Empowering Connected Workers to Increase Efficiency and Accuracy in Manufacturing Processes
Complex assembly manufacturing often relies on the expertise and reliability of a human workforce. Is the changing workforce keeping you up at night? Are new operators leaving at lunchtime and never coming back? Are experienced workers retiring out?
Enable your workforce with Industry 4.0 innovation to support frontline operations and optimize assembly processes.
In today’s evolving manufacturing landscape, the need for visibility, efficiency, and accuracy in production processes is significant. Many companies face challenges with optimizing and even documenting work processes, as well as managing data effectively between systems. This blog examines how Digital Work Instructions can improve assembly manufacturing, guiding operators to reduce errors and costs.
Don’t Bet on Undocumented Work Processes or Static OT Systems
Many manufacturing environments include both automated and manual interactions between equipment and personnel. These processes are often undocumented, leading to difficulties in adapting to business needs and the loss of experienced workforce knowledge.
Furthermore, while Operations Technology (OT) solutions have evolved to manage production operations, companies often need to customize these systems extensively, making upgrades and improvements difficult. Changes require significant IT resources, leading to further customization and maintenance challenges.
Bottom line: undocumented work processes and static OT systems do not support continuous improvement, the changing workforce, or optimization of any kind. Are your outdated processes and systems holding you back?
Digitize to Modernize
A crucial step toward modernizing for a changing workforce, digitizing work processes ensures consistent and repeatable operations, using adaptable and composable Digital Work Instructions technology. By documenting and streamlining production work processes, companies can adapt more effectively and enable continuous improvement.
Driven by Digital Work Instructions, paperless manufacturing aims to improve efficiency, quality, and sustainability. Manufacturers need to first digitize work processes and then can continue with other digital transformation.
By digitizing work processes, assembly manufacturers can:
✅Increase Efficiency: Digitized processes simplify workflows, reducing time spent on manual data entry and paperwork. This allows teams to focus on operational tasks, enhancing productivity and output.
✅Improve Quality: With electronic Standard Operating Procedures, all operators can follow standardized procedures, minimizing errors and variations. Real-time data collection and feedback can enable adjustments, ensuring consistent results.
✅Reduce Waste: Guiding operators with digitized procedures can reduce production errors, scrap, and material waste. Moreover, paperless operations can eliminate the need for printed documents, thereby reducing paper waste.
Applying Digital Work Instructions in Assembly Manufacturing
Digital Work Instructions address various production challenges, from machine setup to managing entire production processes and facilitating communication between different systems. Digital Work Instructions improve assembly manufacturing through the following applications:
Orchestrating High-Level Processes and Managing Data: A challenge for many companies is the lack of visibility into high-level processes and inadequate documentation. Digital Work Instructions solutions can help companies successfully orchestrate systems and manage data between them. For example, an automotive Tier 1 manufacturer located in the southeastern United States supplies subassemblies to an automotive OEM. The company worked with Matrix Automation to improve its integration with the OEM’s broadcast, orchestrate work processes, and execute manufacturing for on-time, in-sequence delivery. Refer to our blog on automotive broadcast for more details. With digital work processes and orchestration, companies can support the interconnected nature of people, systems, and processes.
Digitizing Standard Operating Procedures and Work Instructions: Traditional paper documents or binders at workstations are being replaced by digitized Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and work instructions. This transition allows operators to perform their tasks with fewer errors while the system records the necessary information. The digital format ensures that operators have access to the most up-to-date instructions and can execute their work efficiently.
Supporting Manual Assembly Error-Proofing, Quality Management, and Traceability: Digital Work Instructions provide station-level control for assembly and error-proofing, documenting products, people, and resources for traceability. This level of control enhances the accuracy of manual assembly processes, reducing the likelihood of errors and ensuring consistent quality.
Accelerating Line, Station & Machine Setup: To expedite production and boost accuracy, Digital Work Instructions facilitate machine setup. The system guides users through the setup process, provides comprehensive machine documentation, and records the time operators take to complete each step. This structured approach not only speeds up the setup process but also can ensure that it is done correctly.
Enabling Integration and Intelligence: As manufacturing complexity increases, industry standards become more important to ensure successful integration, execution, and data management. For system integration, companies need a common definition of data. Even for basic tasks, such as work instructions, data exchange and storage are essential. A Digital Work Instructions solution, such as from Matrix Automation, follows industry standards to leverage a common framework that facilitates communication across systems and gives context to data.
Modernizing assembly manufacturing with Digital Work Instructions offers many benefits, including improved visibility, efficiency, and accuracy in production processes. By digitizing work processes, companies can overcome the challenges related to new workers onboarding, as well as the retirement of experienced workers. Assembly manufacturers can enable frontline brilliance, helping to streamline operations, reduce errors, and achieve competitive advantage.
Ready to enable your connected workforce with Digital Work Instructions? Contact Matrix Automation to find out how we’ve helped assembly manufacturers digitize their work processes and optimize operations on more than 4,000 projects.