What kind of a “driver” should the front-line worker be in the factory of the future?

This is a question I get asked a lot, and it is valid question. With the change roles, changing scopes of responsibility, and changing demographic / way of working, certainly the generic roles of the past 20 years will not work.

But getting back to the “driver” type of the future no matter role. So many people say why not eliminate drivers and humans all together, nothing new this is “lights out manufacturing” but is it practical. I believe not and the reason is the demanding world of today which demands change. 

Certainly where we have consistent planned know execution automation makes the whole sense, but :

•         our product run sizes are reducing
•          product change overs are increasing
•          new product introduction is increasing
•          Agility is key

The ability to absorb and handle change in operations, products and personal is becoming foundational in our operational system of the future.

The above diagram shows the two sides of the thinking, but the key is you have change on the left, and in the pilot actually  is a combination of “automated and human” capability to provide the effectiveness. Most of the flying activities are automated, freeing up the pilot to work the strategy and situation to apply quick, situation-ally aware actions to control to combat the situation.

In manufacturing our productivity has been increasing significantly as seen below, for a period it tracked human compensation, but in 70’s this changed and productivity continue to rise, but not compensation. You might ask "as what do you mean" this curve is relative to team / role, what has happened in the 70s to 2000s we have increased automation, and increased the scope and work a worker covers for the same compensation. 

But this is going to take another step as the low hanging fruits have been taken, with DCS, robotics and PLCs etc. Now how can you increase alignment and decisions so you achieve that level 5 of automation levels that of “Manage by Exception”. This will require a new level of embedded knowledge, community collaboration, and augmented human interpretation.

Standby as we transition the “Driver” from Semi Manual to an Augmented Pilot, where we can easily move "pilots" between plans (plants) and not loose efficiency, and agility to absorb/ combat change! 

Google Glass Comes to Manufacturing

The concept of introducing “multi Sourcing” and then displaying through “augmentation” is not new. Google has playing around with glasses for some time. Do you need Google Glasses to leverage augmentation NO. You could have an IPAD as worker companion showing information relative to the users orientation and focus. Similar to the “Starwalk” application you can download for your IPAD which allows you point up the night skies and see what stars in the orientation.

I was sent this article last week “google Glass in Manufacturing” and the work Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies (ITAMCO) is doing with Google Glass and the MT Connect standard to ring a new way of displaying information, and it makes a lot of sense and shows reality. They have some intriguing videos to look at:

http://www.automationworld.com/control/google-glass-comes-manufacturing?sthash.IoJtWexr.mjjo&goback=%2Egde_2063159_member_258444877

http://www.itamco.com/glass/

We at Invensys have been investigating working on opportunities in this area and the likes of the Eyesim product where you have immersive reality is a good example. See this image below

These are pop-ups within your view showing you history and data at your finger tips drawing from a remote site, and sources. If you look at a pump you can see it is running, but you cannot see the RPMs or power being used, yet this data is in the automation systems, so why not ring back to the worker who is connected. Now as he looks at the pump he can see the needed information. So while the above diagram is in the training simulation world the concept is real industrial world, and the videos in the article show more of the concepts.

Is this future or just around the corner, what is without a doubt is the “operational Innovation and empowerment” can take significant steps leveraging existing technologies!