Blog - The Platform for the Frontline Workforce

On February 6, 2020 we issued a press release highlighting our progress on Frontline Workforce enablement.  We started this initiative in January 2019--so it's been a full year of recognizing the needs of those task workers that require a paperless workday to complete their jobs, whether it's executing a quality test, checking the status of equipment on the line, or conducting necessary procedures such as shift changeovers, schedule changes or clean in place  processes.

With so much focus on the #Frontline Worker, we wanted to see how manufacturers are currently managing their workforce's needs for task management and worker enablement.  Here are the results of our study, along with some commentary.

Takeaways from the survey

Respondents, whether they were in process or discrete, all have the same challenges: maintaining productivity, efficiency and responsiveness while dealing with multiple applications (more than 50% have 3 or more to access), supporting corporate initiatives such as Continuous Improvement or something more intangible such as Industry 4.0/Digital Transformation.

As other industry studies show, these workers are relying on their mobile device (nearly 70%) for both guidance and task management. 

A single method of interaction is desired--say 80% of respondents--and this is where Webalo can help. Webalo is one app on your device, a "single-pane-of-glass" view of all of your tasks and activities on your device - one app that manages all of the other enterprise and industrial data sources your workforce have to interact with. Webalo increases operational efficiency in every plant by several points, simply by the time it saves each individual worker from having to log-in and wade through the multiple other systems they currently have to use to do their job.

Webalo was recently recognized as an influencing vendor of technology for the Connected Worker in a new report by 451 Research, "Supporting the Digital Employee Experience for Frontline Workers in Manufacturing."