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How to Reduce Changeover Time in Manufacturing

The benefits of digital work instructions go far beyond simply standardizing work. The real benefit is in personalized guidance and support for today’s workers.

Providing quality products consistently and on time is at the forefront of customer satisfaction. In today’s competitive market, manufacturers must execute production runs quickly and efficiently to meet customer demand. But equipment and workers can’t operate 24/7. Machines must be properly maintained, workstations require cleaning and employees need rest. This is where optimizing changeover time comes in.

Changeover time is the period that it takes for workers to adjust machines or for assembly lines to start the next product run. A changeover usually includes swapping parts, sanitizing equipment, and preparing it for the next cycle. A good rule of thumb is to keep the changeover period down to less than 10 minutes. You can keep track of your organization’s changeover time by capturing how long it takes to produce each product.

Keeping an eye on your changeover time can help you maximize production and improve processes. Learn more about how you can reduce changeover time in manufacturing by exploring the following topics:

Three steps for reducing changeover time

Minimizing changeover time is a key component of lean manufacturing, a production method aimed at minimizing waste while increasing worker productivity. Implementation of this process can help manufacturers maximize uptime and cut down on waste caused by downtime.

Although there are various steps you can take to reduce it, here are some essential steps to help you get started:

Step 1: Assess your present changeover method.

It’s crucial to look at your existing changeover protocol before taking action to modify it. Try to identify which processes need optimization in order to cut down on the time between inventory runs.

Step 2: Implement single-minute exchange of dies (SMED).

Single-minute exchange of dies is a tool used in lean manufacturing to reduce changeover time to single digits. This means that a successful assembly run should be less than 10 minutes.

It’s helpful if workers have some idea of how long each task (such as switching parts, cleaning, etc.) takes during the production process. This awareness can be cultivated the more they familiarize themselves with procedures and day-to-day routines.

Step 3: Create standard changeover procedures.

Creating standard operating procedures (SOPs) and standardizing work can help with the changeover process. If there aren’t centralized procedures, changeover times will vary based on the employee, how long it takes them to clean up, set up and begin a new production run.

It’s important for procedures to contain explicit directions on how to perform successful changeovers. This can include highlighting which equipment needs to be calibrated and other machinery-related tasks.

Pro Tip

Digitizing changeover procedures can offer several benefits that enhance the overall efficiency, safety, and effectiveness of the changeover process. Digital procedures can be accessed by frontline workers through a mobile device or wearable technology, and help improve accessibility, accountability, standardization, as well as provide visual aids to less-experienced workers performing the task.

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In a nutshell, having clear instructions makes it easier for workers to know what to expect when it’s time for a changeover.

Benefits of reducing changeover time

Reducing changeover time can yield a number of benefits, especially for companies producing a large number of products on a day-to-day basis.

Some of the advantages include:

  • Makes it easier to transition between production processes
  • Creates a more productive work environment
  • Helps to reduce equipment downtime
  • Gets products to customers faster

How digitization can help

Implementing connected worker solutions that digitize and optimize changeover processes can help reduce the time each changeover takes by providing explicit digital instructions customized to any given task, machine, or worker.

benefits of digital work instructions

Digital work instructions are electronic versions of work instructions, quality manuals, or SOPs that provide necessary visual aids and real-time contextual information to help guide workers through complex tasks. These digital work instructions intelligently deliver guidance and streamline changeover processes with images, videos, augmented reality experiences, and live support from colleagues or subject matter experts.

Augmentir is the world’s first AI-powered connected worker platform that helps industrial frontline workers reduce changeover time in manufacturing using smart technology. Learn how world class manufacturers are using Augmentir to drive improvements across their industrial operations – contact us for a demo today!

 

 

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Modernizing Manufacturing Training with Continuous and Workflow Learning

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

Staying ahead of the curve in today’s manufacturing marketplace means that businesses need to innovate and adapt. To accomplish this, organizations must have a skilled workforce and ongoing training and workforce management processes to support continuous learning and development.

Modernizing training cultivates employee skillsets by implementing continuous learning in the flow of work.

modernize manufacturing training with continuous learning

Continuous learning is the process of attaining new skills on a constant basis. Workflow learning involves educating yourself on the job using resources and self-directed learning materials. Done together, this modern training approach can help streamline productivity.

If you want to learn how to improve manufacturing training with continuous learning and workflow learning, explore this article that answers the following:

What is continuous learning?

Continuous learning in manufacturing involves enabling workers to learn new skills regularly. It’s a great way to improve employee performance and innovation. According to Forbes, embracing a culture of continuous learning can help organizations adapt to market demands, foster innovation, as well as attract and retain top talent.

Learning can come in different forms, from formal course training to hands-on experience. Employees are encouraged to be self-starters who want to evolve their skills on an on-going basis. A good example of a continuous learning model is everboarding; everboarding is a modern approach toward employee onboarding and training that shifts away from the traditional “one-and-done” onboarding model and recognizes learning as an ongoing process.

How can continuous learning be used in manufacturing?

When businesses don’t support continuous learning, manufacturing processes stagnate. This contributes to a lack of innovation and hinders potential opportunities for success that a company may experience.

In a nutshell, the more workers know and the more they can accomplish, the more they can contribute to business growth. This may consist of employees taking an online course or learning a new technique hands-on, no matter what department they’re in.

For example, assembly line workers may learn new manufacturing processes to ensure everything is functioning properly. Meanwhile, operators may study the latest machinery to learn new tricks of the trade.

What is workflow learning?

Workflow training in manufacturing involves learning while doing. This means that workers pick up new skills while on the job through hands-on experience.

The key to workflow learning is that it happens while employees perform their everyday tasks.

Many workers in the manufacturing industry work in shift-based environments, making it difficult for them to attend traditional classroom-based training sessions. With workflow learning, organizations can incorporate more learning processes into the everyday workday of frontline workers – essentially bridging the gap between knowing and doing. This “active learning” aligns with the Pyramid of Learning visual model that illustrates the different stages of learning and their relative effectiveness.

pyramid of learning

Active learning involves the learner actively engaging with the material, often through problem-solving, discussion, or application of the knowledge while they are on the job.

In general, active learning is considered more effective than passive learning in promoting deep understanding and retention of information. Therefore, learning leaders often strive to design learning experiences that involve higher levels of active learning, moving beyond the lower levels of the pyramid and promoting critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

How can workflow learning be used in manufacturing?

Workflow learning consists of using resources at your disposal to complete tasks. This strategy is sometimes referred to as performance support.

For example, workers can look up answers to questions, steps of a process, or new services while performing their jobs instead of interrupting their workflow to go to a class or training session.

Pro Tip

Active, or workflow learning can be implemented with mobile learning solutions that leverage connected worker technology and AI to provide workers with bite-sized, on-demand training modules that they can access on smartphones or tablets. These modules can be developed with customized learning paths that are focused on the type of tasks and work employees are doing on the factory floor.

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How can technology improve manufacturing training?

The nature of manufacturing training is changing in the age of artificial intelligence. Today, many training processes can be streamlined and optimized using digital and smart, connected worker technologies.

For instance, data collected from everyday manufacturing processes can polish training programs online. Experienced workers can share best practices on customized dashboards for other employees to access. These can be updated in real-time and show changes highlighted to better optimize manufacturing processes.

Digital training tools can also help improve learning speed and retention. For example, workers who need visuals or real-world scenarios can assess them using AI-powered software to maximize their training.

 

Augmentir is the world’s leading AI-powered connected worker solution that helps industrial companies optimize the safety, quality, and productivity of the industrial frontline workforce. Contact us for a live demo, and learn why leading manufacturers are choosing us to elevate their manufacturing operations to the next level.

 

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Why Manufacturing Data Collection is Important and How to Improve It

Connected frontline operations platforms are helping manufacturers reduce downtime and provide a foundation for a holistic preventive maintenance strategy.

As manufacturing operations continue to modernize and evolve it is clear that without big data they won’t be able to sustain themselves. More and more manufacturers are looking to the tremendous capabilities and insights that digitized information can provide.

Shop floor data collection enables businesses to better measure, standardize, and optimize their production processes. It’s more important than ever before to have information that provides real-time insights for measurable progress.

Accurate reporting is more sustainable if management deploys a work culture and production infrastructure that supports digitized manufacturing data collection with connected worker platforms and solutions.

We discuss more about collecting data and how to improve it in the following sections:

manufacturing data collection

Examples of data collection in manufacturing

Data collection has many uses in a variety of situations for a wide array of manufacturing roles, from operators and engineers to plant managers and even leadership.

For example:

  • Plant managers use production dashboards to better gauge where operators need support, such as when a piece of equipment isn’t working.
  • Operators use machine interfaces that show the status of machine processes, part counts, and other measurable data to ensure they are meeting production targets.
  • Quality managers use production line data to identify and proactively address quality issues.
  • Engineers use collected data to check for any bottlenecks and adjust processes if necessary.
Pro Tip

Frontline workers often witness safety, quality, or maintenance issues on the factory floor. They are effectively a “human sensor” on the manufacturing process and can readily identify issues that need to be addressed. Today, recording data and resolving those 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 shop floor data collection.

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Which data to keep an eye on

Data generated on the shop floor can vary depending on the nature of work, the type of devices and technologies used, and the area of operation. Much of this data is of use to manufacturers and can be used to improve production processes.

Useful types of data for manufacturers that we recommend keeping an eye on are:

Inventory data: This type of data helps manufacturers keep track of product inventory. With it they can better gauge what items need to be restocked or which ones aren’t bringing any value to the customer as well as improve forecasting ability and more.

Quality and Inspection data: Ensuring product quality is a priority in manufacturing. Collecting data related to quality control, product inspection, and identifying defects or deviations from the desired standards is crucial to maintaining high-quality products and operations.

Machine data: Optimizing a production process can become difficult if you don’t know the status of your equipment. Manufacturing data collection can be digitized to analyze machine quality and performance, equipment runtime and downtimes, or other machine-related problems. Sensors monitor machine use and downtime, maintenance time, cycle time, and more. Studying this collected data helps identify where production can be improved to optimize efficiency.

Using AI, manufacturers can filter out the “white noise” data (or data that is of no use) to derive actionable insights more effectively than with traditional methods. Automating, standardizing, and digitizing manufacturing processes also improves manufacturing data collection procedures, making them streamlined, accurate, and reliable.

How to improve production data collection

Manufacturing data collection is transforming the way businesses handle their operational decisions. However, it can also pose setbacks to your production line if you gather inaccurate data.

Manufacturers must implement data collection systems that are easy to understand and navigate. You’re risking inconsistent data collection and reporting when you install a system with complicated functions and navigation tools. This can be avoided by focusing on people-centric, intuitive, and user-friendly systems that fit into the everyday flow of work for the frontline workforce.

quality manufacturing data collection

Implementing a unified system alone won’t improve data collection. Solutions that incorporate enhanced mobile capabilities and provide a truly connected enterprise are able to facilitate and optimize data collection efforts.

Examples of some useful smart, connected solutions to improve manufacturing data collection are:

  • Personalized, Digital Work Instructions: these intelligently deliver personalized digital work instructions matched to the needs of each worker in order to deftly guide them through and streamline day-to-day operations.
  • Connected Asset Management: these tools help simplify operations and maintenance of facilities, manage work and maintenance procedures, collaboration, and more.
  • Skills Management: these systems create visibility into workforce capability and optimize training programs, track individual and team progress, and initiate more targeted training and upskilling.

In addition to all the benefits listed above, these smart, connected worker tools are able to empower frontline workers with improved data-driven decision-making abilities that aid in safety, quality, and productivity efforts.

Benefits of digitizing shop floor data collection

Production data collection can make all the difference to a company’s success and give them a competitive edge. Smart, connected worker solutions enhance collection processes, allowing for real-time data collection, streamlined communication and collaboration between frontline workers.

Data-driven strategies can help with:

  • Creating better maintenance procedures based on real-time insights and equipment conditions
  • Optimizing worker productivity by minimizing production errors
  • Reducing downtime by providing real-time feedback
  • Developing higher quality products that increase customer satisfaction
  • Cutting supply chain costs due to better forecasting and waste reduction techniques

Implementing accurate, connected worker solutions can take your data collection efforts to the next level. That’s where Augmentir can help. We are the world’s only AI-driven, people-centric smart connected worker solution to standardize and optimize data collection using groundbreaking AI analytics technology.

See how our AI-focused connected worker solutions are driving results and improving data collection and data-driven decision-making across manufacturing operations – schedule a demo now.

 

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How to Improve Production Quality in Manufacturing

Connected frontline operations platforms are helping manufacturers reduce downtime and provide a foundation for a holistic preventive maintenance strategy.

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.

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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!

 

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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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Asset Maintenance Best Practices

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

Asset maintenance refers to everything that goes into keeping your manufacturing assets in tip-top shape. With machinery, for example, asset maintenance means conducting frequent inspections and repairs. With office space, this term involves maintaining a clean, safe, and productive workplace. With products, it includes checking finished goods for any deficiencies or errors.

In a nutshell, asset maintenance helps prolong the performance and lifespan of equipment, machinery, goods, and more. Performing this strategy ensures that your essential business resources continue functioning smoothly and properly.

Learn the best practices for increasing asset maintenance performance:

Best practices for optimal asset maintenance performance

Implementing key best practices can improve asset maintenance in manufacturing. We’ve put together five crucial strategies to ensure your manufacturing firm is performing at its best while minimizing costs:

1. Gather as much info as possible

Gathering data on assets can help management make better informed production decisions. Asset tracking is a great technique to accomplish this.

2. Create a preventive maintenance schedule

The data that’s been collected will make it easier to create a preventive maintenance schedule. To create one, start by organizing asset data and analyzing the info you’ve amassed (e.g., how often each item must be checked and maintained). Lastly, prioritize your most important assets and allocate funds to maintain them.

schedule and audit asset maintenance work

3. Train workers

Investing in your employees pays off. Procedural documentation and training will help ensure that all maintenance work is thoroughly performed and recorded. Skills management software can help with ongoing management and tracking of employee skills and training requirements.

4. Apply an inventory tracking system

There is nothing worse than beginning a project only to find out that you don’t have all the moving parts to complete it. An inventory system helps reduce the chances of missing crucial product information and enables you to better track company assets.

5. Track asset maintenance key performance indicators (KPIs)

KPIs such as mean time between failures (MTBF), overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), and work order resolution time can give a performance review on how well your assets are doing. They’re also great at pinpointing which areas could benefit from predictive maintenance, the process of checking for deficiencies to avoid future machine breakdowns.

Pro Tip

Asset management software like Augmentir’s Connected Worker Solution helps you simplify the operations and maintenance of your facility. Manage work and maintenance procedures, skill requirements, training, KPIs, and preventive maintenance schedules all through a visual interface. Connected worker solutions help integrate your CMMS with your shop floor operations.

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Advantages of asset maintenance

The maintenance of assets in manufacturing consists of regularly inspecting, repairing, and replacing equipment and other assets to confirm that everything is in workable condition.

Advantages of asset maintenance:

  • Enhanced workplace safety
  • Greater equipment reliability
  • Longer machine lifespan
  • Lower maintenance costs
  • Improved productivity
  • Better regulatory compliance

Asset maintenance tools and how Augmentir can help

Manufacturers are encouraged to manage and track assets to limit product flaws, prevent machine failure, and improve overall productivity. However, in today’s digital age, especially with more mobile devices, complex cloud-based technologies, and software updates, handling assets has become much more complicated.

This is where Augmentir’s AI-powered connected worker solution, or asset management software, comes in. Our solution allows manufacturing facilities to better monitor their assets and manage them effectively with easy-to-use customizable dashboards and real-time insights.

Asset maintenance with Augmentir

Ours is the world’s only connected worker suite that provides an overarching view of an asset’s life cycle. Accurate digital asset records can help manufacturers with resource planning. In addition, our tool helps with asset record keeping so that you don’t have to worry about not meeting regulatory compliance requirements.

Though a manufacturing firm could use a spreadsheet to track its assets, our digital solution gives workers the ability to evaluate asset-specific data and make better decisions about how to manage each one.

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

 

 

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The Real Benefits of Digital Work Instructions in Manufacturing

The benefits of digital work instructions go far beyond simply standardizing work. The real benefit is in personalized guidance and support for today’s workers.

Digital work instructions are step-by-step directions on the best way to complete any task, from basic maintenance to fixing equipment. These digitized instructions are electronic versions of work procedures that are kept in a centralized system so workers can easily access them to work on tasks or to make timely decisions on projects. While the benefits of digital work instructions are numerous, the real benefit in manufacturing comes when digital work instructions can be personalized to the unique needs and skills of each worker.

So say goodbye to static documentation and hello to a new era of personalized digitization. If you’re interested in learning the real benefits of digital work instructions, read on about the following:

How digital work instructions are transforming manufacturing processes

Traditional instructions on paper can slow down a manufacturing operation. They can be lengthy, become quickly outdated, and are often full of mistakes. With paper-based reporting, for example, workers may forget to note the condition of equipment or update a faulty procedure.

Fortunately, digital instructions are an ideal solution. They offer visual demonstrations, how-to videos, and other resources for completing tasks. Most importantly, when digital work instructions are managed and delivered through a connected worker solution, they can be kept up-to-date to ensure compliance and product quality. According to Quality Magazine, not only do digital work instructions support overall enterprise productivity, but they also provide workers with an improved level of control over their work through enterprise data and automated insights.

benefits of digital work instructions

When you digitize your procedures, they can be accessed and kept up to date from wherever employees work. They can be enhanced with visual aids, contextual information, and augmented reality experiences to guide workers through complex jobs. Best of all, workers are less likely to make mistakes or miss steps when they can easily refer to clear and visually engaging information.

Digital work instructions are maintained via a connected worker solution, and delivered through mobile or wearable devices on the shop floor. These solutions can be coupled with AI-powered software to further help companies digitize production procedures.

This leads to greater worker productivity and output.

The real benefits of digital work instructions

Digital work instructions provide countless advantages when implemented throughout your entire organization, including improved production processes, decreased downtime, greater operational competence and safety, as well as support for a centralized database of knowledge. On their own, they deliver standard work guidelines but fail to consider the unique skills of each worker, which is increasingly important in today’s evolving and labor-constrained workforce.  The typical one-size-fits-all approach to managing, guiding, and supporting employees won’t cut it in today’s market.

Businesses need a solution that helps them improve manufacturing processes and meet their workers where they are.

This is where AI-based solutions come in.

Using AI-based connected worker solutions, organizations can digitize and easily manage skills tracking and training programs and connect them with frontline operations. Embedded AI can dynamically optimize work processes to deliver training in the flow of work, tailored support, and more. Solutions that combine skills tracking capabilities with connected worker technology and on-the-job digital guidance can deliver significant additional value. Data from actual work performance can inform workforce development initiatives allowing you to target your training, reskilling, and upskilling efforts where they have the largest impact.

It can generate an abundance of valuable data to provide tailored training support and skills endorsements and identify workforce opportunities. These benefits extend beyond simply standardizing work to include:

1. A more motivated, more engaged workforce

An organization’s commitment to cultivating its team’s skills can influence their attitudes toward the job. A worker is likelier to perform better when valued and appreciated. Digitized skills tracking also ensures that workers are qualified to perform their job.

2. Mitigate risk and ensure safety

Solutions that include personalized work instructions that incorporate worker skills allow organizations to validate at the time of work assignment who has the skill level to safely perform a specific task. This helps to mitigate risk and ensure safety.

3. Intelligently assigning work

Ensure the right person is assigned to the right job. Manage work assignments based on skill level, endorsements, and actual job performance.

skills taxonomy

4. Closes the skills gap

Tracking skills is a great way to identify gaps between the skills employees already have and the skills they need. With this information, the company can arrange for additional training or other ways to invest in their employees. Keep in mind that as your manufacturing organization evolves and grows, so should your employee skillset.

6. Identify upskilling or reskilling opportunities

Use data from actual work performance, combined with an employee’s current skills and endorsements to inform your reskilling and upskilling decisions. Knowing where improvements need to be made can close any learning gaps and boost the overall success of a company. Optimizing your workforce can help improve productivity in every department, giving your company a competitive edge in today’s market.

 

Connected worker solutions that combine skills management with digital work instructions, collaboration, and knowledge management are uniquely suited to optimize today’s variable workforce. AI-generated insights are pulled from patterns identified across all work activity in real-time. These insights identify where new and experienced workers may benefit from either reskilling or upskilling.

This combination of smart digital technology can also leverage your training resources, such as instructional videos, written instructions, or access to remote experts, to deliver personalized guidance for the worker to perform their best. These tools intelligently work together to help you assign workers to procedures based on required skill levels.

FAQs about digital work instructions

What is the purpose of digital work instructions?

Digitized work instructions provide clear, step-by-step directions on how each manufacturing task should be performed. They are kept in a centralized database for real-time view of procedures, how-to videos, training opportunities, and more. Companies implement them in order to improve workers’ procedural knowledge, ensure standard work compliance, reduce mistakes, and raise production quality overall.

How can digital work instructions help manufacturers?

Digital work instructions help manufacturers create a more productive workforce that values detail, quality, and learning. Work instructions can be updated to fit best practices, reduce human error, and provide learning opportunities with visual cues like videos, pictures, augmented reality experiences, and more.

Which work instruction software is right for me?

Although there are different software programs out there, Augmentir is the world’s leading connected worker solution, and the only solution that uses AI to personalize instructions based on individual worker proficiency and skill levels.

How Augmentir’s digital solutions can help

Digitizing work instructions is a great start to address manufacturing issues, however, alone, it won’t help completely solve some of the biggest workforce challenges. It’s not enough to simply move from paper-based to digital work instructions.

We must go a step further, for example, Augmentir’s platform provides complete digital workflow authoring tools that allow you to not only quickly convert your paper-based processes to digital work instructions, but also use AI to dynamically personalize them to the needs of your individual workers.

  • Digital work instructions, augmented with visual aids, contextual information, and industrial collaboration tools, help intelligently guide workers through complex jobs
  • Complete workflows allow you to digitize complex business processes
  • Embedded AI dynamically optimizes work procedures and workflows to deliver in-situ training and support

 

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