Internal champions are the key to successfully using Industry 4.0 Solutions

The emphasis in Industry 4.0 is usually on the technological aspects: which systems, software or tools to use, having the right data, connections and interfaces in order to advance your Digital Transformation journey. More and more, we see companies acknowledge the crucial role that people play in getting real and lasting successes. That is also a key takeaway from the webinar that we recently organized together with Innovapptive and which was hosted by Terrence O’Hanlon of ReliabilityWeb.

Managing change

The virtual fireside chat brought together complementary perspectives on Connected Frontline Worker (CFW) technology and the key success factors for implementation; Sundeep Ravande represented Innovapptive’s perspective as a CFW software provider, the asset owner’s views were shared by Nutrien’s maintenance manager Clark Knaus and I represented MaxGrip’s asset management domain expertise including our implementation and deployment experience. The common theme for all speakers of the webinar was clear from the start: applying change management and realizing user adoption are vital for CFW tech to be effective. In short: we will get the software to work, but how will we get the organization to work with the software?

Driver for success

Implementing a Connected Worker solution is a big change for your workforce. They can become unsure of their role (Am I being replaced by technology?), might be insecure about their competencies for working with the new technology (How am I going to do this?) and often wonder about the purpose (Why are we doing this? What’s in it for me?). I know from experience that your chances of success improve significantly with having internal champions driving the deployment project.

Wider adoption

Internal champions are keen to engage with the technology because they believe in the benefits and are open to change and growth. Get them to share their inputs, learnings and successes. Their importance for a successful transformation cannot be overstated as they will lead the others in the wider adoption.

Users are the key

Connected Frontline Worker is a user-focused solution, perhaps more than most Industry 4.0 solutions in the realm of asset management.  Users are the key; make them own, adopt and enjoy the new tools, processes and way of working to share and celebrate the successes.

Because of the importance of change management for industry 4.0 and asset management, we have chosen to focus on this topic in the upcoming months.

Ronald de Kok
VP Marketing & Sales

Ronald de Kok
VP Marketing & Sales