Why Technology Means Squat to Shop Floor Managers and Yet Why They Have to Have It

Shop floor managers are NOT interested in technology. They don’t care about what software or hardware they are using. They are not interested in the latest technological innovations or gadgets.

If you read the article, “Who is the Ideal Shop Floor Manager” in the July issue of Machine Maker, shop floor managers have other priorities.

What shop floor managers DO care about is, anything that makes their job easier, while at the same time, allows him or her to achieve their goals. If that comes in the form a new, advanced CNC machine, great. If it happens because of a new 3D printer, super. Moreover, if it happens because of Beacon technology, awesome. Nevertheless, it’s all about knowledge and awareness. Knowledge is power.

The big six broad parameters of an ideal shop floor manager according to the article.

1. Knowledge of his/her job and objectives
2. Knowledge about his/her resources
3. Knowledge about his/her people (actually the most important resource and hence listed separately)
4. Awareness of safety, environmental and various statutory rules and regulations
5. Updated knowledge/information on new developments
6. Awareness of performance benchmarks

If you ask a shop floor supervisor what is important to them, you will get a resounding knowing what’s going on at any given time on the production floor. We at The Lake Companies would assert that technology is of paramount importance for the shop floor manager to achieve all of the above-mentioned parameters.

First, production floor supervisors need information that is timely, easy to acquire, and simple to understand. The information must be accurate, visual, mobile, and available at their fingertips, requiring no IT knowledge or extra work to extract.

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.

Giving your production floor managers that “lever and fulcrum” in the form of handheld computer devices and beacon-enabled smart factory floor, and you can watch them move the world. Whether that supervisor is in their office at their desk, in a conference room attending a meeting or walking the entire production floor from one side to the other, they will have all of the information they need in their hands.

With a cursory glance at their tablet, they will have up to the minute data on:

• jobs being performed and adherence to schedule
• number of units produced, including units and hours ahead or behind schedule
• machine utilization
• machine downtime reasons and rate
• machine schedule and backlog
• quality history of the machine
• late jobs by machine/work cell
• employee utilization
• employee status, including work center, department, shift, current job, attendance, vacation
• dashboard of employee metrics
• who is running that machine
• worker training credentials
• impending time-off schedules
• quality history of the employee, specific to the machine
• are materials available to run upcoming jobs
• dashboards for specific roles on the shop floor
• overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
• overall employee effectiveness

Congratulations, you have just created the formula for Shop Floor Manager Supreme Success! You have furnished them with highly relevant information that is superfast, easy to understand and easy to access, and they can access it from wherever they are on the floor.

With Beacon-Trak™ technology, proximity-based sensors are placed strategically throughout the entire production floor. With this technology in hand, shop floor managers can not only monitor all floor activity but also view automatic updates on their hand-held device as he/she walks through the entire facility. It’s like having a computerized personal assistant that is all-knowing and relates all relevant information at their side.

Technology can be like any tool. Having the right tool for the job, the lever and fulcrum (Beacon-Trak™) that make the shop floor manager’s job infinitely easier, is something that matters.