Posts

How to Improve Production Quality in Manufacturing

It’s vital that customers receive products that are free of defects. Learn 5 steps for improving production quality and how the right software can help.

Unexpected product quality issues can be a hassle to manage, especially when staff is stuck with processing time-consuming complaints, replacements, and refunds. Even worse, the impact on your bottom line can be substantial.

Manufacturers risk a significant cut to their profit margins when quality standards are not followed during the production process. To improve quality on the shop floor, plant managers need to pinpoint the root cause of quality issues.

Explore this article to learn how to start boosting your industrial processes today:

improve production quality in manufacturing

 

What is Production Quality

Production quality, or manufacturing quality, measures how well a manufacturing process develops products to fit design specifications. Manufacturers must devise a plan for how they want specific items to appear and function before creating them. This can include things like colors, durability, range of motion, measurements, and more. How well a product is made will depend on meeting these conditions.

After the design is planned, a number of factors can affect production quality, including:

  • Equipment/machines
  • Materials
  • Batch size
  • Human mistakes
  • Environmental issues
Pro Tip

Frontline workers often witness quality issues on the factory floor. They are effectively a “human sensor” in the manufacturing process and can readily identify issues that need to be addressed. Today, recording data and resolving those quality issues is most often a manual and paper-based process. As such, there is minimal data collection, latency in resolving the issue, and little-to-no feedback to the frontline worker on resolution.

Equipping workers with mobile and digital tools can help optimize production quality.

A

5 steps to improve production quality

Although there may not be one single method for improving manufacturing quality, there are steps you can take to maximize success.

Here are five steps that should be part of your strategy.

Step 1: Assess your current workflow.

Start by reviewing your existing manufacturing processes. We encourage management to ask the following questions as part of their review:

  • What quality benchmarks do you hope to achieve for each product?
  • How much money have you lost from material, energy waste, and wasted time due to quality problems?
  • What is your margin for improvement?
  • What quality standards are implemented in the creation of products?
  • Is your equipment inter-connected with different databases, or just a single database?

We recommend connecting your factory devices to one central database with a cloud-based, connected worker solution that operations management can use to create, assign, manage, and monitor the work being done. This kind of software can help streamline operational processes and track results in real-time.

Step 2: Remove unneeded processes.

Once you’ve accessed your current workflow and set up a connected worker solution to collect frontline worker data, we recommend coupling it with AI-powered analytics that can derive actionable insights. Then you can use these actionable, data-led insights to see which processes are adding value and which ones are not.

quality manufacturing data collection

Step 3: Boost worker training.

It’s important to maintain regular employee training and skills development programs to ensure workers are staying on top of industry best practices, equipment upkeep, and product knowledge. AI-powered connected worker solutions make learning more accessible, engaging, and effective.

Step 4: Create quality goals.

Developing quality goals is a great way to measure product benchmarks, production time, material usage, labor cost, working hours, and more. By digitizing and standardizing quality processes, you’ll be able to see which manufacturing processes are adding to your bottom line and which can be eliminated to bring value to the customer.

Step 5: Cut production waste.

Cutting waste from your production run can improve your business’s supply chain management. Connected worker solutions can identify which processes aren’t needed to reduce waste. It also gives real-time visibility into your supply chain to help you manage supply problems, optimize manufacturing processes, and adjust production schedules.

FAQs about improving production quality

How can the quality of the manufacturing industry be improved?

Measuring your current production processes to see which methods work can help improve product quality and increase the value of goods manufacturers make. You can strengthen the processes related to production by digitizing and automating them. Implementing a connected worker solution that offers real-time insights helps ensure that all goods meet quality standards and compliance criteria.

How do you ensure product quality in manufacturing?

There are a number of factors that can ensure product quality in manufacturing. We recommend following the five steps listed above to minimize defects as well as improve workflow and output.

What are 5 ways to improve production quality?

Assessing your current workflow, eliminating needless production processes, boosting work training, creating quality goals, and cutting production waste can all help improve production quality (see list above for a full description of each, as well as how implementing a connected worker solution can boost their overall impact).

Why is quality improvement important in manufacturing?

Enhancing production quality in manufacturing is a must as the industry moves towards fully connected enterprises, digital transformation, and automation. Businesses risk huge profit losses when quality standards are neglected in the creation of each product.

Digitize and Improve Production Quality with Augmentir

By digitizing and standardizing quality protocols, organizations can maintain compliance through an auditable and verifiable quality management system that gives workers access to the correct procedures as they need them with expert guidance. This ensures that tasks are performed in a standard manner to avoid errors on the production floor, reduce defects, and decrease resources lost to rework.

Refining your manufacturing methods can be difficult without the right technology. Augmentir’s AI-based connected worker solution makes streamlining and optimizing your production and quality procedures easier than ever before. Get in touch for a live demo today and learn why manufacturers are choosing Augmentir to help standardize and digitize quality processes!

 

See Augmentir in Action
Get in Touch for a Personalized Demo

 

Book A Demo

Benefits of Manufacturing SOPs and How to Write Them

Learn how to write manufacturing SOPs and the benefits of having standard operating procedures in a manufacturing operation.

Standard operating procedures, or SOPs, will change the way you run your manufacturing operations.

SOPs are imperative to a properly organized management structure. They are step-by-step guidelines workers must follow when carrying out tasks to standardize work and are designed to meet industry regulations.

Essentially, they provide general info about assignments, including the tools, methods, or machinery needed to complete projects. SOPs indicate what the task is, who will perform it, how it should be completed, and when it should be completed.

manufacturing sop

For example, manufacturers may write SOPs for employee training to reduce risk and injury. Leadership may also use procedures to assign goals and measure employee performance.

Read on to find out more about the benefits of manufacturing SOPs and how to write them by exploring the following topics:

Advantages of Implementing Standard Operating Procedures

According to Forbes, a comprehensive SOP keeps workers on the same page and improves efficiency and accuracy. Without documented procedures, there is no way to set proper standardized processes and workers might try to complete jobs in non-standard methods, which leads to disruptions in the production processes and causes all sorts of quality issues in a manufacturing environment. Thankfully, SOPs work to prevent that from happening.

Some of the advantages of using SOPs include:

  • Meets regulatory compliance: Product inspectors constantly ask to review SOPs when conducting audits. These serve as the point of reference for whether specific measures followed meet industry guidelines.
  • Standardizes tasks: The point of written procedures is to establish a standard way of completing tasks. They enable tasks to be performed in the same way across the company.
  • Improves accountability and tracking: SOPs define who is responsible for a work order, maintenance check or inspection. This reporting can improve accountability across departments. If a task wasn’t completed accordingly or a procedure was missed, management can take necessary steps to prevent it from happening again.
Pro Tip

Digitized SOPs can further improve tracking and traceability features, helping manufacturers comply with regulations and quality standards. With digital SOPs it becomes easier to maintain records of every step in the production process, including who performed each task and when.

A

How to write a manufacturing SOP

Writing a comprehensive set of SOPs can help workers perform tasks in the safest and most efficient way possible. Although there isn’t an official way to write procedures, you can follow certain steps to make them more effective:

Step 1: Establish a goal.

It’s important to think about what you want your SOP to accomplish. Regardless if you’re starting a new process or improving an existing one, figuring out the end goal will make it easier to complete the document.

Step 2: Pick a format.

There are different formats you can use to write your document: step-by-step, hierarchical, narrative, etc. We recommend the sequential step-by-step format for its straightforwardness.

Step 3: Write the procedures.

Make sure your procedures are clear, concise, current, consistent, and complete.

Step 4: Review and update.

It’s important to review your SOP for any discrepancies and update them if necessary. Consider asking fellow leaders knowledgeable in procedure creation to read them over.

Why SOPs are Important in Manufacturing

Compliance with manufacturing SOPs is crucial for a number of reasons, including:

  • Prevents accidents and ensures worker safety
  • Promotes worker consistency
  • Improves product quality
  • Protects your business’s reputation

SOPs are a critical component of manufacturing operations because they provide a structured framework for achieving consistent quality, safety, and efficiency in the production process. They help manufacturers meet regulatory requirements, reduce errors, and ensure that employees are trained to perform tasks consistently and safely.

Digitizing Manufacturing SOPs with Connected Worker Solutions

Using connected worker technologies to create digital SOPs can significantly improve their impact on manufacturing by enhancing accessibility, effectiveness, and overall utility.

Through digitization and smart, connected worker technology manufacturers can improve SOPs with features like real-time access, remote collaboration and guidance, data-driven insights, workflow automation, enhanced training, traceability and compliance, and more. Essentially, with these advanced technologies, manufacturing organizations can augment and support their workers with optimized processes and SOPs creating an environment of continuous improvement.

Augmentir offers customized AI-powered connected worker solutions that transform how you write and create manufacturing standard operating procedures. Request a live demo today to learn more about why leading manufacturers are choosing our solutions to improve their manufacturing processes.

 

 

See Augmentir in Action
Get in Touch for a Personalized Demo
Book A Demo

Why Integration is Key for Connected Worker Platform Success

Learn why integrations are key to the success of connected worker platforms, what systems should be integrated, and the benefits of a fully integrated connected worker solution.

Unlocking the potential of connected worker platforms becomes a game-changer when integrated with enterprise systems, giving them a live, closed loop connection to frontline processes and operations. This creates a truly connected enterprise that links diverse systems with the frontline workforce, paving the way for heightened efficiency, productivity, and safety.

connected worker platform integrations

However, a majority of connected worker platforms overlook the fact that connectivity doesn’t end with simply linking workers to their platform. They fail to recognize the immense benefits that live connections to enterprise systems of record bring to frontline business processes and activities.

Manufacturing success hinges on the seamless integration of connected worker platforms with legacy and enterprise systems to provide adequate support to frontline workers, giving them access to data and knowledge that can boost their efficiency and keep them safe.

Read below for more information on connected worker platform integrations; what they entail, which enterprise systems are essential for integration, and how AI-powered technology improves impact on frontline manufacturing activities.

Connected Worker Integrations: More than just an API

In manufacturing, it is critical that connected worker platforms are integrated with various enterprise systems to streamline operations and ensure that workers have the data and information they need at their fingertips. As critical as this is, most connected worker vendors believe that providing an open API is sufficient, and even boast that they integrate to enterprise systems, when in fact they place this burden on their customers.

Having an API is not enough

There are several not-so-obvious aspects to connected worker platform integrations, including:

  • Connected worker integrations with enterprise applications, even streamlined ones, have essential requirements such as logic that needs to be written, customized, run, and supported. Most, if not all, of this logic is initiated by the connected worker platform, propagating events and data from shop floor processes to the associated enterprise system of record.
  • Connected worker platforms with just an “API” require all of this functionality to be developed, hosted, and supported externally. The responsibility is then on the customer to build a custom product and select and support the hosting environment. This effort (building, hosting, and support) can cost between $50K and $150K to build and test, and then another $50K – $150K annually for 5 x 9 support. And, the customer is responsible for maintaining an SLA acceptable to the business (99.9% being typical).
Pro Tip

It’s critical that connected worker platforms include “platform-as-a-service” (Paas) capabilities that provide the ability to write, support, and execute both standard and custom integrations. These can be done by the platform provider, the customer, as well as third-party system vendors and system integrators. Providing PaaS capabilities puts the responsibility on the vendor for operating the integration service, and maintaining SLAs, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery, and privacy and security. In short, just saying “we have an API” places an undue burden on customers, and prevents building the sustainable connected enterprise necessary to remain competitive in today’s global economy.

A

Which Enterprise Systems Should You Integrate

In any industrial environment, connected worker platforms should be integrated with various systems to support operations, help with cooperation and communication, and gain valuable insights into frontline manufacturing processes. These integrations streamline activities, improve efficiency, and provide a unified digital environment that empowers frontline workers.

This concept of a connected enterprise spans several initiatives within an organization: assets and equipment, the products being manufactured, the end customer, operations, workers, and the entire supply chain, and is highlighted below using the Industrial Transformation (IX) Reference Architecture from LNS Research.

connected worker enterprise system integration

Examples of enterprise management systems of record that are key to connected worker success and should be integrated are:

  • ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
  • EAM (Enterprise Asset Management)
  • HCM (Human Capital Management)
  • HR, Training, and LMS (Learning Management System)
  • QMS (Quality Management Systems)
  • MES (Manufacturing Execution System)
  • CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System)
  • Supply Chain Management

Enterprise systems such as ETQ, Workday, UKG, SAP, Oracle, IBM Maximo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, and ADP provide transformational value for a manufacturing company if they can be connected into frontline operations. By integrating connected worker platforms with these systems, manufacturers can create an interconnected environment that supports frontline workers and drives operational excellence. Ultimately, integration enhances collaboration, workforce visibility, decision-making processes, and overall operational efficiency, making connected worker platforms an indispensable component for manufacturing organizations.

Improving Integration Success Through Augmentir

At Augmentir, we see integrations differently than other connected worker platforms. Our rich history of building integrations in the manufacturing space enabled us to design a connected worker solution that easily, bi-directionally, and securely integrates the enterprise systems of record to create closed loop processes involving the frontline workforce.

Augmentir has internal PaaS services to run connectors that we build and support for popular enterprise applications like SAP, Salesforce, ETQ, Oracle, IBM Maximo, and more. Additionally, our PaaS enables custom integrations to be built and executed for custom, and niche applications. All third-party integrations running in the Augmentir connected worker platform carry the same SLA and geo-redundant support. By facilitating connected worker platform integrations with enterprise systems in this way, we have provided leading manufacturers with increased workforce visibility, improved productivity, digitized and standardized processes, enhanced training and collaboration, and more.

augmentir enterprise integration

Furthermore, because we are the leading AI-powered connected worker provider, we have brought innovative generative AI technologies such as AI-driven analytics, machine learning algorithms, NLP, predictive maintenance, and industrial AI copilots to improve connected worker integrations with enterprise systems, providing real-time guidance, enabling predictive analysis, and enhancing communication and collaboration among workers.

Schedule a demo to learn more about our AI-powered connected worker solutions and how they are drastically improving frontline processes, training, and manufacturing activities.

 

See Augmentir in Action
Get in Touch for a Personalized Demo
Book A Demo

WebexOne Recap – Elevate Your Workforce with Augmentir

Recently, the Augmentir team was excited to support WebexOne as a gold sponsor. It was great to participate in such an inspiring event, where collaboration and hybrid work were key themes throughout the sessions.

Recently, the Augmentir team was excited to support WebexOne as a gold sponsor. It was great to participate in such an inspiring event, where collaboration and hybrid work were key themes throughout the sessions.

During the event, our team had an opportunity to speak with industry leaders to discuss their top challenges and how Augmentir and Cisco together are helping shape the future of work in the manufacturing industry.

Shaping the Future of Work

Augmentir’s partnership with Cisco was built to address some of the top challenges in the industrial sector today. During the WebexOne event, Augmentir showcased how the Webex remote collaboration tool, Expert on Demand, and our AI-Powered Connected Worker Platform together deliver a unique combination of technology and tools necessary to help increase safety, quality, and productivity for frontline workers performing industrial jobs in manufacturing and service.

These themes were prevalent throughout the WebexOne event – using technology to unlock human potential and elevate today’s workforce.

Elevating Workforce Performance

Many of the themes discussed during the event focused on today’s changing workforce, and the unique needs of the “deskless” workers, who have been underserved by technology.  This is especially true in manufacturing, where businesses face a growing skilled labor shortage, retention, and worker engagement challenges, all while lacking the appropriate digital tools and data to effectively train and continually support their workers.

Augmentir’s suite of AI-powered connected worker tools help industrial companies understand their diverse workforce at an individual level, enabling them to reduce the effort it takes to onboard, guide, and support their workforce.

  • Improve job quality – Drive quality improvements by moving from paper-based to interactive digital work instructions augmented with rich media, contextual data, and mixed reality experiences, ensuring your workers always have the correct information on hand to make error-free and safe decisions.
  • Improve Worker Safety – In addition to running on any mobile phone or tablet, Augmentir and Webex are supported on the voice-enabled RealWear HMT-1 and HMT-1Z1 industrial headsets, offering hands-free operation that can be used in nearly any industrial environment. This helps workers stay focused on the task at hand to improve safety and efficiency.
  • Reduce operational costs – Identify areas where the largest improvements can be made within your workforce and across your organization with insights from Augmentir’s AI.

Elevating Hybrid Work and Collaboration in Manufacturing

Hybrid work and collaboration were also central themes during the event, and both are core to Augmentir’s combined solution with Cisco. Augmentir’s digital workflow tools enable rapid creation and delivery of augmented work instructions to help guide workers in day-to-day tasks. This value is extended with Cisco Webex Expert on Demand, which gives workers the ability to quickly connect and collaborate with remote experts wherever they are located.

Cisco also announced Webex Hologram during the WebexOne event. This new augmented reality meeting solution was noted by Jeet Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security and Collaboration, as an “industry first” – combining Webex meeting functionality with augmented reality (AR) hardware to create immersive 3D holograms of participants during meetings.

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

As you can tell, WebexOne was a successful 2-day event with great conversations around collaboration and hybrid work. As Jeet Patel stated during the event, “The stakes have never been higher” in regards to your workforce and working smarter and more efficiently. It’s time to elevate your workforce with Augmentir’s AI-powered Connected Worker solution.

How well can we really know our workers?

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

It wouldn’t be fair to attribute all of manufacturing’s current labor shortage woes to the pandemic–there are a lot of factors contributing to this frustrating situation, and many of them were looming long before we ever heard of COVID-19. Did it make things worse? Probably. And the forecast doesn’t look very sunny if you believe what analysts have to say about it. However, despite the current crisis, there is hope yet for manufacturing, specifically in the form of AI and Connected Worker Technology.

Sure, the face of the workforce has changed dramatically. The pool of potential laborers has shrunk. Businesses are being forced to hire people traditionally considered under-qualified. And that leads to a whole host of other complications, including a drop in operational efficiency, a rise in safety issues, and more. The pessimists out there would only see the threat to the global market these challenges pose–the manufacturing industry makes between 11 and 12 percent of the US economy after all.

Good thing we’re optimists at heart! Behind every challenge is an opportunity, as far as we’re concerned. And when it comes to this challenging labor market in particular, we see a huge opportunity for businesses to work with what they’ve got, and still reach operational goals. We have the potential to assess how every worker performs on the job, regardless of the experience and skill set they bring on day one, and use that information to improve individual and enterprise-wide performance. Puts a new light on the labor shortage, doesn’t it?

You can’t fix what you can’t see.

We know using data is important to directing and improving operations–that’s business best practices 101. But insights drawn are only as good as the data itself. And even though there can’t be many businesses out there who haven’t yet jumped on the digital transformation bandwagon, we suspect a lot still rely on outdated data collecting and reporting mechanisms. Those digital spreadsheets had their moment, but we’ve got better options now. Maybe you opted for a Bluetooth software program or distributing a digital survey for your workers. But even with those innovations, what do these data indicators really tell you? Is this reliable and usable information? We didn’t think so either.

Imagine what you could do with real-time data, rather than a summary of operational KPIs at the end of set periods? Even better–imagine capturing the performance metrics of each individual worker rather than their self-generated assessments and observations and having the potential to use that knowledge to improve their skill set and operational proficiency. That’s when data becomes intelligence. And that intelligence has the potential to become so valuable to your enterprise that you’ll wonder how you ever operated without it.

Not convinced you could benefit from data at that level of individual performance? Let us draw an analogy we think you’ll appreciate.

Think of each worker as a newly licensed driver; what happens after passing the road test?

Remember the day you got your driver’s license? We spent hours, if not days and weeks practicing behind the wheel, eagerly waiting to be evaluated by a driving instructor. And let’s be honest, plenty of us winged it, too. Either way, once you show them you can do a three-point-turn and know to stop at the flashing pedestrian crossing sign, everyone walks away with the proof of their proficiency–a driver’s license. 

Then what happened? Nothing. Maybe a celebratory high-five and then eventually years of driving. In one, five, or ten years, what do we know about each person’s capabilities? Unless they’ve wracked up a stack of tickets for traffic violations, we don’t know anything. For all we know, they haven’t sat behind the steering wheel since passing. There is no mechanism to re-assess whether drivers are highly skilled or at-risk of creating an accident in operations.

Now what if we looked at our frontline workers through that lens? You know when they were hired that they could perform X, Y and Z. Some could do even more. But what about after that? What if you could assign an AI-based driver instructor to follow each new driver around for ongoing assessment and intervention in the moment of need?

Put smart connected worker technology in the passenger seat

Adopting connected worker technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) increases the reliability and credibility of data by analyzing employee performance in ‘real-time.’ That individualized data can be used to connect workers with a company’s digital library of training tools and resources, having an immediate impact on operational proficiency and cultivating a healthy learning environment for workers.

Connected worker technology that leverages AI offers self-guided learning processes when opportunities are identified, reduces human error and improves safety, provides updates on pressing issues and equipment failures and access to a variety of applications. Who wouldn’t want to work for an organization like this? One that offers a high probability of job satisfaction and encourages personal skill development? A culture like that can help the operation on many levels, from reducing operational costs to attracting new employees. 

What now? There is only one connected worker solution that can provide this level of intelligence on your workforce–contact us to learn more about how Augmentir can benefit your business and ask for a demo!

Trends from October’s Top Virtual Manufacturing Events

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

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

EWTS

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

American Manufacturing Summit

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

Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo

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

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

Key announcements from the virtual manufacturing events:

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

Learning Tech Talks – Connected Worker Solutions

,

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

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

learning tech talks

The Evolving Landscape of Learning Technology

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

 

Watch the Podcast

About Augmentir

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

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

 

 

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.

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.