What is a Connected Worker Platform?

Connected worker platforms are digital software tools that help improve the way humans work in industrial settings. These tools are combined with mobile and wearable devices to improve communication, collaboration, guidance, and support in complex industrial scenarios, including manufacturing, construction, energy, mining, and service.

Connected worker solutions take this a step further, encompassing software and more to digitize and optimize production processes to fit the specific needs of a company. Solutions vary depending on the goals of a business and what it hopes to implement.

Connected worker solutions and platforms help industrial companies:

Move from paper-based to digital work instructions
Schedule, assign, and monitor work orders
Optimize complex manufacturing processes and field operations
Deliver effective training, foster collaboration and knowledge sharing
Gain insight into, and improve the performance of their workforce

Connected worker platforms typically include a cloud-based management system used by operations management or production supervisors to create, assign, manage, and monitor the work being done. These platforms are also used by frontline workers to execute the work assigned to them on any mobile device or wearable technology appropriate for the job.

The combination of digital work instructions and real-time support for workers not only provides a complete worker support solution, but also helps operations managers better understand the utilization and efficiency of their workforce and identify opportunities for improvement.

If you want to learn more about connected worker solutions and platforms, explore this article that goes over the following topics:

Why are connected worker platforms critical for today’s industrial companies?
Common use cases for connected worker platforms
AI as a foundational requirement for connected worker platforms
What is a connected worker solution?
Connected worker solutions are transforming the future of industrial work

Why are connected worker platforms critical for today’s industrial companies?

Connected worker platforms are increasingly being used by industrial companies to connect and engage their workforces, and improve worker safety, quality, and productivity. In fact, according to LNS Research, connected workforce programs represent the top initiative within their corporate digital transformation strategy.

Companies across a range of industries, including food and beverage, consumer goods, oil and gas, construction, energy, utilities, and industrial equipment manufacturing are adopting these digital tools to help address some of the biggest challenges in the industry today:

The widening skills gap
The loss of tribal knowledge due to the rapidly retiring workforce
Hiring and retention challenges
An increasingly hybrid and distributed workforce

Connected worker solutions are empowering workers to perform at their best and are helping operations managers to deliver superior results even as the skills variability of their workforce increases.

Furthermore, connecting workers directly into the digital fabric of the business, allows leaders to improve the business processes that surround the company’s workers. Some of these processes include manufacturing execution, quality assurance, product engineering, job estimating, and many more.

Common use cases for connected worker platforms

Connected worker platforms are commonly used by industrial companies to connect, support, and optimize frontline processes for a wide range of use cases. These may include:

Safety
Quality
Maintenance
Operations
Training and workforce development
Employee engagement
Continuous Improvement

AI as a foundational requirement for connected worker platforms

As workers become more digitally connected, companies have access to a new rich source of activity and job execution data. With proper Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, operations leaders can gain insights into areas where the largest improvement opportunities exist.

While capturing this fine-grained human activity data is beneficial, it only solves part of the challenge of helping to improve the productivity and efficiency of frontline workers and driving continuous improvement.

This is where Artificial Intelligence comes in.

The reason artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) is a necessary requirement is due to the nature of human activity data. When humans do things, they generate a relatively noisy set of data, and that is exactly what AI and Machine Learning are well-suited to handle.

AI lays a data-driven foundation for continuous improvement in the areas of productivity, quality, and workforce development. It also sets the stage for addressing the needs of a constantly changing workforce.

Connected worker solutions that are built on an AI foundation are also being used to support continuous improvement and lean initiatives in the workplace. AI is uniquely suited to identifying capturable opportunities from the massive, noisy data set generated by frontline workers. It can serve as the foundation of an organization’s continuous improvement initiatives and improve:

Productivity
Workforce development
Training
Content
Quality

With the foundational elements of augmented, guided work instructions in place, manufacturing companies can guide their frontline workers with contextual information that will help them perform jobs at peak efficiency and solve problems faster.

Connected worker platforms also help organizations capture valuable data not just on the work that is being performed, but also on the activities and interactions that are contributing to the success or performance of certain jobs.

What is a connected worker solution?

While connected worker platforms provide a framework to help improve the performance of frontline workers, connected worker solutions provide a suite of pre-built digital software products that help digitize and optimize those processes to fit the needs of a company.

Connected worker solutions help companies accelerate time-to-value and offer a comprehensive way to continually improve the performance of their frontline teams.

Connected worker solutions are transforming the future of industrial work

Today’s frontline workers represent a large portion of the global workforce, and for the first time, these workers are becoming an integral part of the digital transformation in the industrial sector.

Connected worker solutions that utilize artificial intelligence not only provide intelligent guidance and remote support capabilities for manufacturing and service teams, but also deliver workforce development insights and continuous improvement ideas.

This technology provides a much-needed solution to the new normal in the industrial sector, resulting in productivity, safety, and quality gains.

Interested in learning how Augmentir can help make your workforce a connected workforce? Get in touch with us for a free demo.