Manufacturing leadership is coming to a crucial decision point. Do they go forward with connected worker platforms that move them forward into Industry 4.0, or do they stay where they are? While there is some “comfort” in the familiar old solutions, it’s comfort that comes at a high cost. The manufacturing world is, for the most part, heading forward rapidly into digital transformation, and companies that don’t move in that direction risk losing competitiveness and market share. Connected worker platforms can lead to significant improvements in worker safety, streamlined operations, higher quality and cost savings. Connected worker platforms are crucial for leadership to consider in a post-COVID world on the rise of new innovation.
What are Connected Workers?
A connected worker on the job has access to critical data and analysis tools that can come in the form of wearables, tablets, smartphones and sensors that help them see real time data and insight. This can help your team make smarter, faster, safer, and more efficient decisions. These tools aren’t meant to replace workers, they’re meant to become co-workers and helpful, trusted advisory assistants that keep them safer and help them improve processes on the job for the good of the entire company.
This worker-technology companionship is a critical step in the further effort to achieve digital transformation in your business. Many companies especially realized this a year ago when the COVID-19 crisis hit, and it was necessary for workers to go remote, if possible, or at least to work at a safe distance from each other. Suddenly, everyone realized just how important the technology piece was, and leadership began to understand the need to move in that direction. According to Forbes, at this point 85 percent of manufacturers now believe that connected workers are the only way forward.
What Leadership Needs to Know about the Connected Worker Platform
New connected worker platforms are entering the market at a rapid pace, and the market is always growing. Market analysts predict massive growth in the next decade and beyond. The pandemic has only driven demand from manufacturing leadership forward, not backward, and the trend is not stopping any time soon. Investments in connected worker platforms are now essential for any business that intends to stand the rocky, bumpy and fast-paced test of time, and there is no time to delay.
At the same time, it’s important for leadership to understand that it’s much easier to transition to digital transformation and connected workers than some may realize or understand. In the past, adopting new software tools was always a process that took a long learning curve. But today, mobile connected worker platforms like Anvl are so quick and easy to learn and use, especially for workers that are already familiar with mobile tech, that training tends to be faster and easier than leadership expects.
Connected Worker Platforms are Crucial for Leadership
The best way to implement and integrate a system like this is to include your workers. They are already familiar with smartphones and tablets, and those who aren’t can be trained along the way. This is technology that we use in our day-to-day lives already.
In fact, the training piece is essential. Instead of having one big, long, time-consuming training process, a solution like Anvl is so easy to use that training can happen on the shop floor, and in an ongoing way that saves time, gets everyone up-to-speed and starts to manifest benefits almost right away. It’s as easy as the smartphones that are already in your workers’ pockets.
The fact is, paper is going away. It has to. Many successful manufacturers have already done away with it because it’s wasteful, expensive and time-consuming. It served its purpose decades ago, but the pace of competition and business is now simply too fast. To remain competitive today, leadership needs to move forward into digital transformation. And just like you ditched your paper maps in favor of using a GPS to drive around and find things, get traffic and weather alerts in real time, find a place to eat, to rest, etc.—you’ll quickly see how a solution like Anvl can give you and your workers more real-time insight into your data than ever before, while you are on the job. Again: your workers are ready.
Anvl’s Connected Worker Platform
Anvl has an easy-to-integrate connected worker platform that brings safety, quality and operations insights in real time, to you and your workers, whether they’re in house or out in the field. Contact our experts to talk about your needs, and click here to see Anvl in Action.
