ARC Advisory Report Identifies Frontline Empowerment as Key Trend

April 6, 2023

The recently released ARC Advisory Group report, Industrial Digital Transformation Top 25 for 2022, profiles 25 companies that are winning at digital transformation. The companies span multiple industrial sectors and include firms such as Ford, HP, Pfizer, Rio Tinto, and others.

According to Arc, leaders prioritize transformation in six key areas: products, services, operations, design and construction, supply chain, and business processes. They’re also adept at expanding pilot projects into scalable business transformation.

So, how do industrial companies change at pace? They empower the operational frontline and plan for rapid knowledge transfer, say Arc analysts.

Today’s workers are shifting jobs more frequently, which is reducing the lifecycle of an employee. This is driving the need for operational leaders to be more focused on providing decision making tools for the workforce. In other words, workers need to understand immediately where to turn for answers. This is vastly different from providing classes of educational training. Recognizing increasing complexities on the shop floor and making technology more accessible to enable people to collaborate with the experts and intelligent software that can guide them on their next steps, are truly transformative measures unlocking significant value and productivity boosts.

In our view, this research offers a compelling business case for increasing manufacturing adoption of modern connected workforce solutions, which can enable rapid productivity growth, while delivering compelling ROI that business stakeholders and investors value.

The QAD Redzone Connected Workforce Solution provides social, mobile technology that empowers the frontline workforce to initiate and drive change. The platform leverages sensors and digital technology to help teams visualize tasks, workflows, and metrics, making it easier to review progress and overcome obstacles before they harm production.

Manufacturers that deploy QAD Redzone can:

Achieve high-value goals: By tapping the creativity and collective will of frontline teams, QAD Redzone helps them drive impressive results. Factories that deploy QAD Redzone boost overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by an average of 14 points and productivity by 29 points in just 90 days.
Expand into new areas: Teams begin by solving production issues on a focus line and then expand into other areas, such as reliability, compliance, and learning. With each new capability, manufacturers improve visibility into production conditions, empower teams with data and tools to solve issues, and achieve new business goals.
Create a culture of continuous improvement: Rather than forcing cumbersome processes on frontline workers, QAD Redzone gives teams visual tools and easy-to-understand data that they can use to communicate, collaborate, troubleshoot problems, and propose process improvements. Frontline workers are excited to share ideas and problem-solve on the job, because they’re helping their teams win the day. In addition, workers are recognized by supervisors with digital high-fives and good catches for outstanding ideas.
Share best practices internally and externally: QAD Redzone helps manufacturers create a culture of information sharing. New hires can learn how to operate equipment by watching videos and reading work instructions on tablets placed by machines. Teams create multimedia operational plays to share with others. And organizational leaders and teams share their experience with how QAD Redzone helped them solve production problems via Power Hour video sessions, case studies, Factory Miracle stories in our biannual magazine, and the annual QAD Redzone Community Awards program.