IFS has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Poka, a Quebec-based provider of a connected worker platform.
Founded in 2014, Poka has customers spanning 55 countries which include brands such as Nestlé, Tetra Pak, Mars, Bosch, RioTinto, Coty, Alcoa, Hitachi Energy, Mahle, and more. To address business challenges affecting complexity, uncertainty in labor availability and impacted supply chains, Poka, along with other organizations, is focusing its efforts on achieving a faster digital transformation.
Poka enables factory and field workers to be more efficient across all aspects of their jobs, from training and development to troubleshooting. This capacity enables businesses to measure productivity across machinery and operators globally and provides insights into profitability. Poka also provides actionable insights for companies to stay compliant and provide safer working conditions as part of their ESG goals.
Darren Roos, CEO of IFS, said: “The concept of a connected worker is synonymous with the augmented worker because of the direct impact on improving productivity and operational efficiency. With a potential manufacturing skills gap in the US alone which could result in 2.1 million unfilled jobs by 2030, closing this gap, it is as much a technology need as it is a change management and worker empowerment need. Improving access to information and knowledge means workers can become part of an integrated continuous improvement cycle.
“The concept of connecting every single worker was historically overlooked as part of digital transformation journeys yet, giving workers the ability to get information whenever and wherever they are in the factory not only improves their experience, it is fundamental to building manufacturing agility something we understand very well at IFS.”
Alexandre Leclerc, CEO of Poka, said: “We are incredibly proud of the best-in-class platform we’ve built and our pioneering leadership in the Connected Worker space. Becoming part of IFS will enable us to further innovate and extend the value we create for manufacturers.
“As the global workforce crisis deepens, more companies are looking to scale their digital factory projects across the enterprise. With the help of IFS’s global presence and industry experience, Poka will be better equipped to deliver on its mission at scale.”
