Even before the pandemic hit, manufacturers were struggling to fill vacant positions globally. Several factors contributed to this workforce shortage: skill gaps, the perception of low wages, lack of interest in manufacturing, lack of diversity, and an aging skilled workforce. Then the pandemic added the additional stress of demand-triggered layoffs in some sectors and excess work in others, leading to mental health and safety concerns, which added to manufacturers’ woes.
The phrase “pilot purgatory” has become an infamous descriptor for many IoT, frontline workforce, and digitization projects, and it has been written about by virtually all top research and tech companies. The conjecture is that companies initiate and then get stuck in the pilot phase of their digitization, IoT, and optimization projects, which fail to scale and leave users, managers, the C-suite, and the shareholders frustrated. Different views have been presented on why projects get stuck in pilots and many theories have been presented to help companies avoid the pain of a stalled, slowed, or failed project.
Webalo reviews the key takeaways from the Gartner supply chain symposium/expo in June and September 2022, highlighting how manufacturers can advance their supply chain optimization, smart manufacturing, and workforce management!
Digitizing tasks and activities for frontline workers, while providing real-time operational visibility and driving process optimization and improvement, across all areas of business operations.
