Honeywell on the Rise of the Connected Worker and Wearable Technology in Industrial Environments

As manufacturers deal with rising costs and labor scarcity, it has become ever more important to help existing staff do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. New recruits must be brought up to speed quickly and can’t take years to learn the ropes from senior staff.

That’s one reason that many are turning to a class of technologies and platforms that has been dubbed Connected Worker. These technologies help workers access information and resources that they need to do their jobs better.

Benefits include faster onboarding times, quicker time to resolution for problems on the production line, better support for less experienced workers, improved safety, among others.   

Manas Dutta, General Manager, Honeywell Workforce Excellence Portfolio will be leading a workshop at our upcoming Connected Worker conference in Chicago entitled “Enabling Your Workforce to Perform Better using Connected Technologies Coupled with Autonomous Worker Assistance.”

In this interview, Dutta discusses the rise of the Connected Worker, explains what autonomous worker assistance is, and explores why more manufacturers are turning to wearables on the shopfloor.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Tell me about the topic of the workshop you’ll be leading. What is autonomous worker assistance and how is it beneficial?

Manas Dutta, Honeywell: Across the industrial sector, we see jobs are being transformed by fourth industrial revolution technologies. This is increasing the complexity of assets and requires the reskilling of the existing workforce.

The skills requirements are evolving and emerging, so there is a constant need to increase productivity where workers need better tools to do their jobs more efficiently and collaborate better using machine-to-machine, machine-to-human, and human- to-human engagement. Honeywell is addressing these needs using autonomous worker assistance solution.

So, what are the benefits? Firstly, it helps maintain business continuity in the face of high workforce churn. The new workforce needs to learn faster and achieve competency quickly for business continuity. We also need increased productivity in the current inflationary environment. Workers need better tools to do their jobs more efficiently and more collaboratively using new technologies.

Diana Davis, IX Network: How does Honeywell fit into the connected worker market? What do you offer to customers in manufacturing and other industrial environments to support this notion of the Connected Worker?

Manas Dutta, Honeywell: Our company is not only a technology provider, but we also operate our own plants.

That gives us the perfect mix of domain knowledge and technology. We combine that expertise together to offer a comprehensive solution. Connected Worker shouldn’t be just a bunch of technical point solution; it must be stitched together to provide a holistic solution.

We provide the solution using what we call a “ETPA framework”.

That stands for Evaluate, Train, Predict and Assist.

What do we mean by Evaluate? It is important to measure the current state and understand the existing gaps from the future state. Then you can plan the progression properly.

The Evaluate phase does exactly that. We measure the current state and use that information to come up with a workforce development plan.

Next is Training. The way we acquire knowledge is changing fast. Today's workforce don't want to spend weeks in a classroom and learn one particular topic. They are more into hands on and “just in time” learning. Providing the right training at the right time using technology is a very important part of Connected Worker for us.

The third piece is to Predict. Once the trained workforce are back into the field we help them with predictive insights and recommendations to plan their day-to-day job more effectively and efficiently.

Finally, comes the Assist stage. While workers are executing their jobs, we provide assistance through different mobility solutions to ensure they do the job right first time, every time.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Can you take me through some of the underlying technologies that that come into this? You mentioned stitching things together to a comprehensive solution. What needs to be stitched together to get a good solution for the Connected Worker?

Manas Dutta, Honeywell: If we go back to our ETPA framework, we use an AI ML-based technology to analyze the data coming from the live system that captures what workforce are doing on the job and how are they handling different situations.

This AI ML will come up with insights and recommendations where the workforce is doing well and where they need help, assistance, coaching or training.

When we get to the training stage, one important aspect is to encourage “learning by doing” for higher retention.

However, it can be challenging to train in a live production environment because most industrial plants are running at optimum production. We create a digital replica of the plant using virtual reality immersive technology and allow users to learn through different ‘what if’ scenarios. This safe, simulated environment can expedite their learning.

When it comes to the Predict stage, AI ML, again, plays a major role. We look at the asset data, process data, and historical data to come up with health-related predictive insights, which the workforce can look into and plan out what needs immediate attention. Mobility solutions with wearable devices provide contextual information in the moment when workers need it the most when they are doing the job in the field. Those are the key technologies which are contributing to this solution.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Could you give me an example of how your clients are using technology like this?

Manas Dutta, Honeywell: We have quite a number of examples. One of the largest LNG plants in America, for instance, is using our virtual reality-based immersive field simulator to train their field operators. In the Middle East and Pacific regions many customers are also using this solution to train new hires to optimize the number of field workers needed specifically in offshore platform for operations and maintenance needs.

The AI ML-based competency assessment is being used by large petrochemical plants in the Middle East to address competency gaps and minimize production losses due to human errors.

Typically, 3 to 8% of production losses are caused by human errors. If we can identify competency gaps and plug them, that is a huge saving for our customers.

Mobility solutions with wearable technology is also becoming increasingly popular. Customers are using wearable technology for use cases like digitization of pen-and-paper-based field rounds, remote collaboration with experts to resolve issues faster, and safety measures to promote emergency evacuation in the case of a fire, gas leak or “man down” alert.

Diana Davis, IX Network:  Are there any particular areas that you see as key areas of growth for the Connected Worker over the next 12 months?

Manas Duttas, Honeywell: We see that many Connected Worker implementations right now are mostly point solutions in the form of different mobility applications that are disjointed. This makes it hard to address the end-to-end workflow that field operators or field maintenance workers need.  

The security of the solution is also a major concern because most of these Connected Worker solutions are cloud hosted.

Finally, connectivity is a major challenge in most of industrial manufacturing environments.

It important to look at a platform rather than a point solution, that offers easy and scalable integration within a plant’s operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) existing infrastructure.

Making sure that this solution is secure and can function in both offline and online modes is essential. This is the kind of solution that will drive the future of Connected Worker.

Diana Davis, IX Network: Wearable technology is an area of growing interest in industrial environments for everything from safety through to productivity. What are the wearable device options that are available and how do you recommend companies go about evaluating what might be best fit for the operations?

Manas Dutta: When we look at industrial frontline workers they already carry too many tools in the field for their day-to-day jobs. Not only is that inconvenient, but it can pose safety concerns when they have to carry yet another handheld mobile device with them.

Wearable mobile technology, as a result, is becoming very popular in industries across all segments. It  makes access to information easier through voice-driven commands, and it also helps to keep the hands free for the job they are doing.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. It is important to first identify the challenges that frontline workers of a particular plant are facing. Understand the business process and then pick a few use cases to pilot the solution first.

At the beginning it is important to assess - Who are we trying to connect? What are they doing today? How error prone are their actions? What are the consequences of errors? What information do they need to do the job right, first time?

In the pilot phase, it is also very important to identify a few end users who can play the role of a change champion in the organization.

Establish the value of the solution with a smaller scale pilot before scaling up. We help the adoption process by providing support to our clients to overcome the common challenges that come during the change management process. Our motto is to help our customers make every worker the best worker.

Interested in Learning More About this Topic?

Manas Dutta will be leading a workshop on Enabling Your Workforce to Perform Better using Connected Technologies Coupled with Autonomous Worker Assistance at IX Network’s upcoming Connected Worker conference in Chicago.  Learn how dynamic connectivity between people and processes can bring a step change in building safe and reliable operations and explore the advanced wearable devices  that are set to transform your connected workforce. Download the agenda for more information.