5 Ideas on How to Win Over the Shopfloor with Technology

As more manufacturers adopt Industry 4.0 technologies, some are learning the hard way that the success of their initiative is more dependent on their people than it is on technology. Technology is only useful if it’s used.

So, what can you do to increase your odds of the shopfloor adopting a new technology?  

#1: Engage your shop floor early in the process

Changing processes and implementing new technology has a major impact on the way that your people need to do their job. They’re the ones that are best placed to provide feedback to ensure that it delivers value.

By engaging your workers early in the process you’ll increase the odds that not only will you develop something fit for purpose but also that they’ll be ready and willing to adopt it.

#2: Identify the WIIFM

Sure, management is going to get fancy new dashboards and whizzy analytics. But what’s in it for the workers? Your business case needs to address the WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) factor for workers or else your innovation is likely to end up gathering digital dust or bogged down in union negotiations.

#3: Ensure that automation doesn't mean elimination

Once upon a time, there was a fear that robots were going to steal all the jobs. Not surprisingly, workers were suspicious anytime the words ‘digital’ or ‘automation’ were bandied about.

These days, manufacturers are struggling to recruit and retain enough workers. Industry 4.0 offers a way for manufacturers to achieve more with their existing staff and make the working environment frictionless and efficient.

When a job does need to change or becomes redundant due to technology implementation, workers should be offered the opportunity to upskill and move to other roles. Avoid setting the precedent that new technology means that layoffs are coming or you’ll find future roll outs increasingly difficult.  

#4: Start small, then scale

The expression ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall’ comes to mind with technology implementation. That’s why approaches like agile development, ‘fail fast,’ and minimum viable products, have become so popular in recent years as it allows you to continually test your applications in real world environments so that you don’t get to the end of a multi-year, multi-million dollar technology roll out and find out that what you’ve created doesn’t work.

Start in a small, focused area and roll out technology in digestible chunks so you can make it work and ensure that your workers don’t experience change overload.

#5: Focus on making technology intuitive and easy to understand

Don’t make the mistake of focusing on functionality over form. Technology needs to be intuitive and easy to understand. Technology with a big learning curve will have a more difficult adoption curve. Well designed user interfaces are essential application components rather than option extras.

Interested in learning more?

If you’re looking at how technology can optimize the performance of your people and drastically improve productivity across your operations, then you must attend our Connected Worker Summit.

Taking place November 15-17 in Chicago, the program has been designed to help you understand how to leverage connected worker technologies to improve operational efficiency, training, asset management, quality and safety. Download the agenda now.