For manufacturing organizations, the ability to stay nimble and quickly adapt to ever-shifting market trends is crucial for survival. This is where business intelligence (BI) and visualization tools have been proven to help—these solutions provide and present data that is not only granular, but also high level, to give executives the insights they need to make informed decisions and stay agile.
However, in an industry where the majority of workers are on the frontline, and 83% of these workers lack a corporate email address let alone access to a BI or visualization tool, business-critical information is being missed, hurting productivity and the bottom line.
This is where digital signage can help organizations to become more data-driven. By displaying real-time data on the factory floor, screens provide a secure, scalable channel to expand the reach of BI and make it accessible to all employees, including those who do not have access to a company device, corporate email, or digital tools. This not only improves the flow of information within the organization but also empowers employees to make informed decisions based on data, rather than gut instinct or word of mouth.
With this in mind, the following are six game-changing benefits of combining BI and digital signage:
Increasing data literacy
Digital signage brings frontline employees face-to-face with their company’s data, which improves their fluency in reading, writing and communicating data and accelerates the data literacy of the overall workforce.
With frontline employees concerned about career advancement, enabling your workforce to improve their data literacy can significantly increase their employability and advance their careers, as well as helping the business in identifying insights, trends and solutions.
Data literacy is directly related to data dexterity, where an employee is able to use emerging business technologies for better business outcomes. As data literacy becomes essential to driving business value, it’s increasingly important for frontline employees to have the ability to parse through data to become fully engaged and productive employees.
Knowledge sharing and inclusion
Only 51% of deskless workers feel in-the-know within their organization, meaning nearly half of deskless workers are left in the dark regarding company objectives and how to achieve them. However, with increased transparency by displaying KPIs and other metrics on digital signage, employees can better understand how their individual efforts contribute to the overall success of the operation. Digital signage can be your go-to tool for showcasing performance metrics and keeping track of company benchmarks to inform employees.
Real-time data visualization
Signage implemented in high-traffic areas can provide workers with immediate feedback on their performance and help them identify and address any issues in real-time. Think of your manufacturing lines’ current levels of productivity. Frontline workers believe that technology can help them with productivity and overall organization success. By using these factoids as a jumping-off point, organizations can play to workers’ strengths with real-time visualization.
Data-driven decision making on the manufacturing floor
Your digital signage is meant to empower your employees. Digital signage provides workers with access to real-time data and analytics, enabling them to make data-driven decisions on the manufacturing floor. With consistent, automated data updates, workers are also able to make time-sensitive decisions. This can improve the accuracy of forecasts and scheduling, reduce waste, and optimize production processes.
Quality control & performance monitoring
Another benefit of digital-signage systems is the fact that they can be updated and seen from any time, anywhere. This means your business-intelligence analysis has remote visibility, enabling supervisors and managers to monitor the manufacturing floor from afar. This can help them identify any issues or bottlenecks and take corrective action in real-time, improving the overall efficiency of the operation.
With their digital-signage system constantly refreshing to show live data, operators and team leaders are able to know exactly what is happening on their assembly lines in multiple locations and how teams are performing against set targets.
Training & safety
BI tools have the power to transform operations by studying and showcasing health and safety information, giving you the information needed to tailor health and safety messages to your workplace. Currently, workplace injuries cost businesses billions per year. Digital signage can be used to share important information with workers—such as safety reminders, training materials, and operational procedures—to avoid any mishaps on the manufacturing floor.
By using digital signage to make the most out of your BI, you’re able to save funds that were previously spent on engaging and informing employees. Supervisors also benefit from being able to keep a closer eye on the manufacturing floor’s process just from signage, therefore focusing their energy on the most important aspects of the organization.
With 90% of deskless workers stating that their productivity would benefit from more technology, it’s up to manufacturing leaders to choose tech that complements BI without straining time, resources and money. By considering what streamlines, automates and optimizes communication, a strategic investment can alleviate the challenges for those on and outside the manufacturing floor.
