A family business, with hardly any turnover, many employees over the decades in the same company. Digitisation will help to save you Know before you retire.
Kai-Uwe has it easy. He is able to detect the noise, whether a machine has a Boo-Boo, and knows how to fix it. He is familiar with the injection molding process from the inside out and the idiosyncrasies of each plant. Simply irreplaceable, this is Kai-Uwe, the stands for the ideal type of experienced professional.
“But if he is on vacation, sick, or in a different layer, then we have a Problem,” says Patrick-Benjamin Program. He is the producer of transmission technology, Weidmüller in Detmold responsible for the digitalisation of the production. A fortiori, there would be a Problem if Kai-Uwe goes in a couple of years in retirement. “Demographic change is a very relevant topic and has a big influence on risk management. This Knowledge, obtained through long tenure, we need to pack in the box,” says Program.
At Weidmüller you put it currently in a pair of data glasses. Numerous documents were analyzed, and the employees interviewed. Trainees put the information in Storyboards visually in the scene. The AR glasses shows the machine in addition to virtually in 3D, and displays the corresponding work steps as a Video. AR stands for Augmented reality. Around 50 such helpers are in circulation: for training and especially for long-distance maintenance and maintenance.
The glasses for the people at the machine: Daniel Behnke, has at Weidmüller with – and further developed.
From the remote machine wait and jobs visit
The company with almost 5000 employees worldwide, manufacturing facilities in China, Romania, Australia, Spain or Dubai. If it was there in the past somewhere, they sent the experts to the root of a photo or Video seat, the Mails went on for days back and forth.
Today, a factory employee in China, the glasses, and the colleague in Detmold see, thanks to the built-in camera of the machine from its perspective. Both of them can talk each other in real time. “So the Situation is much easier and faster to clarify them,” says Program.
In addition, with the glasses, jobs, visit, optimize to judge from the distance, the security, operations or just to show off to customers from the factory. This has promoted the exchange between the locations – without a disruptive and costly service trips. “If we save two trips per plant and year, has paid off the technology.”
A question of identity
But what Kai-Uwe is the fact that his expertise is now in the glasses? “The people at us have a high interest in new technologies,” says Program. “Just the colleagues in the production, feel of it as appreciation, to be ahead of the curve.”
As a pioneer user of the Detmolder have developed Microsoft’s Mixed Reality glasses HoloLens for industrial use. His colleagues would have ripped his glasses almost from the hands, marvels Program, she was sought-after as a digital AIDS before.
For the staff to be particularly advantageous: you will have both hands free for work. And because with the glasses and the remote maintenance of machines is possible, you do not need to travel because of an operation, if necessary, at the other end of the world all of a sudden.
On the other hand, for the Kai-Uwe’s in the company, a question of identity to be asked. “We need to take the concern that they might be unimportant, if you want to share your Knowledge,” says Program and advertises: “you win, time to learn New things.”
Wanted to learn Weidmüller also Older. “Just you come up with ideas on how you can the AR-goggles. To my Generation,” the young computer scientist would not. For example, that it would be cool to turn the pages can. Only that it is with the view.
How do the colleagues?
Also in the case of Jansen paints in Ahrweiler, a “erklecklicher share” of the approximately 80 employees will change in a few years in retirement. “As a family company with 140 years of history generation are changing for us in practice,” says the head of the company Peter Jansen.
Previously, the ancients had learned from the paint manufacturer, the New, and that was it. “We’re still doing it, we have ten percent of the apprentices,” says Jansen. “But the knowledge base grows and it creates new opportunities.”
Therefore, his company is since a few years ago, the processes in production and administration to change. A cross-departmental Team observed what their colleagues are doing, and talking with them, in order to secure the valuable Knowledge.
A mixing device of Jansen paints, is the – digital-controlled – 16 reason thousands of color shades can be mixed shades.
Around 1500 recipes for varnishes, glazes, putties, and road markings must be fed into the System, the individual work to prepare the steps and execute. This is rather complex. It is a matter of specifications, such as speed, temperature, and order of the components, also to capacities for machines, containers and personnel. You have to be determined, what to do in case of malfunctions, such as test routines and set – up times as possible can be held.
Processes are traceable
“Our employees have an interest in ensuring that the business is doing well. The convenience plays a role,” says company boss Jansen. Example: The the other have a mix a particular shade due to its experience, is slightly different, as each chef has its own procedure.
“We have very high production standards and hardly the Committee. But our people have it all in your head”. It is also in the sense of quality management, to make the process understandable. “There are clear guidelines, however, we can also determine the degree in which the employees may decide,” says Jansen.
And it would be faster to their destination: “If you have to enter each Time is still a bit of Black in the paint to make it darker, you should perhaps adjust the basic recipe,” says the chief. The digital out-of-work processes procure to Document the possibility to correct them in a systematic and at the same time Knowhow.
But the disclosure is not even so much in the foreground: “It is a question of the quality of thinking,” says Jansen. In other words: The house painter should be able to buy his favorite yellow even if some of the employees of Jansen paints retire.