COVID-19 and the demands for social distancing present many challenges in the industrial workplace. Can group activities be eliminated or automated? Can we be effective as social humans with restricted physical access to our colleagues? In industrial settings, many activities are either “team sports” or cannot be performed remotely - “welding from home”, for example, is not a task that we are likely to see in the future!
I’m sure that many of you have smiled at the multiple-choice question that asks “What is the leading force in your workplace digital transformation? a) CEO; b) CTO; c) COVID-19”. But joking apart, it rings true. With survival - both at a personal and an enterprise level - at stake, COVID-19 is forcing us to adopt change and requiring managers and leaders to prioritize investments in sustainability and necessary change.
In the industrial workplace, many key issues have to be addressed, such as:
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How can we be more agile and flexible to quickly adapt and change to new realities?
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How do we exploit technology, automation and process change to maximize production while minimizing the number of people onsite?
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What activities should be performed remotely, so that managers and supervisors do not have to be constantly onsite?
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How can we share knowledge and transfer information while reducing physical interaction?
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How can we best utilize the expertise of older, higher-risk colleagues, irrespective of their physical location?
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How can we go paperless and reduce the transmission of disease?
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How can we increase compliance and accountability while reducing physical interaction?
Digital transformation is the integration of digitized data and digitalized applications, transforming the way companies operate by digitalizing all core processes to fast-track innovation and achieve operational efficiency. Leaked EC documents seen by Euractiv discuss an EU push for digital transformation after the COVID-19 crisis. And for those not transforming fast enough, Forbes offers 12 steps to speed-up the digitalization process.
Digitalization offers the opportunity to automate manual processes. But even though many owner-operators in industrial settings have invested heavily in computerizing many aspects of their businesses, they have tended to ignore their most precious asset – their workforces – and hence the enormous challenges they are facing in the demand for social distancing and remote work presented by the COVID‑19 pandemic.
The digitalization of industrial workforces means connectivity - and the connection of workers, managers, and all other stakeholders is essential in creating a pandemic-resilient workplace in industrial settings. The Mobideo Platform does this and more.
The Mobideo App connects workers, enabling them to use any mobile device to access all the information they need to perform their work at the point-of-service. Guiding them through the work process through digitalized checklists and sign-offs, it reduces the need for on-site inspection/supervision and enables communication and sharing of real-time work status with managers and peers, without physical interaction. The Mobideo Control Center connects managers, giving them real-time situational awareness, visibility, and insights into all remote work activities. Digital charts and dashboards empower better, faster, and more reliable decision-making based on the facts in the field, without the necessity for any physical interaction or paper documents. And the Mobideo Optimizer generates a rich data set that enables owner-operators to evaluate how tasks are actually being executed; identify trends, work patterns and delays; drive continuous process improvement; and strengthen operational excellence.
In our world of changing social interaction and distancing, our platform is even more relevant to every asset-intensive company seeking to maintain continuous viability.
Read more about how Mobideo is laying the foundations for pandemic-resilient workplaces.
