Smart Shopfloor Communication

How to achieve not only Industry 4.0 but also Communication 4.0 with agile and smart automation:

If you look at the shop floor of your manufacturing company from a bird's eye view, the result is a complex communication network of workplaces, departments and project groups. Every process, every machine, every incoming order, every sensor and now every employee is constantly producing data and knowledge. However, communication is very scattered and not very effective because it consists of systems, projects and platforms working in parallel: be it departmental or project-specific collaboration solutions, bulletin boards, dashboards of individual machines or the classic intranet.

Empower every employee — with intelligent communication

For your shop floor communication, this means that a lot of information often arrives too slowly, incompletely or sometimes doesn't even arrive at the places where it might be needed most urgently.
This fundamental problem can be avoided by tackling the issue of communication strategically: Which workplace needs what type of information from which source in order to be able to work as effectively as possible? With a strategic approach that we call “Smart Communication,” you will successfully face this challenge.

Networking data instead of data silos

From a technical point of view, cross-departmental exchange of information can often only take place to a limited extent. This is because the information logics differ depending on the department and the associated “information sphere” and are not coordinated with each other. This becomes particularly problematic when processes have to function across departments:

A failure of a machine on production line A is in itself raw information relating to production, its planning process and, if applicable, personnel utilization. But this event is also relevant for logistics. It is true that this is not about the fact that a machine is at a standstill and therefore new tasks have to be completed in production, but rather about follow-up questions aimed at logistics-specific tasks: Can we deliver goods that should be produced with this machine on time? And if not, when will it be possible instead? What are the current idle times and new capacity planning in the meantime and which bottlenecks must be taken into account when the delivery is rescheduled? If the raw information “machine failure” is simply passed on to intralogistics, this means communicative isolation.

A smart communication approach would be as follows at this point: From the machine failure in information circuit A, production, information cycle B, logistics, is automated and relevant follow-up questions are defined in real time, as listed in the text above, for example. On this basis, the relevant information is then communicated to logistics and also defined how to react to it. Error messages from a machine therefore result in specific key figures and specific work orders for logistics.
The more complex such collaboration between the various departments is, the more important it is that relevant instructions are communicated to each of them, which enable them to have a clear overview and work more effectively.
This makes it clear what actually sounds banal but has not yet been used in the information logics of many companies: The intelligent communication of cross-departmental processes and thus the higher success of the various areas of a shop floor are inextricably interdependent on one another.

Data class instead of mass

The large amount of information that the various shop floor elements produce presents a second decisive challenge: to precisely prioritize, reduce and individualize communication for each instance. This means always providing each workplace or individual person with the most important information for the next process step.

An example: In a large production hall, error messages are constantly being generated on various production lines, each of which is displayed on the machine. The problem is that the majority of error or warning messages are relatively irrelevant to most workers. And with a number of multiple lines, constantly keeping an eye on every message with all its implications is not only confusing, but also superfluous.

Smart communication here would mean automatically collecting the information from all production lines, providing it with filter logic and bundled together in one place to display exactly the messages that represent a prioritized task for a specific worker. Neither he nor other colleagues are thus distracted by information that is irrelevant to them. At the same time, they are less likely to overlook problems or misinterpret key figures. Such logic is therefore characterized by the fact that it separates the individually relevant from the irrelevant for individual workplaces and at the same time prioritizes it.

Better communication — better results

Once these two central communication weaknesses have been overcome, the various departments, every workplace and ultimately every employee are constantly in communication with each other. And only to the extent that it is useful at the respective location. This not only improves communication, but also your processes overall. In particular in the following points:

• Continuous process optimization: Employees develop a better understanding of overall processes, are able to better organize their tasks within them and also work more independently. Shift management and management can fulfill their leadership roles much more effectively and optimize processes in real time. Individually compiled information, for example from production data collection (BDE), also helps with data analysis and planning, in order to develop a comprehensive database, better evaluations and a common process logic for the various production elements. A continuous improvement process (CIP) therefore takes place in very different ways at the various levels of the hierarchy. As a result, this means a reduction in errors and time consumption, as well as better response speeds, optimized utilization and more detailed planning options.

• Team commitment: In most companies, communication primarily only takes place in one direction, namely “top-down.” Feedback cycles and “bottom-up” communication, on the other hand, do not take place at all or only take place slowly and via long detours. Smart communication helps to enable exactly this exchange through transparent communication and direct feedback cycles. This results in an indirect improvement in organizational development through better involvement and engagement of the workforce.

• Controlling: Controlling's work benefits from accelerated and better coordinated coordination between corporate management and operational areas. Findings and decisions from the systemic analysis of one's own company can be distributed “top-down” from management systems with transformation logics directly down to the lowest levels and, above all, communicated individually. This makes it easier to implement the goals in the areas of process optimization and employee engagement mentioned above into better business processes and better customer and supplier relationships.

• Business success: As a logical consequence of these improvements, there is a better output and concrete measurable success. Improved communication, which is faster, more meaningful and targeted, always pays off directly on business success. However, this does not only apply to the improvement of financial balance sheets. As a result of aspects such as higher employee engagement and bidirectional communication, improvements are also expected in other areas such as innovation, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Centralistic solutions ruled out!

Both smart networking of the various shop floor areas and individual processing of information can only be successful if communication takes place in real time and, above all, is constantly adapting. The infrastructure for this must therefore be agile and easily adaptable. This means, for example, that information from any established IT structures, such as cloud applications, Excel spreadsheets, PLCs, BDE, MES or ERP systems, can be selected, processed and then individually prepared at any location.

It would be dubious to say that you can meet all these requirements for intelligent communication in a company with just one central solution. Neither an ERP or BDE system, nor an MES or a BI solution as an analysis system for historical data, which actually comes from controlling, can guarantee this flexibility and real-time. There is either a lack of speed, processing, presentation and technical customization options or a sufficient connection to the various components around the shop floor, such as SPS.

A central approach is therefore not compatible with smart communication. Instead, it is more about using higher-level, decentralized and supplementary logic to find the best solution at the necessary locations, which creates connections between all existing information cycles and offers the best added value for employees.