For months, screens and newspapers have been covered with compelling images of frontline workers working hard to help everyone get through this pandemic: healthcare staff in full protective gear, working tirelessly in emergency departments; postal and delivery workers carrying important packages to homes and businesses; and grocery store employees stocking shelves to make sure shoppers get what they need. From the start of this pandemic, manufacturing employees have played just as important a role as other frontline workers. But they have less visibility and haven't made the headlines as much, because most consumers don't really think about how products get made and end up where they're needed.
Situated on the plant floor where raw materials go in and finished products come out, manufacturing workers are the people who power the heart of the supply chains. Every product that's in high demand and is considered essential (especially during this pandemic) wouldn't get into anyone's hands without the massive frontline factory workforce showing up to work every day. Doing their jobs, though, puts them at risk.
This situation begs the question: How are these workers being supported? They play such an important role during this time of crisis, but who is watching out for them? The headlines are filled with stories of plant closures and high infection rates among plant workers. They're putting their health at risk - in many cases with little protection or insufficient adherence to safety measures. Clearly these employees need to be better supported.
The Biggest Challenge Facing Today's Industrial Frontline Workers
Safety is hands-down the most immediate and critical issue that industrial companies are dealing with right now. Beyond safety adherence itself, there's also the challenge of scaling safety practices across an organization. In large enterprise companies, having new safety protocols rolled out one plant at a time (with each rollout taking months to implement) just isn't an option during this time when every day brings uncertainty. And with regulatory bodies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention frequently updating their recommendations, by the time an implementation at a site is complete, a new standard has usually already been announced. The deployment process needs to be reimagined.
It's difficult for frontline factory workers to follow social distancing guidelines when they have to move around throughout a plant, often in close proximity to one another. Social distancing is often impossible for certain production processes and the sheer number of people those processes require. Improving workplace safety during the pandemic requires a major overhaul of work standards (and sometimes an overhaul of the work itself), a process that involves not just operations but human resources and many other stakeholders.
Another challenge is simply keeping up with production - that is, maintaining the pace of production or implementing new processes as many manufacturers turn to making products outside of their typical arena (such as face masks, ventilators, and hand sanitizer). Rising demand requires faster work, and pivots in production processes require faster onboarding.
Connected Worker Technology
Ironically, factory workers are pushing out millions and millions of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) while many of them are themselves inadequately protected. On the factory floor, keeping workers safe goes beyond having them wear PPE: it requires limiting the spread of the coronavirus. And that's where technology comes into play.
One option is connected worker technology, which essentially digitizes standard, paper-based operating procedures in order to improve safety, productivity, and quality across any operation touched by a human worker. One obvious way that digitizing procedures helps keep workers safer is by eliminating contact with surfaces such as paper and by eliminating the need to exchange documents with others on the plant floor. Digital sign-offs ensure that social distancing protocols are maintained yet still provide verification that necessary product quality and safety criteria are met.
This technology brings many other benefits. By incorporating safety measures directly into standard operating procedures, it can alert workers to meet safety guidelines (for example, through reminders to wash their hands, wear a mask, or take their temperature). Any newly introduced standards or updates can be quickly added to digital procedures, and every worker (regardless of which plant they're in) who follows those procedures immediately gets the latest version of them. Embedding proactive safety steps within the work itself benefits everyone on every plant floor, thus enabling safety at scale.
Connected worker technology also digitally captures operational and human activity data, which has undeniable value during a time when face-to-face contact must be limited. For example, shift handovers typically require one shift to pass on to the following shift information about topics such as changes in the production schedule, equipment problems, and jobs that were not completed. A digital, mobile-connected worker solution can track the real-time activity and progress level of tasks and procedures, thus decreasing and even eliminating the need for shift leaders and teams to talk face to face.
This technology can also help guide people to do their work effectively and accurately, which is critical to the many organizations that are rushing or pivoting their production to meet heightened demand for certain products. For example, it can help new workers get up to speed quickly in their initial onboarding. At the same time, having digital, multimedia work instructions and real-time collaboration through SMS text, video, photos, and more makes it easier to transfer knowledge to current workers tasked with new responsibilities.
Because it captures human activity data, connected worker technology also gives plant managers more access to what's happening on the plant floor. The technology can uncover roadblocks and reveal factors that may be causing them, for example. Having that level of insight can help managers better adjust and control overall workflows and keep production moving at the pace and quality level needed to meet quotas and customer expectations.
Final Thoughts
Technology can't and shouldn't be the only safety measure that companies implement for their employees. Plants need to have comprehensive, strict, and crystal-clear safety policies in place to ensure that they do not unwittingly put employees at risk in any way. This emphasis on safety really needs to start at the top and requires collaboration across all departments and functions, not just safety management or the environment, health, and safety team. Implementing connected worker technology is one critical step toward building a truly safety-first culture.