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.

 

Augmentir Highlighted as a Key Connected Factory Worker Vendor in Gartner Hype Cycle for Consumer Goods Manufacturing

August 16, 2021

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Augmentir was once again recognized by Gartner as a key vendor for Connected Factory Worker technology. In the latest Gartner Hype Cycle for Consumer Goods, Augmentir was highlighted as an important vendor for Connected Factory Worker software and Immersive Experiences in Manufacturing. This marks the seventh time in 2021 that Augmentir has been recognized by Gartner for leadership in emerging technologies for manufacturing.

Digital Technology – A Key Priority for Consumer Goods CEOs

This Gartner report identifies technology as a key priority for consumer goods CEOs, and states that “79% of Consumer Goods CEOs plan to increase their investment in digital capabilities.”

According to the hype cycle report, “Investments in long-delayed digital initiatives came to the forefront due to the pandemic.” Digital transformation initiatives were put into focus and brought to the forefront due to the impact of the pandemic, increased remote working, and supply chain disruptions, and many leading consumer goods manufacturers were “jolted to invest in long-delayed digital plans.”

Gartner highlighted Connected Factory Workers and Immersive Experience in Manufacturing as offering transformational benefits for consumer goods manufacturers, and mentions Augmentir as a key software vendor in each category.

  • Connected Factory Worker: Connected factory workers use various digital tools to improve the safety, quality, and productivity of the jobs they perform. In consumer goods manufacturing, this may include enabling digitization of maintenance procedures, changeover procedures, EHS lockout/tagout procedures, quality checklists, and plant walkabouts via digitized step by step instructions or guided workflows. 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 Experience 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 as important for “accelerating problem solving and broadening continuous improvement dialogue through virtual or remote access.” This approach is being use for quality and maintenance tasks, remotely connecting with employees that are not able to be on-site, or wearables for safety management.

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

Accelerating Your Digital Journey with Augmentir

Many leading consumer goods manufacturers, including Colgate-Palmolive, have adopted Augmentir to connect their frontline workforce and accelerate their digitization efforts. Augmentir’s AI-based connected worker platform offers connected worker technology with augmented work instructions. Equipped with digital devices that could include tablets, mobile phones, or even AR-enabled industrial smart glasses, frontline workers are able to receive fully augmented, guided instructions on any device to improve productivity, quality and allow workers to perform their jobs more independently. These help guide workers with visual aids, AR/MR experiences, and contextual information.

For example, since the selection of Augmentir in November 2020, Colgate has already seen tremendous progress towards their digital transformation goals and has digitized over 1000 workflows across 10 global plants, resulting in significant value and productivity improvements in maintenance tasks, line changeovers, and shift changes.

Optimizing Worker Performance with AI

Gartner further recommends that consumer goods manufacturers: “Make your focus the creation of a “data-driven” culture in manufacturing operations.” This includes not only integrating factory workforces with their virtual and physical surroundings, but also driving a culture change towards data-driven performance optimization and workforce development.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key foundation for data-driven transformation within the manufacturing workforce.

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. AI 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.

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.

Stop Panicking About the Skilled Labor Shortage in Manufacturing

Augmentir’s take on the trending Workforce Institute’s staggering survey numbers.

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Everyone is talking about it. The skilled labor shortage. It’s not a temporary problem. It’s here to stay. So instead of panicking and trying to use the same old strategies to identify, recruit and retain the increasingly rare skilled and experienced worker, let us present a different way of looking at the labor challenge. Spoiler alert: we see opportunity!

But first, let’s unpack some recent survey findings about the labor market. 

According to a survey by the Workforce Institute, a whopping 87 percent of manufacturers are feeling the ramifications of the shortage of skilled labor, including staff misalignment along the production lines, burnout, and supply chain disruption. 

Finding workers with the right skills, education and certifications can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack–hopeless and painful. The shrinking talent pool is forcing companies to rehire former employees who previously quit with limited skills or individuals with no manufacturing experience; it probably feels like the only viable option for production survival.

Where do you start with this new variable workforce? Standardized training programs? Excel spreadsheets for tracking and monitoring? These methods pose a concern for all workers on your production lines, regardless of their experience or skill set. Who needs what training? Who is responsible for tracking productivity and capturing relevant data? How confident are you in endorsing skills and assigning production teams with limited or imprecise information?

The old way would have led to panic. Today, there’s a better, smarter way. Today’s variable workforce in the manufacturing world is perfectly suited to adopt smart technology that will reduce, if not eliminate, the challenges associated with the labor shortage. Remember that thing we said about opportunity? Here it is.

Stay calm and carry on: smart digital tech can have an immediate and direct impact on learning about and managing worker skills.

Imagine if you could learn about a worker’s skills by tracking their performance in real time, immediately deliver training resources tailored to them based on their proficiency and certifications and then match them confidently to a production team where they’ll make a meaningful contribution. Sound like wishful thinking? It’s not.

Smart connected worker technology can collect data on worker patterns by tracking their performance journeys. It pulls relevant resources from the company inventory to deliver customized training programs. With the right training in place workers are engaged and feel safe while performing tasks. And, your teams are equipped to meet productivity goals.

The labor shortage is just a statistic. A smart connected worker suite is the solution.

Augmentir’s smart connected worker suite closes the gap between training and worker execution. Digitized instruction and skills management programs display and organize workers’ proficiencies based on levels of expertise. AI-driven insights monitor and easily match workers with procedures by assigning skills criteria. This proprietary Smart AI technology intelligently prompts workers for continuous training and accurately identifies appropriate skills endorsements to managers, helping them create better production lines. It’s the only solution of its kind on the market.

Kylene Zenk, Director of the Manufacturing Practice at UKG sees opportunity, too:

“If you can offer training or can tailor a job to meet candidates’ flexible qualifications, filling open headcount becomes more realistic in a tight labor market.”

We couldn’t agree more. Find out more about how and why manufacturers are taking smarter approaches to building a strong talent pipeline with Augmentir. Contact us for a demo today.

Digital Transformation and The Cost of Doing Nothing

Prior to Augmentir, our founding team was involved in founding Wonderware Software in 1987, Lighthammer in 1997, and ThingWorx in 2008. In 2017, we recognized that the technology and market forces were aligned yet again, for a fourth industrial software revolution. A revolution that focused on increasing the productivity and quality of processes involving front-line workers.

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Times have changed since 1985 when relying on tribal knowledge was the only option for a frontline worker, and today, via digital transformation efforts, we are lucky enough to have new technologies and resources that enable frontline workers to do their best work in a complex world. Although taking the steps toward digital transformation can seem scary or overwhelming, the longer you wait and “do nothing”, the more difficult it becomes to modernize. Not having the proper resources or being unsure about the digital transformation process are common hesitations for most organizations.

Beginning your digital transformation is like beginning your journey to the gym after a long day. You can come up with a million excuses for not wanting to get your workout and usually, the hardest part is actually taking the first step to get there. But once you’ve started, you never regret it! According to LNS Research, most manufacturing companies have at least begun their digital transformation journey, and for those that have not, the hardest part is just taking the first step.

Here’s what doing nothing is costing you today.

“Doing nothing” is costing you $234,900 every year with 1 changeover

If you could reduce variability in the execution of one changeover you could save 15,660 hours each year.

If the variability in completing a changeover between 2 operators is 1 hour and a changeover is performed 1/day, you are losing 261 hours each year for 1 operator.

Now, let’s look at shifts – if the average variability between A-shift, and B-Shift is +1 hour and C-Shift is +2 hours – with a total of 20 frontline workers on each shift and each operator performing 1 changeover /day the variability in hours relative to A-Shift is equal to 60 hours every day and 15,660 hours each year.

Multiply that times at the national average of $15/technician, over the course of 1 year, “doing nothing” for just 1 task is costing you $234,900 in employee time alone.

Quantify increased throughput, proficiency, productivity, and quality though frontline digital transformation, and there is even more impact!

“Doing Nothing” for manual data entry is costing you $97,875 per year

If you could save 15 minutes per day for an operator by eliminating data entry, after 1 year you would save your employee 3,915 minutes!

Multiply that time across 100 employees at the national average of $15/technician, “doing nothing” is costing you $97,875 per year.

“Doing Nothing” for apprenticeship programs is costing you $5,742,00

The average time for a new unskilled hire in an apprenticeship program is 2 years. If you could reduce the time that the new hire spends in the apprenticeship by 25%, you would save 1,044 hours for each new worker you hire. Reducing apprenticeship time by 50% would save 2,088 hours for each new hire. Reducing apprenticeship by 50% for 50 unskilled new hires would save you 208,800 hours.

Multiplying that time at the national average of $15/hour across 50 new hires, “doing nothing” to reduce a 2 year apprenticeship program by 50% is costing you $1,566,000.

Quantifying the impact on the skilled workers giving their time to the apprenticeship program, at $40/hour across 50 new hires amounts to an additional $4,176,000.

Why not start today?

If increasing proficiency can pave the way towards frontline worker digital transformation and save you the cost of doing nothing, why wouldn’t you start today?

If reducing variability can pave the way towards frontline worker digital transformation and save you the cost of doing nothing, why wouldn’t you start today?

If one simple digital procedure can pave the way towards frontline worker digital transformation and save you the cost of doing nothing, why wouldn’t you start today?

The business impacts of doing something are clear:

  • Accurate Data Entry
  • Job Visibility
  • Execution variability insight
  • Downstream impact
  • Decrease downtime
  • Increase throughput
  • Reduce/ Eliminate training
  • Easily accessible documentation

With the proper AI-powered Connected Worker tools, your workers become more integrated and you gain access to a new rich source of activity, execution, and tribal data that lead to valuable insights into areas where the largest improvement opportunities exist. AI lays a data-driven foundation for continuous improvement in the areas of performance support, training, and workforce development, setting the stage to address the needs of today’s constantly changing workforce.

If you don’t start now, there’s always going to be something that happens in the next 6 months that will also prevent you. This was a trend that was occurring before the pandemic, but the pandemic has accelerated it greatly. There is pressure to keep up with the new normal and the faster you start the better equipped you will be. You could continue to fight this fire with a firehose and keep it at bay, but the fire isn’t going away until you solve the root problem.

You have an opportunity, right now! Older workers are aging out, and you’re working hard to hire new, young, bright, excited workers. These younger workers expect tech. They’ll embrace change. If not now, when?

National Roots Day – A History of Manufacturing Software Innovation

Prior to Augmentir, our founding team was involved in founding Wonderware Software in 1987, Lighthammer in 1997, and ThingWorx in 2008. In 2017, we recognized that the technology and market forces were aligned yet again, for a fourth industrial software revolution. A revolution that focused on increasing the productivity and quality of processes involving front-line workers.

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National Roots Day is celebrated on December 23rd as a chance to celebrate one’s history, heritage, and ancestry. It’s often said that a combination of each person on one’s family tree helps to shape them into the person they are today.

At Augmentir, we agree that the past is important, and it has definitely shaped Augmentir into the company it is today. This year, we’re using National Roots Day to reflect on our history and how Augmentir came to be the modern Connected Worker platform that you use and trust today. The Augmentir founding team, Russ Fadel, Phil Huber, and Lawrence Fan, has been at the forefront of the most important software technology revolutions. Prior to Augmentir, our founding team was involved in founding Wonderware Software in 1987, Lighthammer in 1997, and ThingWorx in 2008. 

In 2017, the founders of Augmenir recognized that the technology and market forces were aligned yet again, for a fourth industrial software revolution. A revolution that focused on increasing the productivity and quality of processes involving front-line workers. 

Transforming How Machines Run

In 1987, Wonderware transformed how machines run, with the introduction and mass commercialization of Human-Machine Interface software. Wonderware enabled the first software-based industrial revolution and is still in evidence today by Wonderware’s continued leadership position.

Revolutionizing the Factory Floor

In 1997, Lighthammer transformed manufacturing yet again with the introduction of the first Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence platform. Lighthammer revolutionized the factory floor by bringing both real-time intelligence and live synchronization with the ERP software layer. This enabled the second software-based industrial revolution and is still evidenced today by the ubiquity of this software (currently under the SAP MII brand).

Catalyzing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

In 2008, ThingWorx catalyzed the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with the introduction of the first application platform for IIoT. ThingWorx transformed both manufacturing and service, becoming synonymous with Industrie 4.0/Brilliant factory, and Connected Service. This enabled the 3rd software-based industrial revolution and is still evidenced today by the ubiquity of IIoT software and the market leadership of PTC’s ThingWorx brand.

 

Today, at Augmentir, we are continuing this trend of bringing innovative software into the manufacturing sector by focusing on the people that make up such an integral part of the digital transformation equation.

Remote Expert in Field Service – Treating the Cause not the Symptom

As a leader in the connected worker software market, we have experienced the highs and the lows that the pandemic has brought to the industrial frontline worker market. One area that stands out in particular is the equipment field service space. Equipment OEMs typically support the installation, startup, maintenance, and repair of their products through […]

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As a leader in the connected worker software market, we have experienced the highs and the lows that the pandemic has brought to the industrial frontline worker market. One area that stands out in particular is the equipment field service space. Equipment OEMs typically support the installation, startup, maintenance, and repair of their products through some combination of a direct service force, a dealer service network, or their customers. This created a real problem when the COVID pandemic spread since the “instructions” available to support these services were designed for technicians who already knew how to perform the work, and much of the equipment was highly sophisticated requiring visits to the customer site.  OEMs had to quickly find a way to project some type of virtual presence or ‘remote expert’ solution, to mimic being on-site as closely as possible. 

This led to a rush to implement either industrial remote expert tools, enterprise collaboration products like Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams, or consumer products like FaceTime to support field service activities.

While these solutions have been good at providing a short-term band-aid to relieve the symptom, they don’t really address the underlying problem – the lack of rich, interactive workflows that are able to guide technicians with a wide range of skills to perform these tasks safely, correctly, and at an acceptable level of productivity. It’s a similar scenario to taking aspirin to treat a fever from an infection – aspirin may provide short-term relief, but ultimately it masks the presence and reduces the urgency to treat the underlying cause. Without looking forward and taking the next step in the connected worker journey, OEM’s will forever be required to provide 100%, synchronous, live support to make sure these tasks are done correctly and that customers are satisfied.

Achieving Digital Maturity to Reduce Support Costs and Improve Customer Satisfaction 

At Augmentir, we see “Digitally Mature” organizations as those that are continually moving forward on the digital continuum and have the ability to drive continuous improvement through the adoption of tools that help digitally connect their workforce. 

For equipment OEMs, we see digital maturity happening over four stages of the connected worker journey: 

Connected Worker Journey in Field Service

Step 1 – Remote Expert and Assistance

Industrial AR-based remote assistance and remote expert solutions that provide worker guidance and support are a simple first step in the connected worker journey. Designed to be used by field service technicians or customers, these industrial solutions allow companies to provide remote expert support via rich interactive (chat, voice, video) mediums to field techs or customers to solve an immediate need.

Step 2 – Augmented, Guided Instructions 

With a connected workforce, equipment OEMs can drive greater efficiency by digitizing paper-based work instructions and maintenance/repair procedures. Digital work instructions help intelligently guide technicians (or customers) of all skill levels to complete these tasks independently and correctly. 

In this field service scenario, remote expert and assistance plays a supporting role (as it should) to ensure customer satisfaction. Customers have higher satisfaction rates because the work is done on their time schedule and OEMs see a reduction in their direct support costs.  

Step 3 – AI Support Bots

OEMs can drive further service optimization through AI support bots that provide autonomous, digital assistance.

Service technicians that require additional support can benefit from AI bots that autonomously deliver answers to questions, digital content such as drawings, pictures and videos, and rich sets of digital work instructions, to help workers resolve issues and complete the work independently. This allows a portion of customer remote assist requests to be handled autonomously, further increasing customer satisfaction and reducing direct support costs.

Augmentir Remote Assist for Field Service Technicians

Step 4 – AI-based Opportunity Insights

According to LNS Research, 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 for their service delivery. 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.

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 field service workforce development opportunities. This will allow you to answer questions such as:

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

Augmentir’s True Opportunity™ engine 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 customer service metrics.

What is Your Digital Maturity?

Imagine, as you move forward on your connected worker journey, increasing customer satisfaction while reducing support costs, all while making your service delivery more productive – across your direct staff, dealers, or end customers.

Contact us today to take our digital maturity assessment and start your journey towards a digitally connected enterprise.

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