Manufacturers irrespective of their industry segment and geographical spread are facing challenges in all areas of their business, the sheer uncertainty which exists in the market due to global trade wars, international conflicts, heightened regulations, local and regional restrictions, and changing tariffs are all contributors to this unprecedented level of chaos.

There are, however, industry-specific, people and technology-related challenges as well, there is a clear and growing knowledge/skill gap between the existing old-school workforce and the new more digitally adept one. Understanding what technologies to implement to further the company’s vision and doing so with minimum disruption is another challenge. Competition is tighter than ever, digitization is being pursued by each and every manufacturer, which means improvement in efficiency and profitability are critically important. Even in relatively stable batch-type discreet production facilities, customer demands for personalization and customization are leading to a larger than ever product mix.

For manufacturing organizations, perhaps the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to their digital transformation journey is the digitization of the frontline workforce through a comprehensive platform.

The platform should have the ability to connect the workforce to the enterprise while enabling data collection and facilitating real-time decision-making. That said, until recently most organizations were focused on providing better digital tools to their knowledge workers and office staff, not the frontline workforce. Leaders in manufacturing through hard-learned lessons; realized during the pandemic that frontline workforce digitization brings with it a golden opportunity for improvements in overall process efficiency and operational effectiveness. Most importantly, previously untapped treasure troves of data, right from the shop floor, which has the largest impact value if collected, viewed, and acted upon with the right context and in the right timeframe.

The value of digitizing the plant by replacing paper forms as your first step in the Industry 4.0 journey

Industry 4.0 and the benefits it can potentially bring are often misconstrued to be a ‘Big-Bang' change in the way a company operates. Overnight, the automation of plant workflows and AI-driven business results are achieved to yield far-reaching and unprecedented benefits. This view of Industry 4.0 adoption has some serious flaws.