COVID-19 has created a “WRAP ECONOMY”, stimulating a number of trends like – remote working, instructor led learning (OIL), virtual method for hiring and employee onboarding, technology assisted skilling, increase in online services (essentials, groceries etc.) being the few popular ones. One of the major shift in the ecosystem was that the lockdown forced many industries towards remote working.
While service sector employees and knowledge workers were able to quickly shift to remote working as a default operating mode, manufacturers/factories could not make this move with much ease. Lack of digitization and absence of robust infrastructure were the key reasons which obstructed this shift. On one hand there were manufactures who were not digitally sound and faced maximum heat. But on the other hand this was also an exciting opportunity for manufacturers who could innovate and adopt digitization to redefine their workplace dynamics. This enabled them to sustain themselves during the lockdown.
Even as the lockdown is easing out and workers are coming back to the floor, some challenges continue to emerge. The on ground “DO GAZ KI DURI” along with the need for more employee safety measures has put an additional level of pressure on manufacturers. There is a need to re-think workplace strategy. Not only this, there is also a need to re-skill people, primarily because:
1) Disruptions across the supply chains of parts and raw materials
2) Greater adoption of technology to ensure business continuity
3) Cost economics owing to loss of demand
Some of the key aspects that manufacturers are looking at are:
Relaunch of Automation: Automation will be a vital component to resuscitate the manufacturing sector. Earlier off-shoring trends were fueled by a race to the bottom in terms of labor and productivity costs. Now with headway in automation and robotics productivity has drastically increased across a number of manufacturing processes. Many of these processes can be easily brought on-shore and deployed domestically. Automated manufacturing will not bring create new opportunities for digital-savvy workers.
Data infrastructure as a forte: For manufacturing sector, greater connectivity will mean notable accelerated deployment of Industrial IoT – including sensing, data visualization, distant collaboration tools and AI-based insights. Control-tower view of data and insights across the whole operation process will become a standard component of managing a manufacturing organization in the post COVID era.
Using virtual reality and augmented reality for training: Augmented reality (AR), which overlays digital information onto the real world, and virtual reality (VR), which offers an immersive, digital environment, offer powerful learning tools. VR and AR programs are a way to bring the instruction to the place where it is needed, as opposed to making employees leave work behind to attend classes. For manufacturers who are most concerned about keeping up the pace of production during educational sessions, AR offers a viable option. Using a phone or headset with these capabilities, workers can remain at their stations — and even operate machines — while learning. The workers can be trained on complex assembly, maintenance, expert support, risk mitigation and quality assurance — all areas that continue to change rapidly — can be delivered via AR to the employee while engaged in these tasks. And when new lessons are added, they can simply be streamed to the AR device without a slowdown in work or production. VR is also an effective learning tool, especially when it comes to manufacturing processes that pose physical danger to workers. Rather than learning on the job with the potential to make mistakes, workers can train for difficult jobs in virtual environments.
Adept to Virtual working: With “DO GAZ KI DURI” in place, manufacturers may have to work with 50% of their on-site personnel only. Manufacturing still requires people to be physically on-site. As manufacturers face this predicament, we are seeing a rapid adoption of remote diagnostic, management and collaboration tools. This has led to an emergence of a “virtual shift” – a team of connoisseurs connected remotely and constantly online in order to guide and support the “physical shift” of onsite personnel. Enabled by real time data, AI-based insights and a range of communication and association tools, the Virtual Shift will help to digitize and scale much-needed expertise across the organization and enable the onsite workforce to become more focused, effective and productive. Virtual work is not just for the office anymore; it is a new reality which is cardinally changing the work environment in manufacturing and accelerating a trend towards lights-out facilities.
Rampant Digitization: Companies that invested in software technologies have the added benefit of greater predictability and efficiency, resulting in a consequential competitive edge. In the past decade, advances in AI and IoT technologies have empowered prodigious efficiencies in predictability, capacity, availability and flexibility of supply chain and manufacturing operations. Companies that have cuddled these technologies early are likely to be more resilient to the pandemic. The economic and social downturn caused by COVID-19 is creating a much profound divide between manufacturers who have just started to digitize and those who are much further ahead on their digital journey.
Manufacturers must recognize which parts of our social, business and political environment will change in the AC (After CORONA) world as the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and invest accordingly to prepare for the new normal.