March 15, 2022 | Author: André Nimtz | Reading time: approx. 10 minutes
What are worker guidance systems & what do they achieve?
Industry is characterized by manual work. Whether it is the assembly of components or the maintenance of machines, humans remain an integral part. The task of worker guidance systems is to support them in their work and to tap the potential of digitalization.
At their core, such digital guidance systems consist of a software solution that shows the worker the information he needs about his work steps. In this way, a worker guidance system can make a significant contribution to ensuring that tasks are performed without errors. At the same time, the system documents the entire process.
In this respect, pure software solutions offer clear added value compared to hardware-bound pick-by-light systems (or also pick-by-voice, pick-by-scan or pick-by-vision). The pure software is more flexible and can be used independently of the workstation, but can be connected to the desired hardware via appropriate interfaces.
The 4 most important reasons for using worker guidance systems
Modern, multi-variant production presents workers with special challenges. They have to carry out a wide variety of processes safely and without errors. Each process requires different knowledge and requires the worker to constantly change. The smaller the batch sizes, the more the human factor becomes a potential source of error. Worker guidance systems give you a clear competitive advantage here. Why? We have summarized four important reasons for you:
Effort reduction in production planning
Before each job or even work step, the worker has to gather the necessary documents or correctly interpret printed CAD drawings and filter out the right information for processing. This eats up time, impairs productivity and increases the risk of errors. With a worker assistance system, you can prevent all of this by always providing your workers with the information they need digitally for the respective work step.
Avoiding errors in manual tasks
A worker guidance system helps you to effectively avoid errors in assembly processes or in maintenance by providing your employees with clear and unambiguous work instructions. It provides the necessary information for each work step, ensures the correct process sequence and integrates test steps into the process. This saves you time-consuming rework and additional costs for complaints or downtimes.
Reduce documentation effort
In production, continuous documentation and, increasingly, verification obligations as well as the associated effort and costs are part of day-to-day business. Worker guidance systems also provide support here by automatically recording the activities of your workers digitally. Your employees enter test and measurement values directly in the system and do not need to transfer them later.
Significantly simplified training processes
No matter whether you want to train a new employee or introduce a worker to a new process: The training phase requires time and also blocks the experienced employee who takes care of the training. Support your workers with a worker guidance system and significantly reduce training times by providing detailed step-by-step instructions. This ensures a consistently high level of training and your employees are productive more quickly.
Beyond this, there are many other arguments in favor of using a worker guidance system in your manufacturing company:
- efficient design of complex and highly-variant assembly processes
- reduction of order throughput times
- immediate error detection and correction
- noticeable reduction in workload for employees
- high process reliability and quality in the production process
- one hundred percent transparency of the workpiece history
In which areas is a worker guidance system used?
Assembly
A worker guidance system is predestined for assembly in production, because manual processes are part of the daily work here in particular. A digital assistant gives your workers clear work instructions and provides the information they need. Additional test steps at the work step help to detect and avoid errors already during assembly.
Maintenance
This is where flexible, workplace-independent worker guidance systems come into an effective play. The maintenance technician receives machine-specific work orders with all relevant information, e.g. on a tablet, and returns collected data digitally. Paper-based processes are eliminated, and errors in work preparation and data transmission are reduced. This saves you valuable time.
Commissioning of machines and plants
With a good worker guidance system, you can easily map commissioning processes. Supply your employees with a standardized procedure that can be fully customized depending on the type of machine. During the execution of the workflow, the system documents all steps and ensures continuous digital verification.
In summary: Whether in the automotive industry, the process industry, or logistics - wherever manual activities determine the work pattern, worker guidance systems can be used. The industry plays a subordinate role here. Another major advantage is that once you have found the right worker assistance system, it does not have to be limited to its initial purpose. Such a system can often be rolled out to other areas of your company.
Free e-paper: How do you find the right worker guidance system?
Are there manual activities in your company with potential for optimization? If so, a digital worker assistance system would be a wise investment to reduce costs and increase productivity. We explain how to find a suitable guidance system in our free e-paper. Get it now and secure your knowledge advantage.
Worker guidance with weasl
More efficiency in your production
Modern production poses a challenge to systems and workers.Increasing numbers of variants and decreasing numbers of pieces per order entail constantly changing work instructions.Meet this challenge with the right system.weasl helps you master highly-variant production with maximum efficiency.