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Why You Should Be Thankful For AI in Manufacturing This Year

Being thankful for AI might not seem like one of the usual items to include on your “What I’m Thankful For” list, but, AI truly has laid the foundation for not only the Augmentir platform, but for transforming the manufacturing workforce in positive ways

Every year as Thanksgiving approaches in the United States, we take time to reflect on what we are thankful for in our personal lives, such as family, friends, and health to name a few. As we started thinking about what we’re thankful for from a work perspective here at Augmentir, many things came to mind: our wonderful clients, an awesome team, our incredible founders, but one item high on our list is something that has allowed us to stand out in the Connected Worker platform space and make our product what it is today – Artificial Intelligence. Specifically AI in manufacturing. 

Being thankful for AI might not seem like one of the usual items to include on your “What I’m Thankful For” list, but, AI in manufacturing truly has laid the foundation for not only the Augmentir platform, but for transforming the workforce in positive ways as you’ll see below.

Improved Safety in the Workplace

One of the most common use cases for adopting AI has been in workplace screening and safety primarily as a result of the pandemic. Manufacturers found use in AI to monitor interactions of employees that needed to be in person on the shop floor during the pandemic so that they could conduct contact tracing and facility sanitization if necessary. Seeing the value of AI in workplace safety, manufacturers have continued to implement AI strategies for long-term solutions to identify safety events before they happen or to speed up post-incident root cause analysis for accidents like trips and falls. Industrial companies that implement AI-powered connected worker solutions as part of their digital transformation strategy have seen up to an 80% decrease in reportable injuries.

Connecting the Frontline Worker

According to Cisco, there are over 3 billion workers across the globe, and nearly two-thirds of these workers are frontline or field workers, whose day-to-day duties require that they physically show up to their jobs. Over the years, the manufacturing industry has done a really good job of connecting machines in the fabric of the business and giving operators the necessary data to help run those machines better. Our frontline workers 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 have access to the data that they need, when they need it. AI-powered connected worker tools provide not only a path to connect workers, but also intelligently deliver the right level of performance support so they can perform at their best.

Making Sense of Valuable Data

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. AI algorithms in manufacturing are ideal for analyzing large amounts of data collected from a connected workforce. AI can detect patterns, find outliers, cleanse data and find correlations and patterns that can be used to identify opportunities for improvement and create a data-driven environment that supports continuous learning and performance support. Using AI insights derived from Augmentir’s Connected Worker Platform, Colgate-Palmolive was able to save 10-30 minutes saved per shift and as much as 120 minutes reduced between Maintenance Notification and Maintenance Order Closure (Maintenance Execution Time).

Continuous Learning & Development

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. Implementing AI in manufacturing training 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 on-demand 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.

 

At Augmentir we believe that the purpose of a Connected Worker platform isn’t simply to deliver digital work 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 – and that’s something to be thankful for.

 

To learn more about how AI is being used to digitize and modernize manufacturing operations, check out our latest eBook – Build a Modern, Connected Workforce with AI.

How Digital Transformation Shapes the Future of Food Manufacturing

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.

Last week, Augmentir participated as a sponsor in the 2021 American Food Manufacturing Summit. This 3-day virtual event was designed to bring food and beverage manufacturers together to discuss current trends, strategic insights, and best practices in an ever-evolving environment. The event focused on addressing today’s top challenges and future of food processing and manufacturing, specifically around embracing digital transformation and technology for manufacturing excellence. Attendees were able to connect with top industry influencers and learn about different strategies to improve automation, operational excellence, quality, and safety in the food manufacturing industry through open roundtables and 1:1 meetings.

Augmentir’s Enablement Director, Shannon Bennett, hosted an open roundtable discussion on the role digital transformation plays in food and beverage manufacturing, and how technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and connected worker platforms are helping companies kick-start their digital transformation efforts. During the discussion, Shannon opened the floor to the attendees to discuss the day-to-day challenges they face at their manufacturing organizations and the tools they’re looking into to solve those challenges. 

Solving Manufacturing’s Biggest Challenges with AI and Connected Worker Technology

The roundtable consisted of executives and manufacturing leaders from some of the world’s largest food and beverage companies to smaller family-owned and operated specialty food and beverage manufacturers. Throughout the roundtable, we heard the same challenges and frustrations related to standardization, moving from paper to digital processes, data collection, lack of traceability, and an overall need for digital transformation.

The overarching roundtable discussion was around digital transformation. Food and beverage manufacturers are accelerating the pace of digitization to address their top challenges – the labor crisis, increasing skills gap, and increased pressure for improved production efficiency, changes in consumer demands, and increased regulatory compliance related to food safety.

Moving from Paper to Digital

During our roundtable discussion, most of the manufacturing leaders were in the discovery phase of their modernizing process, where they were beginning to look into digital solutions to solve their challenges around manual processes and efforts to reduce paper. Some of the discussion around paper included issues with quality on the shop floor and wanting to go paperless, easier access to training for employees, lack of traceability (for example, maintenance schedules need more visibility of completion, where issues arise, and more transparency all around), and digitizing information from a quality standpoint.

Digital work instructions reduce the need for paper and deliver information to frontline workers when and where they need it. This provides frontline workers with a standardized way of performing technical work.

Lack of Data-Driven Insights into the Work Being Done

Another key challenge was the lack of insight into how workers were performing their jobs – whether it be in quality, equipment operation, or maintenance. One participant discussed labor challenges in their organization and that when they collect data it often gets lost and when they come back to it, they don’t know or remember why they’ve collected it in the first place.

Connecting workers with digital tools is merely a first step in the process of truly understanding and getting clarity on the work being done. Connected Worker data is inherently noisy, generating misleading signals that traditional business intelligence (BI) tools aren’t designed to handle. This leads to murky or contradictory conclusions that prevent organizations from taking anything but a “one size fits all” approach to work process and workforce investments. Or, even worse, false conclusions are generated about the state of work process and workforce opportunities, leading to targeted investments into the wrong areas.

The discussion shifted to AI as a solution not only bringing clarity to the work being done, but also more generally democratization of the workplace, and giving employees the tools to use data effectively to improve manufacturing operations. AI is designed for purpose to recognize patterns in the noisy data sets generated by a factory workforce, letting your continuous improvement and operations teams focus on what’s really going on.

Training

Employee onboarding and training was also a hot topic of discussion. Many participants spoke about manual processes and how traditional training methods are proving to be ineffective.  Traditionally, there was a clear separation between training and work execution. However, many participants shared that they are starting to re-think how they are training and onboarding their workers, and shifting more towards delivering training at the moment of need. The roundtable participants discussed at length approaches and strategies for re-thinking how training is delivered for today’s workforce.

Build a Modern, Connected Workforce with AI

To address these challenges, the roundtable participants overwhelmingly agreed that digital transformation initiatives for food manufacturing should start by focusing on streamlining data collection and digitizing valuable data. Using an AI-powered connected worker platform to accelerate this effort not only furthers a company’s digital transformation efforts, but also provides a whole new set of data that can provide really interesting insights and optimization opportunities. AI doesn’t remove the human worker from the equation, but rather, takes the human worker and embeds them into the digital operation.

 

To learn more about how AI is being used to digitize and modernize manufacturing operations, check out our latest eBook – Build a Modern, Connected Workforce with AI.

 

AI Manufacturing 2021 – Event Recap

After more than a year of virtual conferences, we were finally able to participate in person at the AI Manufacturing conference in Dallas early this November and discuss how AI is shaping the future of the manufacturing workforce.

After more than a year of virtual conferences, we were finally able to participate in person at the AI Manufacturing conference in Dallas early this November. This year’s event was hybrid, face-to-face on November 3 and 4th, and virtually on November 5th. While it was refreshing to be able to network face to face with leaders in the Manufacturing industry, it was great to have the opportunity to also network virtually on November 5th. If you aren’t familiar with the AI Manufacturing conference, this conference is the leading Artificial Intelligence event for Manufacturing Industries. This year’s event focused on:

  • The use of AI to Improve Quality, Reduce Defects, and Increase Profits
  • Developing a Digital Twin to Optimize Plant Operations
  • Using Building Blocks to Modernize Manufacturing Activities and Facilitate Growth
  • Designing  Products Enabled by Additive and Hybrid Manufacturing Techniques
  • Exploring the Use of AI in Industrial Attacks and Defense

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

Dave Landreth, Augmentir’s Head of Customer Strategy had the opportunity to present on “Using AI to Unlock to the True Potential of Today’s Connected Workforce”. In this session, he discussed the variability of the workforce with generations, how they need to be trained differently, and how AI can assist in worker proficiency. Dave also discussed Bob Mosher’s 5 moments of need and how AI can be applied at the time of learning. 

The Misunderstood Fear of AI

Our founders saw that the humanistic approach was missing with traditional connected worker platforms and realized that AI was the key to saving the manufacturing world and unlocking worker potential. However, companies are reluctant to adopt AI in fear that automation will take over and eventually replace human workers in manufacturing. Others fear that AI would be used negatively to track workers, in a “big brother” type of way.  

As we’ve seen with our customers, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. When AI is leveraged ethically with the workforce in mind, it can be used to help improve and ultimately grow the talent of your workers. Assessing workers on their performance has been done for years through subjective performance reviews. Using AI allows the assessments to be based on data and can provide a path forward for worker improvement and continued growth. 

Understanding Today’s Struggles Within Manufacturing

Manufacturing workforce challenges

The struggles that manufacturers face today aren’t the same struggles that were present 40 years ago. One of the number one issues in manufacturing is hiring. Today, most manufacturers believe that hiring is a risk, with a limited pool of candidates. They are struggling with employees who don’t have the needed skill set and are questioning how they can train them and evaluate their performance. 

Manufacturing companies also struggle with retaining employees. We are all aware of the workforce retention issues right now. Employees are feeling like they aren’t heard and that they can’t contribute to the company, which causes them to look for a new career. There is also the struggle of thoughtful upskilling, meaning that formal training programs only recognize one type of worker. The average manufacturing plant sees 4 generations of workers, ranging from those fresh out of high school to the ones that have worked on a plant floor for 40+ years. Different generations learn differently and require different levels of support. There isn’t a one size fits all approach for teaching different generations. 

Another challenge with the workforce that isn’t as obvious, is with mergers and acquisitions. An acquisition means that companies now consist of two workforces doing things differently and needing to understand what part of procedures from the newly acquired company is worth incorporating into the existing procedures.

Leveraging AI to Help Build and Grow a Top Performing Workforce

Build and grow a top performing manufacturing workforce

AI is uniquely suited to solve these challenges, and we recognized that early on at Augmentir. We started looking at how AI could help build and grow a top performing workforce. One way AI can help is the ability to hire for potential by increasing the hiring of candidates to those not as skilled. AI allows companies to understand a worker’s skillset and provides the ability for personalized workflows to guide them in the context of work while they are doing their job, whether it’s a new worker or one with dozens of years of experience. AI can also help with the “Right person – Right Job – Right Time” approach – always ensuring that the correct person is performing the task at the most efficient time. 

The use of AI allows all workers to contribute by allowing inline feedback to optimize work procedures. In addition, AI can be used to ensure personalized career job competency allows workers to be hired even if they do not have the optimal set of skills and experience. Measuring a worker’s proficiency when they are completing the work allows the worker to focus on each specific step and guides them at the time of need, instead of during classroom training. AI provides workers with predictive and stable data to help them grow in their roles. Having a data-driven way to measure success and provide advancement opportunities helps establish career paths as well as opportunities to grow. 

With an AI-based onboarding approach, organizations are able to hire a wider range of individuals with varying skill sets. If we can teach someone in the context of doing their work, onboarding time is reduced due to being able to train them in the field. We also see an increase in productivity and are constantly evolving their learnings. When workers feel included and confident about their careers, they are also more likely to want to stay and grow with the company. The ability to train workers in the field while doing their jobs with AI personalization allows you to clearly and quickly assess how a worker is doing, where you focus the help to them, and driving those 1:1 work procedures is a game-changer.

AI in Manufacturing will solve many of the challenges that we are seeing. 

Learning & Development and the 5 Moments of Need

The Five Moments of Need methodology was created by Bob Mosher, a thought leader in learning and development with over 30 years of experience. He realized that after 20 years, classroom teaching was the wrong approach since it rarely teaches you things that you do in your job on the shop floor. Classroom learning allows an individual to gain a certain level of confidence, but quickly falls off when it’s time to apply it within context to a given workflow.  

According to Bob’s methodology, the 5 moments when our workforce needs knowledge and information consists of: 

  • When people are learning how to do something for the first time (New).
  • When people are expanding the breadth and depth of what they have learned (More).
  • When they need to act upon what they have learned, which includes planning what they will do, remembering what they may have forgotten, or adapting their performance to a unique situation (Apply).
  • When problems arise, or things break or don’t work the way they were intended (Solve).
  • When people need to learn a new way of doing something, which requires them to change skills that are deeply ingrained in their performance practices (Change).

The approach that Bob and his team adopted in the last 10 years is to think more about performance support. The variability of the workforce, both skilled and young, proves that there’s not a one size fits all approach. This is where AI comes in: being able to deliver personalized work procedures for every worker, allowing for continuous learning and growth. Based on proficiency, there may be a more guided set of work instructions, a session with a remote expert, or a supervisor sign-off required in order to complete the job on quality and on schedule. AI can also be used to continuously measure and assess how the workers are doing. This is where organizations can start seeing growth within their workforce.

Looking Ahead

We had a blast at this year’s AI Manufacturing conference and are already looking forward to another successful event next year! If you’re interested in learning more about why AI is an essential tool in digital transformation, from reducing costs and downtime to improving over quality and productivity, we’d highly suggest considering attending next year. In the meantime, if you’re looking for information surrounding AI, digital transformation, and building a connected workforce, check out our eBook: “Building a Modern, Connected Workforce with AI”.

The Great Resignation in Manufacturing

Recently, Augmentir completed a rigorous qualification audit as part of a Tier 1 Pharmaceutical Manufacturing company’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), and we are pleased to announce that our product successfully passed the audit.

A recent article published by The Washington Post shows some shocking numbers on the amount of Americans leaving their jobs over the past year. It’s no surprise that hotel and restaurant workers are resigning in high numbers due to the pandemic, but what is surprising is the fact that the manufacturing industry has been hit the hardest with “a nearly 60 percent jump” compared to pre-pandemic numbers. This “Great Resignation in Manufacturing” is the most of any industry, including hospitality, retail, and restaurants, which have seen about a 30% jump in resignations.

However, if you dig deeper, this trend isn’t new. This recent increase in job quitting in manufacturing has simply magnified a problem that had already been brewing for years, even prior to the start of the pandemic. In fact, in the four years prior to the pandemic (2015-2019), the average tenure rate in manufacture had decreased by 20% (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).

This accelerating workforce crisis is placing increased pressure on manufacturers and creating significant operational problems. The sector that was already stressed with a tight labor market, rapidly retiring baby-boomer generation, and the growing skills gap is now facing an increasingly unpredictable and diverse workforce. The variability in the workforce is making it difficult, if not impossible to meet safety and quality standards, or productivity goals. 

Manufacturing leaders’ new normal consists of shorter tenures, an unpredictable workforce, and the struggle to fill an unprecedented number of jobs. These leaders in the manufacturing sector are facing this reality and looking for ways to adjust to their new normal of building a flexible, safe and appealing workforce. As a result, managers are being forced to rethink traditional onboarding and training processes.  In fact, the entire “Hire to Retire” process needs to be re-imagined. It’s not the same workforce that our grandfather’s experienced, and it’s time for a change.

The Augmented, Flexible Workforce of the Future

The reality is that this problem is not going away. The Great Resignation in manufacturing has created a permanent shift, and manufacturers must begin to think about adapting their hiring, onboarding, and training processes to support the future workforce in manufacturing – an Augmented, Flexible Workforce.

What does this mean?

  • It means adopting new software tools to support a more efficient “hire to retire” process to enable companies to operate in a more flexible and resilient manner.
  • It means starting to understand your workforce at an individual level and using data to intelligently closes skills gaps at the moment of need and enables autonomous work.
  • And it means taking advantage of data.  More specifically, real-time workforce intelligence that can provide insights into training, guidance, and support needs.

Investing in AI-powered connected worker technology is one way to boost this operational resiliency. Many manufacturing companies are using digital Connected Worker technology and AI to transform how they hire, onboard, train, and deliver on-the-job guidance and support. AI-based connected worker software provides a data-driven approach that helps train, guide, and support today’s dynamic workforces by combining digital work instructions, remote collaboration, and advanced on-the-job training capabilities. 

As workers become more connected, manufacturers 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 performance support, training, and workforce development, setting the stage to address the needs of today’s constantly changing workforce. Today’s workers embrace change and expect technology, support and modern tools to help them do their jobs.

 

To learn more about how AI is being used to digitize and modernize manufacturing operations, contact us for a personalized demo.

Paperless Manufacturing: Your Guide to Transitioning to a Paperless Factory

Learn about the best practices for optimal asset maintenance performance and how to track your assets to ensure that everything is in working condition.

Manually managing and tracking production in manufacturing has become a thing of the past. That’s because manufacturers are adopting a new digital approach: paperless manufacturing.

Paperless manufacturing uses software to manage shop floor execution, digitize work instructions, execute workflows, automate record-keeping and scheduling, and communicate with shop floor employees. More recently, this approach also digitizes skills tracking and performance assessments for shop floor workers to help optimize workforce onboarding, training, and ongoing management. This technology is made up of cloud-based software, mobile and wearable technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, and advanced analytics.

paperless manufacturing and digital factory

Paperless manufacturing software uses interactive screens, dashboards, data collection, sensors, and reporting filters to show real-time insights into your factory operations. If you want to learn more about paperless manufacturing processes, explore this guide to learn about the following:

What is a paperless factory?

A paperless factory uses AI-powered software to manage production, keep track of records, and optimize jobs being executed on the shop floor. Paperless manufacturing is intended to replace written record-keeping as well as paper-based work instructions, checklists, and SOPs, and keep track of records digitally.

For example, in most manufacturing operations, everything from quality inspections to operator rounds and planned and autonomous maintenance is done on a regular basis to make sure factory equipment is operating properly and quality and safety standards are met. In most manufacturing plants, these activities are done manually with paper-based instructions, checklists, or forms.

Operators and shop floor workers in paperless factories use software to execute work procedures and see production tasks in ordered sequences, which enables them to implement tasks accordingly. Workers are able to view operating procedures, or digital work instructions, using mobile devices (wearables, tablets, etc.) in real-time.

benefits of digital work instructions

Furthermore, paperless manufacturing incorporates the digitization of shop floor training, skills tracking, certifications, and assessments.  This digital approach uses skills management software helps optimize HR-based processes that were previously managed via paper or spreadsheets, and includes the ability to:

  • Create, track, and manage employee skills
  • Instantly visualize the skills gaps in your team
  • Schedule or assign jobs based on worker skill level and proficiency
  • Close skill gaps with continuous learning
  • Make data-driven drive operational decisions

digital skills management in a paperless factory

What are the benefits of going paperless in manufacturing?

There are a number of reasons for factories to go paperless, from cost-effectiveness to increased productivity and sustainability. A paperless system can revolutionize production processes, workforce management, and business operations.

Here are the top benefits of going paperless:

  1. Accelerate employee onboarding: By digitizing onboarding and moving training into the flow of work, manufacturers can reduce new hire onboarding time by 82%.
  2. Increase productivity: Digitizing manufacturing operations means no more manual, paper-based data collection or record-keeping. Workers have more time to run their equipment, execute shop floor tasks, and find solutions to problems.
  3. Boost data accuracy: People are prone to making mistakes, but digital data capture and validation can help offset human error and improve accuracy.
  4. Improved workforce management: Digital skills tracking and AI-based workforce analytics can help optimize production operations and maximize worker output.
  5. Manage real-time operations: Human-machine interface systems eliminate the need for paper, files, and job tickets. This means that workers can analyze inventory and other data in real-time.
  6. Save money: Although going paperless means that the cost of paper is eliminated, the savings extend beyond that. With greater productivity, operations in real-time, and improved production optimization, costs can be reduced in many areas.

How do you go paperless in manufacturing?

Going paperless starts with digitizing activities across the factory floor to increase productivity, and extending that value through a digital connection between the shop floor and enterprise manufacturing systems. We lay out below the four basic steps for how to go paperless in manufacturing:

Step 1: Digitize and connect your frontline operations.

Paperless manufacturing starts with the use of modern, digital tools that can connect, digitize, and optimize what your employees know and how they are doing on the job. Solutions that incorporate enhanced mobile capabilities and combine training and skills tracking with connected worker technology and on-the-job digital guidance can deliver significant additional value. A key requirement to start is to identify high-value use cases that can benefit from digitization, such as quality control or inspection procedures, lockout tagout procedures, safety reporting, or autonomous maintenance procedures.

Step 2: Augment your workers with AI and Connected Worker technology.

AI-based connected worker solutions can help both digitize work instructions and deliver that guidance in a way that is personalized to the individual worker and their performance. AI Bots that leverage generative AI and GPT-like AI models can assist workers with language translation, feedback, on-demand answers, access to knowledge through natural language, and provide a comprehensive digital performance support tool.

As workers become more connected, companies have access to a rich source of job activity, execution, and tribal data, and with proper AI tools can gain insights into areas where the largest improvement opportunities exist.

Pro Tip

Frontline operations software like Augmentir’s Connected Worker Solution helps you digitize and optimize the operations of your facility. Digitally manage safety, quality, operations, and maintenance procedures, skill requirements, training, and KPIs all through a visual interface. Connected worker solutions help digitally integrate your shop floor operations.

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Step 3: Set up IoT sensors for machine health monitoring.

The industrial Internet of Things (IoT) uses sensors to boost manufacturing processes. IoT sensors are connected through the web using wireless or 4G/5G networks to transmit data right from the shop floor. The use of machine health monitoring tools along with connected worker technology can provide a comprehensive shop floor solution.

Step 4: Connect your frontline to your enterprise.

Digitally connected frontline operations solutions not only enable industrial companies to digitize work instructions, checklists, and SOPs, but also allow them to create digital workflows and integrations that fully incorporate the frontline workers into the digital thread of their business.

The digital thread represents a connected data flow across a manufacturing enterprise – including people, systems, and machines. By incorporating the activities and data from these previously disconnected workers, business processes are accelerated, and this new source of data provides newfound opportunities for innovation and improvement.

 

Augmentir provides a unique Connected Worker solution that uses AI to help manufacturing companies intelligently onboard, train, guide, and support frontline workers so each worker can contribute at their individual best, helping achieve production goals in today’s era of workforce disruption.

Our solution is a SaaS-based suite of software tools that helps customers digitize and optimize all frontline processes including Autonomous and Preventive Maintenance, Quality, Safety, and Assembly.

paperless factory

 

Transform how your company runs its frontline operations. Request a live demo today!

 

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Dust Away One-Size-Fits-All Work Instructions

AI-powered technology may be the missing puzzle piece for today’s workforce crisis.

Are you still printing work instructions and operating manuals? If so, we need to have a serious chat! Maybe you invested in “going digital” a while back and think your work is done. You’re not alone. It was considered “groundbreaking” when PDF files made their way to the factory floor. 

The first generation of digital work instructions were birthed after learning 46 percent of field technicians claimed paperwork and administrative tasks were the worst part of their day-to-day job. No argument here. Completing and filing paperwork is time-consuming and there is potential for lost information. There was an obvious upside to going digital, except for no longer being able to tell your supervisor that your dog ate your worker performance report. 

But even now that technology is ready for the archives. An estimated $1.3 trillion (and counting!) has been spent on digital transformation initiatives as the online connected workplace and market continue to move at a rapid pace. 

We are no fortune tellers, but studies show that 25 to 31 percent of 3.3. million business service jobs will be automated in the next decade. This doesn’t mean everyone is being replaced by robots. On the contrary. It means technology is improving to help workers do their jobs even better. Manufacturing companies need to be prepared to hop on this next-generation train if they aren’t already.

Move over one-size-fits-all training and work instructions 

The individualized, real-time, connected worker platform is here. Let us emphasize individualized. Connected worker platforms are being implemented in myriad industries, from automotive to food processing. Any industry which is adapting daily to the constant shifts and pressures of the global economy. Regardless of the industry, standard digital work instructions are no longer effective. They do not reflect the real-time changes happening in the operation, such as order fulfilment and materials inventory, or equipment maintenance needs and the capabilities of the workers operating the machines. Imagine working on the manufacturing floor for five years and handed with the same standardized work instructions as the new hire.

Does this make sense? Not anymore. Not when AI-based technology is changing what’s possible. And what’s different about this latest wave of technology that makes it so special? It’s built around optimizing the performance of people (Gasp.)

Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. – John C. Maxwell

A marriage made in heaven–the next generation of workers is ready for a digitally connected workplace

Recruiting and retaining talented workers is one of the greatest challenges facing operations today. We get it. But there’s good news. As one generation of workers readies for retirement, another is stepping up to fill the gap. Gen Z is overflowing with talented innovators in the tech world having grown up surrounded by non-stop advancements and devices. Need one of them to look somebody up in the phone book? Forget it. But need assistance when your home computer suddenly “dies”? These are your people. 

It’s more than video games. Their education has been largely based on a digital foundation. Nearly every function of their daily lives has an element of connectivity to the broader online world. You could say this generation is hardwired to respond best to customized digital learning platforms. It’s their love language. And so the potential to drastically improve productivity is real.

The beauty of the digitally connected worker–could they be “the One”?

The digitally connected worker has all the right stuff for a long-lasting relationship with your operation. The digital training and work instruction platform holds their unique inventory of skills, goals, and performance history, and works with them to become a better version of themselves on the floor. Workers whose individual needs are supported are better, more engaged employees. They have the self-confidence – as well as the tools and specific instructions – to address problems head on when they arise. An investment in AI-powered technology is an investment in a stable, adaptable, and reliable workforce.

Are you and your workforce ready to take this next step in digitization? Contact Augmentir to start the conversation. Together let’s step into the full potential that this generation has to offer to improve your operational efficiency.

Webinar: Delivering Effective Performance Support through Workflow Learning

Today’s industrial workforce is changing in real-time – who shows up, what their skills are, what jobs they need to do, is a constantly moving target. The traditional “one size fits all” approach to training, guidance, and performance support is fundamentally incapable of enabling today’s workers to function at their individual peak of safety, quality […]

Today’s industrial workforce is changing in real-time – who shows up, what their skills are, what jobs they need to do, is a constantly moving target. The traditional “one size fits all” approach to training, guidance, and performance support is fundamentally incapable of enabling today’s workers to function at their individual peak of safety, quality and productivity.

Watch the recording of our recent virtual roundtable of industry leaders as they discussed proven approaches to delivering performance support and modern training approaches for today’s industrial workforce.

 

The Top 100 Entrepreneurs of 2022

Recently, Augmentir completed a rigorous qualification audit as part of a Tier 1 Pharmaceutical Manufacturing company’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), and we are pleased to announce that our product successfully passed the audit.

Alumni Spotlight recently announced The Top 100 Entrepreneurs of 2022, which recognizes innovative and devoted entrepreneurs dedicated to driving economic growth across the country, stimulating new employment opportunities in nearly every industry. In addition, those selected have shown dedication to further developing technologies that bring progress, economic growth, community development, and income generation for a brighter future. We are excited to announce that Augmentir’s CEO and Co-Founder, Russ Fadel, was named as one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs of 2022! 

Russ graduated from Duke University with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. After graduating, he went on to found four successful manufacturing software companies prior to Augmentir including Wonderware Software in 1987, Lighthammer (acquired by SAP) in 1997, and in 2008 ThingWorx (acquired by PTC). In 2017, Russ recognized that the most important asset, the human workers, were under-served. He co-founded Augmentir, the world’s only AI-powered Connected Worker platform, designed to increase the productivity and quality of processes involving frontline workers.

Since 2017, Augmentir has helped close the rapidly expanding skills gap in the industrial frontline workforce through the use of Artificial Intelligence, providing personalized guidance and support to manufacturing and service workers, enabling them to perform complex operational and maintenance tasks at their personal best. The suite of AI-powered connected worker tools helps industrial companies to deliver effective skills management, training, collaboration, and point of work support for today’s more dynamic industrial workforce. Augmentir’s software platform is already being used worldwide by leading industrial companies and organizations, including Colgate-Palmolive, Cisco, Baker Hughes, the U.S. Air Force, and Hunter Industries to digitize and optimize frontline work and deliver significant growth and continuous improvement in the areas of manufacturing, maintenance, service, and quality. Thanks to Russ’s leadership and guidance, Augmentir entered 2022 with triple revenue growth and is expanding its next generation Connected Worker offering globally.

 

To learn more about how AI is being used to digitize and modernize manufacturing operations, contact us for a personalized demo.