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Private Networks Make it Possible for Workers to Connect Like Never Before
With the emergence of new digital technologies, including private networks, IoT and cloud-computing, manufacturing and industrial organizations have entered the connected era with a smart and strategic implementation of a connected worker network.
Connected workers are the foundation of the plant, petrochemical facility and manufacturing floor. With a connected workforce, managers, frontline workers and executives uncover new opportunities to drive continuous improvement, gain real-time visibility into business operations and optimize the productivity of workers throughout the facility.
A connected worker is more than just software and a smart phone. A connected worker brings numerous benefits to an industrial organization. They can be equipped with wearable devices and technology solutions that can help them perform their tasks more efficiently, monitor their health and safety, and even provide real-time data and insights to improve the overall performance of the organization.
These technologies not only facilitate data exchange with other devices and machines in a manufacturing system, but also encompass both hardware and software components, providing workers with a real-time, contextualized understanding of their actions within a larger system.
As a result, workers become an integral part of a responsive, adaptive system, thereby enhancing their efficacy and efficiency in the workplace.
Some specific benefits of a connected worker:
- Improved Productivity: The implementation of connected devices that relay real-time data aids workers in the prompt identification of inefficiencies on the plant floor, facilitates seamless coordination amongst team members, and enhances production time via streamlining of operations.
- Better Safety: Connected worker solutions can be enhanced with sensor technology that detects and notifies users of unsafe working conditions, monitors levels of worker fatigue, and sounds alarms for potential hazardous situations that arise on the plant floor. These connected worker solutions can effectively reduce the risk of accidents and injuries, thereby improving overall safety standards within an organization.
- Enhanced Training: Connected workers can receive training and guidance in real time through augmented reality or virtual reality devices, which help frontline workers accomplish tasks faster.
- Reduced Downtime: Connected workers can quickly identify and address issues before they become significant problems, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
Private Cellular Networks
Foundational to the connected worker are three technologies that facilitate a connection in the first place. Cloud computing makes it easier than ever to process heavier computational workloads. Edge computing reduces latency and improves network performance by moving tasks to network endpoints. 5G connected devices and wearables enable high-bandwidth, low-latency applications that allow for more data, more services and more applications that workers benefit from, including custom applications utilizing AI, VR and virtual environments.
In the realm of wireless networking, many industrial organizations are turning to private cellular networks as a next generation platform that provides more than just connectivity. A private cellular network is exclusively dedicated to a particular business or organization. By complementing their existing Ethernet and Wi-Fi infrastructure with a private, dedicated LTE network, institutions can provide broadband connectivity for everyone and everything and support a new generation of educational applications and campus services.
A private network helps ensure that you have consistent, reliable coverage across your entire organization’s footprint, which is especially important for remote locations where there is no public cellular coverage.
It can also create a path to 5G, which will take network performance and coverage to new heights and unlock countless possibilities for teaching, learning and operations.
BearCom has designed and deployed private cellular networks for industrial environments, manufacturing environments and has the experience and insight to leverage the latest in LTE technology for a private enterprise network deployment.
More Ways to Connect Workers; More Ways to Gain Value
Today, there are more ways than ever to connect and support shop floor or remote facility workers. There is more value to be created for the organization by doing so.
The infusion of connected worker solutions within the manufacturing industry can be likened to a digital transformation, where individuals are discovering more efficient and intelligent means of communication irrespective of location and time. The outcome is improved dialogues, enhanced solutions and elevated productivity.
