2 billion frontline workers await their digital transformation. Are you ready to deliver?
?a?layan A.
Visionary, transformational leader in Industrial AI, delivering industrial transformation, accelerating growth and innovation.
In my latest Changemakers video, I address one of the most pressing problems facing manufacturers today—a shrinking workforce. There is not enough young talent seeking career opportunities in manufacturing. Many do not have skills or training to keep up with digitalization. Our seasoned workers are close to retirement, without enough people to replace them.
As an engineer I shudder to think of all the lost knowledge and skill this represents, and I am equally worried about those just starting out who immediately dismiss manufacturing careers as antiquated, tired, and dirty.
The skills gap is real. It is big. It is urgent. For example, Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute say the manufacturing skills gap in the U.S. could result in 2.1?million unfilled jobs by 2030. The cost of those missing jobs could potentially total $1 trillion USD in 2030 alone. (1)
But as I have said before, disruption can be an opportunity.
In this instance, disruption represents a tremendous opportunity for businesses to invest in empowering and transforming one of the largest segments of their employees—Frontline workers.
Just as data often holds unseen information that leads to insights and innovation, we cannot overlook that people do, too. And, just like technology is a tool to help businesses discover innovation hidden in data, technology can also be a tool that helps people discover talent and skills hidden in themselves.
The state of the Frontline
Before we examine the opportunities that exist for companies to invest in their Frontline workers, we will look at the Frontline workers themselves.
They are the ones who stock our shelves, provide essential healthcare services, make, and deliver the products we love, keep our factories agile and the power grid running, and ensure the supply chain is moving.
They represent more than 80% of the global workforce. Harvard Business Review says there are two billion of them (2). Frontline workers are the very definition of essential. For too long they have been technologically underserved and isolated from digital transformation.
For years, concerns over automation and AI taking jobs left workers leery about technology, but those attitudes have shifted considerably. Now a majority of Frontline employees (63%) are excited about, and are ready for, the job opportunities technology creates, says Harvard Business Review. (3)
The manufacturer’s opportunity to transform the Frontline
I believe that with today’s technology, we can transform the workplace environment for the Frontline in the same way that we transform other aspects of the business— by unleashing the power of intelligence. Technology-fueled intelligence is what empowers a data-driven, connected, and collaborative culture.
For example, AI and mixed reality accelerate learning and help us upskill and reskill the workforce. Tools like Microsoft HoloLens and Dynamics 365 Guides help inexperienced workers learn more quickly by simulating real-world experiences and providing immersive on-the-job training. We can bring new workers onboard faster—and with the promise of exciting, cutting-edge tools—to help close the skills gap.
Frontline workers can also fix equipment faster with the help of remote experts, which decreases factory floor downtime and saves on travel costs. For example, Eaton is using Dynamics 365 Remote Assist to troubleshoot and collaborate with other Eaton plants worldwide. The company uses Dynamics 365 Guides application to complete preventative maintenance tasks and train new specialists in simulated environments using HoloLens 2.
And Musashi Seimitsu Industry was able to use Dynamics 365 Remote Assist to remotely establish a new production line in Mexico without a single engineer leaving their headquarters in Japan—saving the company 264 work hours. Amazing!
Automation is another gamechanger for the workforce. It holds tremendous potential to free the Frontline from repetitive tasks, letting them focus on optimizing production or enhancing customer experiences. AI and machine learning can monitor and, in some cases, optimize production lines without human intervention, potentially keeping people out of harm’s way while accelerating business continuity.
Speaking of safety, let us learn from Dow. The company is using AI and computer vision to detect safety hazards in the production environment, as well as empower their Frontline workers to do their jobs in a more productive way.
Capabilities including autonomous systems and collaborative robots help us keep our workers on the job longer as their expertise can now be made available virtually wherever it is needed. Employees can move from repetitive tasks to more innovative, creative functions in higher value-add roles. And the option to work remotely creates a unique opportunity for Frontline veterans to lengthen their careers while complying with social distancing measures.
One company that is doing tremendous work to equip the Frontline workforce is our good partner, Tulip . Together, we are proud to share the vision of creating more agile factories, engaging the workforce, and ultimately contributing to a more resilient and sustainable future. This vision comes to life through the powerful integrations between Tulip’s Frontline Operations Platform and Microsoft solutions, which together cover the entire frontline operations spectrum and empower human workers at every step of the production line. One striking example is Tulip’s partnership with industrial tool manufacturer, Stanley Black & Decker. Having selected Tulip’s Frontline Operations Platform to?provide digital manufacturing solutions to all their factories ?across the globe, Stanley Black & Decker is one of the many success stories of joint customers leveraging the integration between Microsoft and Tulip to digitalize, mobilize, and scale their operations.
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Next steps forward
Perhaps the biggest challenge to digitally transforming the world of the Frontline worker is the awareness of how it can benefit all aspects of a business. Thankfully, that is changing rapidly.
In fact, especially because of the pandemic, the role of the Frontline in meeting critical business objectives and ensuring customer satisfaction is as visible and more important as it has ever been.
It is our responsibility as leaders to invest in our people. We must give them the tools and capabilities to do their jobs safely, productively and with a sense of purpose. We must re-think education, industry training and on-the-job readiness activities to prepare the next generation.
We must encourage a new growth mindset and culture shift that brings everyone along the journey equally and inclusively, where teams are working together with shared values and ideas. These are sound strategies and investments that pay dividends to the business and the individual as well.
Together with our partners, Microsoft is committed to helping manufacturers give their Frontline the advanced technologies, new skills and capabilities, and training needed to transform what work is and means for the two billion people worldwide who make so much possible.
Please join me in the next episode of Changemakers when I will take a look at another issue that is extremely important to me—sustainability in the supply chain.
You can stay connected with me here on LinkedIn and on Twitter . I also invite you to join my Art of Possible video series , where I will be talking more about innovation, transformation, and leadership.
?In the meantime, below are a few additional resources to help you get started.
Microsoft Changemakers Episodes
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Microsoft Supply Chain Resources
Visit Microsoft.com/manufacturing to learn how we can help you empower your workforce
Workforce empowerment tools from Microsoft
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(1) Creating pathways for tomorrow’s workforce today: Beyond Reskilling in Manufacturing, Deloitte Insights , May 2021
(2) A C-Suite Blueprint for Empowering Firstline Workers , Harvard Business Review, 2020
(3) Empowering Manufacturing’s Firstline Staff To Be Better Collaborators And Communicators , Harvard Business Review, 2020
Partner Account Manager - Growth
2 年Very inspiring ?a?layan A. .. would love to pitch in our ISVs and their solutions here
CEO at Rever: helping manufacturers save money by connecting their frontline workforce
2 年I loved this: "just like technology is a tool to help businesses discover innovation hidden in data, technology can also be a tool that helps people discover talent and skills hidden in themselves." I could not agree more! Why is it that most companies get so excited about connecting machines and gathering data they will only dump into the archive? Don't get me wrong: IoT devices and sensors are fantastic for detecting and predicting problems. But they are useless if people can't collaborate to solve those issues immediately. Technology can help turn your frontline employees into an army of problem solvers. I'm glad ?a?layan A. and Microsoft are bringing attention to this.
Field Service Disruption | Maintenance | Partnerships | Alliances | Joint GTM | Eco-Systems | Co-Innovation | #EverythingisSolvable
2 年Well said - I would even go further, its not only about empowering your people, its about empowering all stakeholders in your supply chain. That also includes suppliers and customers. The future of work is connected, a future where new age technology enable humans and machines to work hand in hand, where real time data provides actionable insights and where AIoT creates a never seen before ecosystem.
Industrial Digital Transformation | Smart Factories | Connected Workers
2 年Well stated, excited to be partnering with Microsoft on this journey!
Cofounder & CEO @ Tulip, Cofounder & Chairman @ Formlabs - WE ARE HIRING
2 年The #frontline is the next real frontier. It will hard to help fix the global economy without a dedicated focus, providing 1st-class tools of this era to engineers and operators in labs, shopfloors, warehouses, and many other frontline work environments. Thanks, ?a?layan A. for putting this subject front and center. Future of work now.