In manufacturing, the frontline is responsible for executing tasks and following clear guidelines and SOPs. 

While doing so, they use their experience and judgement to ensure results are compliant with intended specifications and work instructions. Manufacturing operations evolve to incorporate more digital tech equipment like IIoT sensors, automation, and robotics. As it becomes more normalized to use advanced IT tools to extract manufacturing data, the frontline and the decisions they make on a day-to-day and minute-to-minute basis will play a key role in ensuring that optimal results are obtained from digital transformation and automation efforts.

What should leaders do today to make their organizations and workforces future-ready?

When we hear the terms “Industry 4.0” and “digitalization,” we imagine fully automated, lifeless factories churning out products in a lights-out kind of manufacturing environment. The reality, however, is far from that image. The digital transformation of any enterprise is more like a journey than a step change, and achieving such a transformation is only possible through the empowerment of an organization’s number one resource: its workers.