The manufacturing industry is going through another industrial renaissance. Industry 4.0 is already an established term and manufacturing companies are being urged to invest in new ways of designing and producing products. So, how does all of this affect your shop floor workers and, by extension, your business?
Digital dinosaurs
Your everyday life is bombarded with IoT gadgets and smart systems, but your shop floor workers are manually working their machines, working from printed-out procedures and undertaking manual stock control.
In their everyday lives, your workforce is used to a faster way of solving problems. What happens if they can’t use the same benefits of technology at their job? What happens when you can only offer outdated technology training for your next generation of employees?
The modernization brought by digital transformation is all about enabling your business to remain competitive in the 21st century – with highly motivated shop floor workers. If you’re not looking into the possibilities that a digital transformation gives, then you’re not just at risk of being labeled an obsolete dinosaur by your workforce – you will also be skipping out on the opportunity that lies ahead with modern digital transformation tools.
There are some important aspects to consider where keeping up with this industrial renaissance will improve the everyday lives of your factory floor workers and thereby benefit your business.
The safety effect
If you’re still relying on procedures hung up on walls or gathered in folders, you need to realize they’re outdated the moment they’re printed on paper. The spirit of digital transformation is about information being updated and available at all times.
The old way may work for your established and senior-level staff, with the wisdom and experience to operate your machinery with a blindfold on, but consider trainees, seasonal workers and bilingual workers: an outdated procedure can have a major safety effect on how to operate machinery correctly or act according to safety protocols.
A great example of how technology has improved safety for shop floor workers is the process of handling chemicals. If there has been an accidental release out in the field, you won’t have time to run to your shop floor manager’s office to blow the dust off the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) binder and read the first aid measure. Instead, you use your phone to scan the QR codes on product labels to provide anyone with the relevant SDS measures in seconds.
Keeping your workers in the loop will streamline ongoing technology adoption as regulations continually update too, minimizing any safety concerns and additionally any perception of becoming obsolete.
Bringing in the efficiency gadgets
If you’re a traditional repetitive manufacturer or manufacturing just-in-time, the shop floor mantra is all about being efficient. Digital transformation has made manufacturers take a quantum leap with their efficiency.
Many companies see the benefit of digitizing their factory machine park to simplify data entry and gain real-time data on product conditions and availability. If the data from the machine park is sent to the cloud, then your shop floor workers can access that information from any workstation at any time. When data becomes available, workers are empowered to make better decisions by investigating and experimenting with the information they have readily available.
Also, bring on the gadgets! The days of manually checking and counting should well and truly be over. Invest in handheld devices that communicate with your systems and machine park. Electronic communication is a lot easier to track, rather than the occasional scribbled note lost among several, physical binders.
The power to act on quality
Your shop floor workers are your best resource to manage quality issues when they arise, and also before they happen.
In a digitally connected factory, you receive alerts whenever a machine requires attention and get real-time information about machine use and potential downtime. This way, if a machine is down, your shop floor workers can easily act without having to wait for a manager to make a decision. All they need is a PC or tablet at hand to get the job done and your processes back in action.
Making a positive change
With digital transformation, automation and robots entering the factory floor, workers will inevitably harbor some degree of fear that their jobs are at risk. No matter how great something can end up being, people are not always eager to change. Some might even be opposed to change.
Focusing on the positive effects of new technologies is important: tablets, connected machines, gadgets that make processes easier to do, improving efficiency, safety and quality – the list goes on. The reality is that all of this affects workers’ motivation and job satisfaction. In the long run, those are the key ingredients to a happy workforce and what takes your company ahead of the competition.
