain disruptions, AI-based, data-driven technology will be essential to building flexible factories that address these challenges and allow for continuous improvement.

Remote Assistance: The 1st Step in Your Frontline Worker Digital Journey

By now, most of us have heard the phrase – “the global pandemic has changed the way we work”. This has proven to be true for all industrial companies, where the changing workplace dynamics, increased safety, and supply chain disruptions have forced companies to rethink how they support their workforce and empower them to perform […]

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AR-based remote assistance for frontline workers - start your digital journey with Augmentir

By now, most of us have heard the phrase – “the global pandemic has changed the way we work”. This has proven to be true for all industrial companies, where the changing workplace dynamics, increased safety, and supply chain disruptions have forced companies to rethink how they support their workforce and empower them to perform at high levels of safety, quality, and productivity.

Many companies have shifted and adopted remote work policies to offset travel limitations and ensure safety. According to Gartner, despite the shift to remote work, there are still nearly 2 billion frontline or field workers in the global workforce. Most of these frontline jobs cannot be done remotely, yet these workers still need access to digital information, guidance, training, and support, which was previously given in person.

Bringing Remote Assistance Tools to the Frontline

Unfortunately, typical office videoconferencing and virtual collaboration tools (e.g. Zoom, Microsoft Teams), which are designed for desktop-based knowledge workers, are not always appropriate for the workplace of the frontline – workers on factory floors or healthcare facilities, engineers on oil rigs, or field service technicians out in the field.

Industrial connected worker solutions that include augmented reality (AR) based remote assistance are uniquely suited for the operating environments that frontline workers participate in, and for the mobile and wearable devices they use. These industrial solutions combine live video streaming with augmented reality to create a powerful collaboration tool for frontline teams.

Value Across a Range of Industrial Use Cases

  • Remote Support for Direct or Dealer Field Technicians – Remote expert guidance and assistance tools now enable support for service teams, allowing technicians that are on-site to perform maintenance and repair procedures with improved safety, quality and efficiency with the help from virtual subject matter experts.
  • Remote Support for Customers –  For companies that are unable to offer on-site service technicians, remote assistance tools provide the ability for customers to be more self sufficient and provide an improved level of self-service. Remote assist tools allow customers to connect with subject matter experts to safely and efficiently perform routine service and maintenance routines.
  • Remote assistance tools are also being used for internal manufacturing collaboration, where many companies are using remote assistance tools to virtually connect frontline workers in factories with remote subject matter experts (SMEs) to improve troubleshooting and support workers during changeover, maintenance, or other operational processes.
  • Manufacturers are also extending remote assistance tools out to OEMs and 3rd party SMEs for remote equipment maintenance, virtual factory and site acceptance tests, and troubleshooting when they are unable to travel onsite.

A Digitally Connected Workforce

Now is the time to consider remote assistance and collaboration solutions, and to begin on your journey towards digitizing and connecting your frontline workforce. In addition, with integrated digital workflows, frontline workers can be guided to independently complete jobs safely and correctly. AI & Human Feedback capture tribal knowledge, while AI is used for continuous improvement efforts. These technologies are proving to be practical and effective ways to close skill gaps and transform training efforts – allowing your frontline workers to work safely and efficiently in today’s new normal.

Learn more about how connected worker solutions that include augmented reality (AR) based remote assistance are uniquely suited for the frontline workforce. Check out our comprehensive guide and checklist of requirements for evaluating and selecting augmented reality (AR) based industrial Remote Assistance solutions.

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Augmentir Included in Gartner Hype Cycle for Innovation in Manufacturing Industries

Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy and Innovation in Manufacturing Industries. These two Hype Cycles focus on the leading-edge technologies and methodologies that will significantly change how manufacturers innovate, deliver and support products and services. Augmentir was recognized as an important player in both Hype Cycle reports. Emerging Technologies in […]

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Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy and Innovation in Manufacturing Industries. These two Hype Cycles focus on the leading-edge technologies and methodologies that will significantly change how manufacturers innovate, deliver and support products and services.

Augmentir was recognized as an important player in both Hype Cycle reports.

Emerging Technologies in Manufacturing

According to the report, “manufacturers that adopt the breakthrough opportunities presented as innovation profiles on this Hype Cycle will accelerate digitalization that increases the agility and ability to innovate products and business operations”.

This Gartner Hype Cycle, reflects the convergence of the physical and virtual worlds, innovation in manufacturing, as well as presents several key mature and emerging technologies, including the following:

  • Connected Worker: Connected workers use digital technologies to improve and integrate their interactions with both physical and virtual surroundings. Through the use of digital work instructions, as well as augmented/mixed reality delivered through mobile/wearable devices, they are able to make faster and better decisions that optimize and improve a process or workflow that they participate in.
  • Immersive Experiences – Manufacturing Operations: According to Gartner, immersive experiences refer to enabling the perception of being physically present in a nonphysical world or enriching people’s presence in the physical world with content from the virtual world. The report covers three kinds of immersive experiences: Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR).
  • Machine Learning: Machine learning is a technical discipline that identifies patterns and generates predictions based on analyzing large sets of data. According to Gartner’s research: “In manufacturing operations, machine learning (ML) can take advantage of available data and rely on the algorithms to identify patterns and correlations. It can also use them to predict outcomes, to find the best course(s) of action and to control processes. Typical use cases include eliminating unplanned downtime and stoppages, increasing yield optimization, reducing energy usage, improving product quality or stabilizing production processes.”

Augmentir is mentioned in the context of Connected Workers and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing Operations as software and solution provider.

Augmentir’s Approach to Connected Workers and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing

Augmentir sits and the intersection of these innovation profiles, using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to amplify the value that digital technologies bring to the connected worker.

 

Digital Work Instructions help guide connected workers with visual aids and augmented with AI-driven insights and contextual information enable workers to perform at their best.

Integrated Remote Expert assistance helps workers resolve issues faster using insights from Augmentir’s AI and information from the guided procedure.

Augmentir’s AI uses granular data  to identify the largest opportunities in improving the skills of the frontline workforce, and helps to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.

At Augmentir, our AI identifies patterns and generates insights based on analyzing data from connected workers. These insights improve worker performance as well as provide positive impact on training, operational workflows, and quality. According to Gartner, “The possibility of predicting performance is extremely attractive for manufacturers. This is driving the strong interest in ML. ML is an essential enabler of artificial intelligence (AI), smart factories and intelligent automation”.

Our view at Augmentir is that the purpose of a connected worker platform isn’t simply to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. Artificial intelligence is uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of growing skills gaps and the loss of tribal knowledge. With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, there are were dozens of opportunities to improve performance.

Augmentir Highlighted in Gartner Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technologies, 2020

Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technology, and Augmentir was recognized as an important player and solution provider. The report covers emerging tech categories for frontline workers including Connected Factory Workers, Remote Expert Guidance solutions, and Augmented Reality. Digital Technologies for Frontline Workers This Gartner Hype Cycle focuses on the frontline […]

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Gartner recently published their annual Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technology, and Augmentir was recognized as an important player and solution provider. The report covers emerging tech categories for frontline workers including Connected Factory Workers, Remote Expert Guidance solutions, and Augmented Reality.

Digital Technologies for Frontline Workers

This Gartner Hype Cycle focuses on the frontline worker technologies that are transforming the manufacturing workflows in which workers participate, while also improving the safety, quality, and productivity of the activities they perform.

According to the report, “The COVID-19 crisis has led organizations to ask frontline workers to work in new ways or to perform new tasks. To optimize efficiency, organizations are investing in mobile technology, including wearable technologies for frontline workers. These technologies transform the workflows in which these workers participate. Gartner predicts that up to 70% of new mobile and endpoint investments over the next five years will be for frontline workers”.

This Hype Cycle highlights several key mature and emerging technologies that are focused on helping frontline worker productivity, including the following:

  • Remote Expert Guidance Solutions: Remote expert guidance solutions provide industrial-level collaboration between subject matter experts and remote workers or customers utilizing mobile or wearable devices. Typical features include chat, live video, file sharing, and annotations, which provide visual cues that overlay the worker’s view. These tools help guide remote workers as they perform tasks, and are used across a variety of use cases – maintenance and repair procedures, remote factory acceptance tests, post-task audits, or training.
  • Connected Factory Worker: Connected factory workers use various digital tools to improve the safety, quality, and productivity of the jobs they perform. This technology helps connect workers to the “digital fabric” of the business, providing insight into the tasks they perform so that they can be optimized and continually improved on.
  • Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality (AR/MR): Connected workers use augmented and mixed reality technologies to improve and integrate their interactions with both physical and virtual surroundings. Through the use of digital work instructions, as well as augmented/mixed reality delivered through mobile and wearable devices, they are able to make faster and better decisions that optimize and improve a process or workflow that they participate in.

Augmentir’s Approach to the Connected Frontline Worker

Augmentir sits on the intersection of these innovation profiles, using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to amplify the value that digital technologies bring to the connected worker.

 

Augmented Work Instructions and digitized workflows help guide connected workers with visual aids while AI-driven insights provide contextual information that enable workers to perform at their best.

Remote Expert Guidance helps companies virtually connect and collaborate with their frontline workforce and their customers to provide remote guidance and support.

AI-based Operational Insights help companies identify the largest opportunities in improving the skills of the frontline workforce, and helps to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.

At Augmentir, our AI identifies patterns and generates insights based on analyzing data from connected workers. These insights improve worker performance as well as provide positive impact on training, operational workflows, and quality. According to Gartner, “The possibility of predicting performance is extremely attractive for manufacturers. This is driving the strong interest in ML. ML is an essential enabler of artificial intelligence (AI), smart factories and intelligent automation.”

Our view at Augmentir is that the purpose of a connected worker platform isn’t simply to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to continually optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. Artificial intelligence is uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of skills variability and the loss of tribal knowledge in the workforce. With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, there are dozens of opportunities to improve performance.

If you’d like to see how our AI-Powered Connected Worker platform improves safety, quality, and productivity across your workforce, schedule a demo with one of our product experts.

Schedule a Demo

 

Learning Tech Talks – Connected Worker Solutions

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Recently, Augmentir’s Dave Landreth sat down with Christopher Lind from Learning Tech Talks, and discussed the evolution of learning technology and the role that connected worker solutions play.

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Recently, Augmentir’s Dave Landreth sat down with Christopher Lind from Learning Tech Talks, and discussed connected worker solutions, and how leading manufacturing organizations are digitizing their workforce and transforming their frontline operations.

learning tech talks

The Evolving Landscape of Learning Technology

Learning Tech Talks explore the evolving landscape of learning and training technology through unbiased conversations with experts and technology providers from around the world.  In this episode, Dave and Chris discuss the role that connected worker solutions play in learning for frontline workers.  The discussion covers what connected worker solutions are, their value to manufacturing organizations, and walks through the process of using this technology to digitize a workforce from “hire to retire”, as well as investigates some of the insights and opportunities that are available in a smarter connected collaboration.

 

Watch the Podcast

About Augmentir

Augmentir is the world’s only Smart Connected Worker Suite. Augmentir is being used by manufacturing and service companies to empower their frontline workers to perform at their best and deliver improvements in safety, quality, and productivity consistently, year-over-year. Refining manufacturing methods can be difficult without the right technology. Augmentir’s AI-based connected worker solution makes streamlining and optimizing your production and quality procedures easier than ever before.

Augmentir offers customized AI-powered connected worker solutions that transform how you write and create manufacturing standard operating procedures, track and manage your frontline’s skillsets, and deliver in-line training and support at the point of work, closing skills gaps at the moment of need. Request a live demo today to learn more about why leading manufacturers are choosing our solutions to improve skills management, skills tracking, workforce development, and other manufacturing processes.

 

 

Augmentir Recognized by Gartner Hype Cycle for Innovation in Manufacturing Operations Strategy

The impact of COVID-19 has changed the manufacturing landscape permanently, and clear changes are necessary for manufacturing leaders in order to stay competitive and succeed in this new normal. This was the focus in the recently published Gartner Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy, which focused on a portfolio of enabling capabilities and technologies, and […]

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The impact of COVID-19 has changed the manufacturing landscape permanently, and clear changes are necessary for manufacturing leaders in order to stay competitive and succeed in this new normal. This was the focus in the recently published Gartner Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy, which focused on a portfolio of enabling capabilities and technologies, and their potential business impacts. The goal of this Hype Cycle report was to provide a holistic view of key concepts that can guide manufacturers when defining both short-term and long-term strategies for growth.

Augmentir was recognized as an important player for Connected Factory Worker technology and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing.

Emerging Technologies in Manufacturing

According to Gartner, a dynamic and volatile market environment is changing the face of manufacturing operations. This Gartner Hype Cycle report on manufacturing operations strategy will help inform future approaches, create roadmaps, align investments, and educate peers.

It is not business as usual in 2020. The impact of COVID-19, and changes in how factories are located, staffed, managed and digitized are placing pressure on manufacturing operations leaders. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) based remote collaboration are central now to the corporate innovation portfolio of any business leader and crucial to boosting productivity at a time when enterprises most need it. This hype cycle highlights these, as well as other key mature and emerging technologies, including the following:

  • Connected Factory Worker: Connected factory workers use various digital tools to improve the safety, quality, and productivity of the jobs they perform. This technology helps connect workers to the “digital fabric” of the business, providing insight into the tasks they perform so that they can be optimized and continually improved on.
  • Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing Operations: According to Gartner, immersive experiences refer to enabling the perception of being physically present in a nonphysical world or enriching people’s presence in the physical world with content from the virtual world. Gartner sees using immersive experiences for quality and maintenance tasks, connecting with employees that are not able to be on-site, or wearables for safety management.

Augmentir is recognized in the context of Connected Factory Workers and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing Operations as a software and solution provider.

Augmentir’s Approach to Connected Factory Workers and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing

Augmentir sits at the intersection of these innovation profiles, using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to amplify the value that digital technologies bring to the connected worker.

 

Digitized workflows and augmented work instructions help guide connected workers with visual aids and contextual information. AI is used to personalize the instructions to each worker’s proficiency level, which helps intelligently close the skills gap and enable workers to perform at their best.

Remote Expert guidance helps workers resolve issues faster by leveraging collaboration with remote subject matter experts. Integrated chat allows one expert to support multiple workers. Multi-level escalation helps connected workers solve problems faster.

Augmentir’s AI-based “True Opportunity” system uses granular data to identify the largest opportunities in improving the skills of the frontline workforce and helps to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.

At Augmentir, our AI identifies patterns and generates insights based on analyzing data from connected workers. These insights improve worker performance as well as provide positive impact on training, operational workflows, and quality. According to Gartner, “The possibility of predicting performance is extremely attractive for manufacturers. This is driving the strong interest in ML. ML is an essential enabler of artificial intelligence (AI), smart factories and intelligent automation”.

Our view at Augmentir is that the purpose of a connected worker platform isn’t simply to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. Artificial intelligence is uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of growing skills gaps and the loss of tribal knowledge. With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, there are were dozens of opportunities to improve performance.

If you’d like to see how our AI is able to uncover and rank “True Opportunities” across your workforce and improve overall worker performance or drive continuous improvement, schedule a demo today.

Schedule a Demo

 

Using AI to Unlock the True Potential of Today’s Connected Workforce

Augmentir CEO Russ Fadel had the opportunity to be interviewed recently by Ann Wyatt, Industry 4.0 and IIoT Enthusiast, for the OnRamp Manufacturing Conference.

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Earlier this month, Russ Fadel had the opportunity to be interviewed by Ann Wyatt, Industry 4.0 and IIoT Enthusiast, for the OnRamp Manufacturing Conference. OnRamp Manufacturing is the leading conference for manufacturing innovation that brings together the manufacturing industry’s leading corporations, investors, and startups. The conference highlighted innovations disrupting the manufacturing industry, the leaders making such innovations possible, and how new technologies and business models will reinvent the industry. In this exciting interview, Ann and Russ discussed some of the top challenges that today’s manufacturers face, and how technology such as AI and connected worker solutions that recognize the variability in today’s workforce are empowering workers by giving them tools and resources that will set them up for success. 

The following is a recap of some of the highlights of the discussion.

The great resignation is upon us now

The consistent story of the manufacturing workforce is that there is an aging workforce and 30-40% of that workforce will leave within the next 5 years, taking valuable, hard to capture tribal knowledge with them. Many manufacturers were under the misconception that the remitting workforce would pass down their knowledge to the next generation as they did before. However, this was a big misconception. Even prior to Covid, the dynamics of the workforce themself have changed. In the last 5 years, the tenure of manufacturing workers is down to 17% and that decrease escalated even more as a result of the pandemic.

The stability of the workforce has decreased in the past 8 years. Old work processes were designed during a more stable time and unfortunately aren’t applicable for this generation of workers. Today’s workers are in the factory less frequently, don’t stay as long, and due to Covid, may be out for short periods of time, resulting in the need for a more dynamic workforce. To deal with this rapidly changing workforce, manufacturers will need a more data-driven approach powered by AI to empower their workforce.

A highly effective, cross functioning workforce

Over the years, the manufacturing industry has done a really good job of connecting machines into the fabric of the business and giving operators the necessary data to help run those machines better. Our frontline workers, the last piece of connectivity, are the least connected set of workers in the company. Frontline workers should be fully integrated into the fabric of the business from a collaboration standpoint so that they can access the data they need as well. Secondly, when they are working, it needs to be understood what workers are doing well and what they are struggling with, so we can match people with the tasks that they already excel at.

Top trends and key challenges in today’s workforce

At the highest level, everyone is talking about the disruption of the mobile supply chain. The role of the manufacturer is to put supply into the supply chain and to safely build products at acceptable quality and productivity levels, matching today’s workforce with today’s task load. 

The new dynamics of the workforce (lots of turnover, shorter tenure, people leaving abruptly) are at odds with what manufacturers are trying to do, which is to be a stable source of supply to the global supply network. Technology today, specifically AI, lets us understand at a data-driven level and in real time how workers can perform at their individual best, based on their training experience and raw ability for a specific task.

How Hybrid Work is impacting the manufacturing workforce

With Covid came an immediate need for remote presence, but the real issue is the idea that a subject matter expert needed to be on site for support. This way of working is now a thing of the past. When we think about having frontline workers fully connected to the organization, at any moment in time, they should have direct access to the tools and resources that would help them do their job better. Connected work in the future means using AI to allow frontline workers to have access to internal and external resources that are appropriate for them at their fingertips.

Another interesting statistic resulting from Covid is that employee engagement is down almost 20% from pre-Covid times. Manufacturers are always concerned about employee engagement, particularly with certain jobs that might be repetitive. AI is extremely helpful in measuring signals of engagement but also provides tools to the organization to increase the level of engagement of frontline workers. One thing that causes a reduction in engagement is when a worker feels like they can’t perform a job so they become frustrated. 

Using AI to give frontline workers the tools and information they need when they need it is one way to help increase engagement. The other way is to let them feel connected to the actual importance of their work.

Hiring, Training & Reskilling

The new workforce dynamics and the nature of hybrid work are also now forcing manufacturers to re-think employee onboarding and training.

The historic methods of onboarding and training taught workers everything they could “possibly” do which resulted in overtraining. The data-driven era we’re entering into is one of continuous learning and development powered by AI. Training shifts from the things frontline workers are possibly going to do to what they are probably going to do. This results in reduced training times, continuous learning and development, and the ability to upskill at any point as needed. Learning is always available, training content is available to the worker on the shop floor at the time of need. Reducing the initial onboarding training and allowing training to occur at the moment of need, coupled with AI for scoring, provides insights into the most effective training modules as well as what needs to improve based on demonstrated execution.

Transforming Today’s Workforce with AI & Connected Worker Tools

One challenge with connected worker data is that it’s inherently noisy. In many cases, up to 37% of the signals that come back are not representative of what is actually happening. Fortunately, AI excels at recognizing patterns in noisy data, so we can use that to focus companies on the work processes that have the most opportunity, allowing organizations to understand their actual proficiency at any procedure or job. This helps them understand current workforce skills, what areas need to be connected or improved, and where they should invest if they want to get the largest return, with AI being the driving technology that unlocks those signals in noisy data.

AI is largely embedded in most aspects of our lives and it will play an equally large role in helping the connected workforce progress and become part of the 21st-century solution and the next generation of how people work. Adopting these methodologies early on will make the overall digital transformation process a lot easier for manufacturers.

Augmentir Recognized in 4 Gartner Hype Cycles for Digital Transformation and Connected Worker Innovation in Manufacturing

August 13, 2021

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Augmentir was recently recognized by Gartner in four separate Hype Cycle reports that cover technology innovation in manufacturing. These four reports include:

  • Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Digital Transformation and Innovation, 2021
  • Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Operations Strategy, 2021
  • Hype Cycle for Manufacturing Digital Optimization and Modernization, 2021
  • Hype Cycle for Frontline Worker Technologies, 2021

In these reports, Gartner highlights Augmentir as a key software vendor in the Connected Factory Worker and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing Operations categories.

  • Connected Factory Worker: Connected factory workers use various digital tools to improve the safety, quality, and productivity of the jobs they perform. This technology helps connect workers to the “digital fabric” of the business, providing insight into the tasks they perform so that they can be optimized and continually improved on.
  • Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing Operations: According to Gartner, immersive experiences refer to enabling the perception of being physically present in a nonphysical world or enriching people’s presence in the physical world with content from the virtual world. Gartner sees using immersive experiences for quality and maintenance tasks, remotely connecting and collaborating with employees that are not able to be on-site, or wearables for safety management.

These hype cycle reports and innovation profiles are provided by Gartner to help organizations decide which new innovations and technology to adopt, as well as what value they can provide to their manufacturing operations.

Digital Transformation in Manufacturing

According to Gartner, the manufacturing industry is being transformed by new business models and strategic, innovative technologies that fit within Industrie 4.0. Manufacturers can capitalize on advancements made in artificial intelligence (AI), visualization, collaboration, and greater connectivity across enterprises.

This was the focus in Gartner’s recently published reports, which revealed opportunities for manufacturing leaders to gain business advantages through concepts and technologies that improve productivity and decision making. Besides adding value to manufacturing businesses, they increase windows of competitive advantage.

The Connected Worker – A first step for Digital Transformation in Manufacturing

Manufacturers are beginning to recognize just how integral frontline workers are to their company’s digital fabric and that overlooking these workers has caused their digital transformation efforts to fall short of their objectives.

These same industry leaders are now investing in an integrated approach – empowering their frontline teams with connected worker solutions that utilize technology such as mobile and wearable devices, augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR), remote collaboration tools, and artificial intelligence (AI). Connected worker solutions that bring together these technologies are helping to connect a new class of workers and are allowing organizations to proactively and continually deliver the right level of training, support, guidance, and improvement.

Optimizing Worker Performance with AI

As workers become more connected, companies have access to a new rich source of activity, execution, and tribal data, and with proper AI tools can gain insights into areas where the largest improvement opportunities exist. Artificial Intelligence lays a data-driven foundation for continuous improvement in the areas of productivity, quality, and workforce development, setting the stage to address the needs of a constantly changing workforce.

Our view at Augmentir is that the purpose of a connected worker platform isn’t simply to deliver instructions and remote support to a frontline worker, but rather to continually optimize the performance of the connected worker ecosystem. Artificial intelligence is uniquely able to address the fundamental macrotrends of skills variability and the loss of tribal knowledge in the workforce, and creates a foundation for data-driven improvements to operational performance and continuous improvement.

“AI will play a critical role in the long-term success of connected factory workers. As more information is curated and made available, algorithms must be continually trained in alignment with continuous improvement initiatives, creating the potential for enhanced root cause analysis.”

Gartner

With an ecosystem of content authors, frontline workers, subject matter experts, operations managers, continuous improvement engineers, and quality specialists, there are dozens of opportunities to improve performance using AI. For example, after Augmentir is deployed for a number of months, our AI engine will start identifying patterns in the data that will allow you to focus your efforts on the areas that have the biggest customer satisfaction, productivity, and workforce development opportunities. This will allow you to answer questions such as:

  • Where should I invest to get the biggest improvement in operational performance?
  • What manufacturing tasks have the largest productivity or quality opportunity?
  • Where would targeted training give me the biggest return?

Augmentir’s AI continuously updates its insights to enable companies to focus on their largest areas of opportunity, enabling you to deliver year over year improvements in key operational metrics.

Interested in learning more?

If you’d like to learn more about Augmentir and see how our AI-Powered connected worker platform improves safety, quality, and productivity across your workforce, schedule a demo with one of our product experts.