One of the perks of Smart Manufacturing is an advanced level of continuous improvement across any metric: like waste, energy use or time. This is because Smart Manufacturing empowers the workforce to be the change maker, the voice of these improvements. Companies see multiplied savings when they give their workforce Smart Manufacturing training, access to data and a platform to suggest improvement and savings opportunities based on the data.
How and why
With Smart Manufacturing, the modern-day workforce can learn not only “how” to work with digital devices and the data they produce but “why” the information is important.
The best place to start the journey is with training, which requires a different approach to traditional workforce development. Smart Manufacturing demands a company blend tech-literacy with the ability to drive business and process improvements in their employees. While some workers undoubtedly need vocational training on advanced equipment to keep up with the times, other workers need different skill sets to understand the data and how to use them.
Identify your team
A good place to start is by identifying your workforce teams.
The Smart Manufacturing professionals are the ones who must drive change and implement Smart solutions across department and operating boundaries, based on voice-of-customer from company business partners. These professionals are tasked with bringing industry vision and integration awareness and education to their roles. Transformation must be delivered through active change management and a robust training and education curriculum so that the audience understands why change is needed.
Operators in the field or shop floor are the stakeholders who execute the change, but with the right education and access to real-time data they can also be the voice to improve the solution based on the experiences and information they encounter in their daily work. It is important to give these stakeholders the tools and voice needed in order to see multiplied savings.
