Manufacturing has entered a new era. It’s no longer dirty, dangerous, and dull, and there are no excuses for substandard performance or results. Automation, digitalization, and Generative Artificial Intelligence have helped raise operating standards and establish a new atmosphere for traditional manufacturing.
Worker training programs must meet the highest standards too. Manufacturers must train and reskill frontline workers that have varying levels of knowledge, competence, and language issues—and they must do this while keeping their operations health- and safety-compliant for this tech-enabled manufacturing era.
Imparting knowledge and experience to workers is critical, and GenAI along with new connected-worker platforms that facilitate content creation and delivery are the tools for this task.
From checklists and skills to procedures and knowledge transfer, content creation is an ongoing effort. And with inflation on the rise (8.3% in the U.S. for 2023), taking workers away from their duties on the shop floor to create content is a no-go for management.
Creating content isn’t the only hurdle to overcome. Facilitating content retrieval on the shop floor is an even greater challenge.
Bringing technologies like connected worker platforms and Gen AI to the shop floor is making the shop floor into a more engaging workplace. Manufacturers aiming to recruit Gen Z workers will have to ensure all instructions are available on digital platforms. Younger workers are accustomed to digitally searching for answers and instructions, so making digital content available is necessary for training and retaining them. And these workers also expect to have the means to take ownership of their roles.
Content with an AI-boost
Frontline workers need content that can be easily and quickly understood and assimilated. It must be accessible in multiple formats, such as text-based instructions, but creating all this content consumes time and capital.
And this concerns more than new content. Plants and workshops will already have thousands of existing content files, such as standard operating procedures and work instructions, but converting each one into an easily accessible references is also costly and time intensive.
The full value of connected worker solutions may take time to be realized, due to the time and effort required to import and build the required digital work instructions into the platform. AI is here for it.
Streamlining the creation or conversion of each type of content using AI-powered content transformation will significantly reduce the amount of time needed to establish digital or written instructions in one secure location. The ability to convert documents in just minutes from lengthy, written standard operating procedures into easy-to-comprehend Digital Work Instructions, will reduce deployment times – and that will accelerate the time to value.AI-powered search and text enhancements
Concise communication and comprehension is critical to improving worker and team productivity. When you’re working in a fast-paced and loud manufacturing environment, errors will happen. But what if workers had a tool that intelligently interprets a user's input, and automatically optimizes it with improved grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation to ensure clarity and comprehension?
AI can empower workers to work smarter, not harder by providing them with intelligent search capabilities that not only grasps their inquiry's intent, but also adapts to human nuances like typos or vague terms. This ensures quick and accurate responses to inquiries like how to troubleshoot a broken mixing machine with a jammed mechanism. AI makes sure they are presented with the right information at the right time.
Go video for Gen Z
Video content is quickly becoming more widely sought and consumed, especially by Gen Z. In fact, 57% of Gen Z’ers prefer to learn about new products by watching short videos versus other formats. So, when creating digital work instructions manufacturing businesses should not overlook videos’ effectiveness for improved user engagement.
But creating video-based instructions for shop floor workers is challenging, particularly for operations that lack the necessary financial and human resources to do it right.
AI-driven video instructions will change that. GenAi can gather relevant information, sequence it correctly and write it up into a structure that workers can follow. Images can provide helpful visual context at each step.
Workers can access a step-by-side visual guide to carrying out their assignments. This will improve workplace troubleshooting as operators can access a broader library of content. And younger workers can benefit from the knowledge of senior operators in ways that engage them and meet their new workplace expectations.
Speak their language, literally
In the U.S., immigrant workers account for 2.92 million manufacturing positions, and most of these workers do not speak English as their first language. Despite this, most global manufacturers struggle to ensure that critical operational content is available in all the languages spoken by their workforces.
Now, AI-powered transcription can break down global language barriers and encourage worker inclusion by translating all types of content into the required language. This is an intelligent capability that automatically translates the audio from videos into relevant subtitles in the preferred language of the user. Not only will this reduce the effort to create and maintain content, but it will improve the comprehension and retention of information leading to greater safety, quality, and productivity on the shop floor.
The manufacturing industry is heading toward an AI-powered future, with workforce training and development adding to its effectiveness at data collection, analysis, and reporting.
