Connected Digital Worker Strategies: Reinventing Business Models And Front-Line Worker Relationships
The traditional work environment is outdated. “Digital workplaces” for office and industrial front-line workers dominate conversations as companies reimagine business models. Your organization may be undergoing a reimagining now. As a visionary leader, you want to help your front-line workers be more productive, more efficient, and safely perform tasks in a digital environment.
Technology circles and the trade press are abuzz about the “connected digital worker strategy.” Today we’ll define the connected digital worker strategy, who can use it, the problems it solves, potential drawbacks, and what to look for in such a platform.
What Is a Connected Digital Worker Strategy?
Connected digital worker strategies promote mobile collaboration between front-line workers and decision-makers. They join technology and digital trends such as Cloud, mobile, wearables, augmented reality, AI/ML, virtual assistants and other connected assets with the goal of helping the front-line worker get a job done faster, better, cheaper, and safer.?Connected digital worker strategies also let management and front-line workers use real-time operational data gathered digitally in the field to make informed, knowledge-based decisions.
Who Can Use a Connected Digital Worker Strategy?
Asset-intensive industries face several daunting maintenance and operational business challenges. Primary among these are growing margin pressures, skills gaps, and safety compliance. A connected digital worker strategy facilitates addressing these concerns. Many asset-intensive industries can utilize such strategies, including:
? Oil & gas
? Chemicals
? Mining & minerals
? Utilities
? Pharmaceuticals
? Pulp & paper
? Food & beverage
? General Manufacturing
Here are a few of the operational problems connected digital worker strategies address:?
Margin pressures.?Even before the pandemic, companies were facing pressures from investors and stakeholders to improve profit margins. That pressure has only increased with the pandemic. Plants must boost operational efficiency and wring the greatest production out of their front-line workforce, eliminate maintenance backlogs and improve predictability of their production capacity.
It’s estimated that a front-line worker only spends?25% of his day on productive work. That leaves a lot of wasted time the plant pays for with lost production and reduced revenues. A highly efficient operation can achieve up to?74% wrench time?and only spend $100 million per year on maintenance labor. A highly inefficient maintenance operation, however, could spend more than four times (over?$400 million annually)?to complete the same work. Such inefficiency, therefore, can cost a maintenance operation $300 million a year.?
Skills gaps.?Companies are also confronting the replacement of an aging workforce with a new generation of front-line workers. As Baby Boomers leave, they take valuable tribal knowledge with them. Younger incoming workers can’t access this lost knowledge. They also may suffer from skills gaps. This affects their productivity and leads to costly reworks and work order backlogs, which increases the risks of unplanned downtime and lost revenues.
One-quarter of American manufacturing workers?are age 55 or older. The?average age?of an industrial front-line technician now stands at 45.3 years. As this number creeps higher, plants will see more retirements. If these experienced workers leave before their considerable tribal knowledge is passed on or preserved, new hires will struggle to maintain efficiency. A plant could see decreased wrench time, more errors, and additional overtime to complete work orders so as not to disrupt production and revenues.????
Safety.?Work-related injuries and deaths?cost plants nearly $165 billion a year. Hoping to stem that tide, OSHA is closely watching. The agency handed out a stiff?$1.8 million fine?in 2019. Inefficient maintenance combined with an inexperienced workforce increases the risk of safety incidents and fines. Add manual, paper-based processes for operator rounds, inspections, and risk assessments to the mix and you now have some real concerns.
Manual, paper-based processes are slow and tedious. They’re also prone to error, especially with inputting data into the back office system of record. This means key safety-related information may either get lost or not make it to decision-makers in time for proper remedial action.
Connected Digital Worker Strategies To Reinvent an Organization
Connected digital worker strategies are designed to allow front-line workers, the back-office, executives, and machines to seamlessly collaborate while allowing the front-line worker to access and capture field data in real time. They also empower front-line workers with step-by-step, visual, and guided work instructions to improve their working life and safety. This facilitates maintenance work execution, inspections, checklists, operator rounds and risk assessments using a mobile or wearable device.
Implementing a connected digital worker strategy helps enterprises reimagine maintenance and operations by:
? Integrating digital technology into every aspect of maintenance and operations
? Enabling organizations to rethink operating models
? Providing greater agility and flexibility in responding to issues
? Making front-line industrial workers the center of a connected ecosystem
These strategies are becoming a C-suite priority to:
? Help front-line workers focus on high-value-added tasks
? Share intelligence across organizations
? Leverage data to understand and automate processes and operations
? Foster greater collaboration between people, processes and machines
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Potential Drawbacks?
Connected digital worker platforms function through wireless internet connections. Lack of a connection could pose a problem, depending on the platform chosen. Oil & gas companies, mines and utilities operate in remote areas with poor connectivity. Unless the platform offers an offline mode that syncs once a connection is made, a connected worker platform will be of little use in such a situation.
Six Required Features For A Connected Worker Platform?
Six key capabilities for best-in-class performance and ROI include:
? ERP Data/Workflows combined with powerful field data collection?
? On-demand, real-time access to information?
? Works in online and offline modes
? Ability to process information from the field in real-time into an ERP
? Visual, guided and step-by-step work instructions?
? Embedded Organizational Change Management strategies?
As you reimagine and reinvent your business model, look closely at margin pressures, skills gaps, and plant safety. Pay attention to front-line workers’ relationships with these challenges. A connected digital worker platform could enable you to overcome such problems while empowering your workforce. Always perform stringent due diligence before making any decision.??
A customer success video featuring Innovapptive's customer Hess in collaboration with KB Industries utilizing Innovapptive's Connected Workforce Platform for automating their Inventory & Warehouse Management processes. Hess is transforming their inventory & warehouse operations with Modern Bar-coding, Scanning, & Printing Devices. The Modern User Interface and User Experience of the platform is helping them continuously improve their inventory accuracy and align with their Six Sigma Lean Manufacturing Principles. Discover More Here
The Connected Worker Platform is three desktop modules that provide control center integration with ERPs to enable work assignments and display of status in real-time.
The Maintenance Control Center (MCC) - Assign work orders to maintenance workers, send notifications, see real-time spare parts availability and kit status, and monitor work order progress. Execute work orders within a paperless process.
The Work Instructions Authoring Tool - Create and integrate Digital Work Instructions directly into work orders to ensure work is completed right the first time.
The Spare Parts Control Center (SPCC) - Digitizes warehouse processes to ensure maintenance teams receive the right parts at the right time. Assign and monitor warehouse tasks, such as kitting work orders.
The package forms a true end-to-end solution, bridging the work management gap between supervisors, the back office, and frontline workers. It also provides a single unified platform that connects maintenance and the warehouse at each step of the work order process. Know More here
Innovapptive offers a cloud-based "Mobile First" Software for the office of the COO. More than 50+ of the world’s leading companies have transformed their Enterprise Asset Management, Field Data Capture, and Inventory Management processes with Innovapptive. Our customers include Shell, Hess, Par Pacific, Dominion Energy, Sask Power, Rio Tinto, Newmont Mining, EDF Renewables, Air Gas, AkzoNobel, DuPont, and many more.
Innovapptive's connected worker platform uniquely brings maintenance, operations and supply chain workers together.