Manufacturing, logistics, and industrial operations are the backbone of the global economy, yet inefficiencies in production, supply chain management, and workforce coordination drain literally trillions of dollars from businesses annually. High-volume industries—such as paper mills, bottling plants, perishable goods manufacturing, mining, automotive, and pharmaceuticals—face persistent challenges in managing downtime, optimizing supply chains, and maintaining operational efficiency.

The Staggering Cost of Inefficiency in Enterprise Operations

Workplace inefficiencies contribute to massive financial losses across industries:

The Role of a Frontline-Workforce Platform in Attracting and Retaining Workers

A recent post from Accenture points out that there were 10.1 million job openings in America as of August 2022 and that attracting frontline workers remained a major challenge for businesses.

It seems almost paradoxical that most workers are looking for extra work to cover inflation while most organizations claim to have workforce shortages and are making active efforts to engage new people while trying their best to retain existing workers. The data presented shows that these organizations aren’t doing enough to attract and retain talent. Accenture highlights how this situation can be improved and how, by making certain changes, even smaller companies can develop thriving, capable, and technologically forward-looking workforces that deliver the best possible KPI results.

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.