79% of the operations, maintenance, and engineering executives highlight Connected Worker solutions as very significant or significant to their Operational Excellence initiatives over the next 2 years (out of 250 peers polled for the Verdantix Operational Excellence Survey 2020). We are more connected than ever, and our work environments reflect it too. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Industrial Internet of Things are claiming their spot on the production line.

Connected Workers have the upper hand

When a plant operator becomes a so-called ‘Connected Worker’, they are more efficient and complete their tasks in a safer working environment. Unlike their non-connected colleagues, they can access data and insights in real-time. This improves the decision-making process of Connected Workers. When people make faster and better decisions, the overall safety and production efficiency of your business improves.

While it may still sound futuristic, you can already find concrete examples that showcase the use of modern technologies in today’s industrial landscape. AI and Machine Learning boost your production facility by:

• Generating work instructions and digital overlays that help guide both experienced workers and employees in training through complex workflows.
• Establishing a feedback loop between the augmented plant and the worker, capturing key data on the work being performed to ensure peak efficiency, quality, and safety.

Overall, modern technology promises to bring a myriad of advantages to the production line – like increased safety, reduced operating costs, and a smaller gap between the reality on the field and office – but to what extent factories will benefit from this is still dependent on the degree of technological adoption across the industry.

European manufacturing companies are making real progress

In 2020, Continental (France) and INEOS (Belgium and Germany) committed to further develop the implementation of tomorrow’s technology in today’s industrial scene. Through an international consortium, they kicked off AI-PROFICIENT, which TenForce supports with expertise and industry knowledge. 

This 3-year Research & Innovation program will augment European factories with Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Internet of Things, and Extended Reality solutions.  

AI-PROFICIENT will increase the positive impact of technology on plant productivity, while keeping the human in a central position, assuming supervisory and executive roles. The project will develop proactive control strategies and improve manufacturing processes across three main vectors – production efficiency, quality, and maintenance – targeting a 10% increase in Overall Production Efficiency (OPE) and a 50% decrease in low-quality product output. 

Up and running in real life: Remote Inspections

In the (near) future, all factories will become so-called smart factories. Today, TenForce has already integrated some modern technology solutions in several plants.

Machine Learning and Object Recognition enable the connected worker and their supervisor to conduct autonomous and remote inspections, followed by remote supervisions.

The supervisor no longer needs to be physically present at the worksite to conduct a safety or quality inspection. The smart solution facilitated by ML and Object Recognition allows workers and contractors (who are already present on-site to do their work) to conduct the inspections and report non-conformities.

Workers follow these steps:

1. They arrive on-site and register their attendance with the TenForce mobile app
2. They proceed to log their observations using the app, snapping photos of audit-worthy situations
3. The supervisor is sitting at the office, inspecting the incoming feed using the TenForce platform on their desktop, in real-time.

This way of working allows the supervisor to do their job in a fraction of the typically required time. Simultaneously, they can still decide to go on the field when necessary.

This solution is up and running since 2020 and it currently has hundreds of users.

If we sparked your interest, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to share our work on blending the TenForce EHSQ software platform with the latest advancements in AI, ML, and IIOT to bring it to  your production line.