Podcast: Which manufacturing technologies are really worth the money?

Ryan Martin is senior research director for digital transformation at ABI Research. In his current position, Ryan covers new and emerging transformative technologies, including Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Additionally, he leads the firm's manufacturing, industrial, and enterprise IoT research efforts. Dr. Paul Miller is vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Limited. Paul focuses on smart manufacturing and the future of mobility with research that explores how new and emerging technologies challenge established organizations and their business models. Ryan and Paul recently spoke with Dennis Scimeca, senior editor for technology at IndustryWeek, about different manufacturing technologies and which will provide the biggest bang for your buck.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

DS: So, let's have some fun. We've decided that I will opine first, because clearly I love talking. For me, it’s connected worker technology, the most bang for your buck. To a point, I feel like connected worker is a subset of MES (manufacturing execution systems) in that MES might capture the sort of data that then gets piped to the worker via HMIs or tablets, smart devices, or even augmented reality glasses. But wherein MES is kind of a top-down perspective, tracking all the information going on at the plant, a connected worker system focuses on the operator. Literally, it's about the worker.

There are connected worker systems that have message boards, social-network-type tools, to allow people to communicate in real time. It's the operator-centric nature of the technology that defines it. It doesn't require a lot of hardware necessarily. Most people have smart phones, and tablets aren't that expensive. I heard one expert say what connected worker does is it allows operators to make decisions that they wouldn't be able to make if they didn't have that technology. And it can affect the day-to-day. It can have immediate effects, whereas another technology like an MES can provide information about shift performance. You can generate that single source of truth report and then, at the end of the day, look at it. But it's not real time. Whereas if the cell or the unit whose work informs whether it's time for you to do your job, if you know what they're doing in any given moment, you can plan your schedule at that point. So, for me, it's connected worker. Paul, what do you think?

PM: Yes and, or yes but. I think, firstly, all the technologies you mentioned in your introduction deliver real value. IoT, robots, AI, all these other things are really useful, really powerful, really transformative. But they are often quite a big project. So, if we're looking at something that delivers quick return on investment, doesn't cost you much to get started, begins to move the needle almost on day one, then yes, the range of connected worker solutions clearly fits the bill there. And as you said, most people have a smartphone. It might not be a modern one. It might not be the latest iPhone or the latest Galaxy or the latest Pixel, but they’ve got a smartphone that can handle a lot of these capabilities.

And we see connected worker use cases around things like safety, around things like efficiency, around things like worker autonomy, and around auditability. Knowing that Dennis inspected that asset this morning, and he replaced the following parts and all that, being able to log that, clearly delivers some value. I think the other thing is it's about pretty lightweight, pretty easy replacement of analogue processes. It's about replacing the whiteboard that the team gathers around at 8:00 in the morning to talk about what the tasks are going to be and instead moving over to something like a daily management system. It's about digitizing work instructions. It's about replacing Post-it notes and clip boards. All of that, quick, easy, lightweight, begins to deliver some value.

There's a much bigger piece that begins to open up around connecting these connected worker solutions to predictive maintenance. Connecting them to AI and machine learning models to send the right engineer to the right place at the right time. There's connecting through to IoT platforms to give you real-time visibility into what assets are doing. That's all the next step, but there's a very simple, very easy, low-hanging fruit piece around just replacing some of the paper out there with these lightweight, accessible tools.

RM: I feel like we can't get away from this conversation without talking about AI. Connected worker is an incredibly important topic. There's between 2.5 and 3 billion frontline workers, and connected worker applies certainly to those cohorts, but also to people across the organization. We look at solutions enabling connected work type capabilities, whether it's worker safety or better, broader business analytics.

There are certain qualities of the solutions that are coming through strongly to drive a more attractive ROI. Notably, that would be around SaaS and cloud-based offerings, whether it's MES or even the software running some of these other systems, robotics or additive, which do you have a much longer tail in terms of their return on investment. But the reason why SaaS and cloud-enabled software is very attractive is because of the low barriers to entry. As a result, the new applications of capability are much more composable, meaning that what you pay for is only what you need and importantly, you can scale up and scale down depending on that need. Needs change over time, and also that makes updates easier and, in theory, it should make it easier to integrate with other systems.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.