Important Take-Aways from the Connected Worker Chicago Summit

Many important topics came up at the recent Connected Worker Chicago Summit 2023, an event that explored the top digital challenges and the latest technological advancements (especially with AI and generative AI) affecting manufacturing professionals. We at Prolifics talked with a lot of attendees at our booth, in speaker sessions, and out on the floor. Here are four important issues we heard from you during our three days there: 

1) “No paper on the factory floor” 

2) Younger workers and technology  

3) “Purity” and the connected worker 

4) Using AI in business operations 

Let’s take a quick look at each and see how it could apply to your organization. 

 

1) “No paper on the factory floor” 

Knowledge sharing and workforce management came out as a huge issue for many of the manufacturing companies in attendance. As these firms update and modernize with more complex equipment, there needs to be better ways of getting complex information in front of employees. A bunch of papers stuck all around the workstations with steps on how to operate the machinery, or repair and maintenance manuals buried in a supervisor’s desk drawer somewhere, doesn’t cut it anymore. Connected worker technology, whether through tablets, virtual/mixed reality wearables or computer vision, will get the correct information in front of the worker quickly and efficiently. The use of this technology dovetails and is part of the next topic –  

 

2) Younger workers and technology 

Many manufacturers expressed dismay that they can’t find enough people to work in their factories. To engage younger people, they can’t have that above “paper on the factory floor.” Companies need more technology because that’s how their target workforce grew up – for younger workers, there was never a time without smartphones or the internet. They expect automation and technology as a matter of course. For example, a tech-savvy new worker using a wearable now has the complete knowledge base in front of them – all the information he needs, even pictures and steps to go through. It makes onboarding easier, it makes training easier, and it makes day-to-day operations easier – which not only translates into efficiency and lower costs – it also means safety, a prime concern of every manufacturer. 

The flip side of this is that older workers are leaving or retiring – and taking a lot of institutional knowledge out the door with them. One manufacturer told us, “We don’t have anything documented in terms of our processes and our procedures. I would like to take our knowledgeable workers and get them to somehow help us use Gen AI to create that documentation.” That “somehow” would be AI speech-to-text, which captures info, then generates and formats documentation the way the client wants it. 

 

3) “Purity” and the connected worker 

It may at first seem to be a niche issue, but we met with a lot of food and beverage companies that can’t use phones, tablets or wearables out on the manufacturing floor because of food purity and safety rules – when dealing with food you can’t have anything that could contaminate it. A potential solution would be sanitized, ruggedized tablets that are mounted in a way that they couldn’t contaminate anything, with employees using speech-to-text instead of touching the tablet screen. 

 

4) Using AI in business operations 

While the conference focus was on the connected worker on the manufacturing floor or out in the field, many companies took the opportunity to discuss how AI and Gen AI could help their office/business operations. These included: 

• A company that is growing through acquisitions potentially using Gen AI to find and analyze new targets. For example, they have the historical information of how they decided to buy companies, the company profiles and the key performance indicators (KPIs) they look for. Gen AI could use all that info to generate new target recommendations. 
• Similar to the above, an already large and growth-through-acquisition firm found that its many pieces are using different vendors to buy the same products. The firm would like to use AI to analyze its vendor spend for consolidation and price negotiation. 
• Prolifics’ Salem Hadim, VP of Business Process Management, addressed the connected worker on the “office floor,” as opposed to the factory floor, in his conference presentation. He discussed process automation, generative AI and digital workers connecting someone sitting at their desk to the information they need to supercharge their workflows – or as we often say at Prolifics, elevate them to the complexity of their tasks.  

 

Learn more from Prolifics 

Getting The Most From Your Industrial Operators – The Connected Worker (prolifics.com) 

Panelist Q&A: The Factory Floor That Tells You More (prolifics.com) 

 

About Prolifics 

At Prolifics, the work we do with our clients matters. Whether it’s literally keeping the lights on for thousands of families, improving access to medical care, helping prevent worldwide fraud or protecting the integrity and speed of supply chains, innovation and automation are significant parts of our culture. While our competitors are throwing more bodies at a project, we are applying automation to manage costs, reduce errors and deliver your results faster. 

Let’s accelerate your transformation journeys throughout the digital environment – Data & AI, Integration & Applications, Business Automation, DevXOps, Test Automation, and Cybersecurity. We treat our digital deliverables like a customized product – using agile practices to deliver immediate and ongoing increases in value. Visit prolifics.com.