Asset-intensive industries with a large installed base of equipment require regular maintenance, inspections, and audits. When a piece of equipment breaks or is down for maintenance, it costs the company lots of money and time, reducing revenue and productivity while lowering profits. Here are some of the common operational challenges faced by industrial companies:
- Unplanned asset downtime
- Lack of real-time visibility in maintenance and inventory
- Lower wrench time
- Maintenance backlogs & rework
- Inefficient SOPs and work instructions
- Skill gaps in new hires
Many times, these challenges arise mainly because of paper-based processes and multiple disconnected systems that hinder the field workers from accessing real-time data and contextual information from back-office systems that are needed to execute the job efficiently and safely. These organizations must improve team collaboration and coordination to ensure a reduction in unplanned downtime and enhanced operational excellence. Departments like maintenance and warehouse workers should have integrated tools for consistent communication to prevent unplanned shutdowns, repair, and time lost in inventory searches.
What is a Connected Worker Solution?
While people working from the office benefit from cloud-based solutions that connect them and aid them in working more efficiently, the field workers are at a disadvantage as they are forced to still use outdated paper-based processes to perform crucial tasks which are tedious and inefficient.
A Connected Workers Solution bridges this gap and connects field and back-office workers to central systems like EAM, warehouse management, and Document Management through a single platform; empowering them to perform the job efficiently, quickly, and safely. Some of the popular use cases of a Connected Workers Solution are:
- Asset Maintenance
- Field Service
- Warehouse Management
- Employee Engagement and Collaboration
- Workforce Training and Development
- Safety and Compliance
How Connected Worker Solution can help?
Connected Worker Solutions can play an important role in enhancing operational excellence in field service, plant maintenance, and warehouse management. Here are the key benefits:
- Seamless Technology Integration:
By integrating systems across the processes (EAM, document management, inventory management etc), devices (Smartphones, Tablets, and Web), equipment, and people (Both- field & back-office workers); the digital workflows give you field visibility and insights for making informed decisions.
- Collaboration and Information Sharing:
With contextual information at their fingertip, field technicians can access standard operating procedures (SOPs), machine drawings, work instructions, digital forms, and stock overview on their mobile devices, resulting in increased wrench time, improved first-time fix rate, and enhanced safety & compliance.
- Paperless System:
By mobilizing paper-based processes, field operators can capture inspection readings, reports defects, and create a notification via mobile device to alert the supervisors/managers so that corrective action can be taken before breakdown occurs.
- Preserving Tribal Knowledge:
As the retirement rate among aging workers increases, they take the unwritten institutional knowledge along when they leave. Having too many inexperienced workers will result in lower productivity and first-time fix rates, and impact the bottom line. A centralized-knowledge management platform to document the tribal knowledge can mitigate this risk.
- Quick Return on Investment:
Connected worker solution helps organizations boost technicians’ productivity and reduce operational cost, resulting in an increased bottom line with quick ROI.
At Unvired, we have been providing Connected Worker solutions for over 10 years with in-depth experience in SAP mobile asset management, field service, digital forms, and inventory /warehouse management-related business processes. Contact us today if you would like to discuss more.
