Manufacturing at this time seems to be fairly completely different from the way it did a number of years in the past. From world provide chain disruptions to good manufacturing unit improvements and advances in sustainability, the {industry} has developed into a way more complicated place, filled with distinctive challenges and surprising alternatives. To survive and thrive within the face of a lot change, producers are in search of smarter, extra sustainable operations pushed by an environment friendly workforce that has the proper data and instruments to deal with something the longer term could convey.
We know {that a} related workforce is vital to supporting clever factories. We are excited to showcase our newest options to speed up workforce transformation at Hannover Messe 2023, the world’s main commerce honest for industrial know-how. At our sales space, attendees can expertise how Microsoft Teams is constructing options to deal with the distinctive challenges main producers and their frontline staff face—by serving to streamline frontline operations, improve communication and collaboration, enhance the worker expertise, and strengthen safety throughout shared units.
Streamline operations with digitized and automatic duties and workflows
From the again workplace to the manufacturing unit ground, frontline staff want extra time to deal with high-value work and fewer time wasted on guide updates, monitoring, and paperwork. According to a 2022 Microsoft Work Trend Index report, one-third of frontline manufacturing staff wish to know-how to assist with onboarding new crew members, scheduling, and automating repetitive duties to alleviate their heavy workloads.1 With Teams, frontline staff have a set of instruments and capabilities devoted to streamlining every day duties and workflows, enabling them to handle their factories and groups extra safely and effectively.
Microsoft Teams for Manufacturing
Empower all staff, from the manufacturing unit ground to the shopper’s door, with a one-stop store for frontline optimization.
Efficiently resolve manufacturing challenges with knowledge and AI
We are excited to announce that the native integration of AI-empowered Microsoft Power Virtual Agents into Microsoft Power Apps is now in preview. AI-infused Power Virtual Agents can be available in Power Apps, permitting frontline manufacturing staff to simply discover clever solutions inside the context of their manufacturing functions.
Power Virtual Agents in Microsoft Power Apps and Teams streamlines onboarding for brand spanking new frontline workers by offering them with fast and intuitive entry to straightforward working procedures, incessantly requested questions, firm insurance policies, and different essential info that pertains to their function. Additionally, frontline staff can use knowledge and AI to shortly determine manufacturing issues and options. By making publicly obtainable info simply accessible, frontline staff can study extra about their tools, shortly determine issues, and examine potential options in real-time.
Improve workforce operations with copilot management in Power Apps
In the identical approach that conversational AI is reworking app growth, AI can also be revolutionizing how staff query and work together with their knowledge. We are excited to announce that copilot management in Power Apps is now in preview. Copilot management will permit Power Apps customers to get clever insights and analytics concerning the knowledge of their manufacturing apps by a conversational chat expertise.
These queries present producers and their staff with real-time perception into day-to-day operations and permit customers to compile analytics for essential duties.
Siemens and Microsoft drive industrial productiveness with generative AI
Siemens and Microsoft are harnessing the collaborative energy of generative AI to assist industrial corporations drive innovation and effectivity throughout the design, engineering, manufacturing, and operational lifecycle of merchandise. With the brand new Teamcenter app for Microsoft Teams, anticipated later in 2023, the businesses are enabling design engineers, frontline staff, and groups throughout enterprise capabilities to shut suggestions loops sooner and remedy challenges collectively. For instance, service engineers or manufacturing operatives can use cell units to doc and report product design or high quality considerations utilizing pure speech. Through Azure OpenAI Service, the app can parse that casual speech knowledge, robotically making a summarized report and routing it inside Teamcenter to the suitable design, engineering, or manufacturing knowledgeable. To foster inclusion, staff can report their observations of their most well-liked languages which is then translated into the official firm language with Microsoft Azure AI. Teams gives user-friendly options like push notifications to simplify workflow approvals, scale back the time it takes to request design adjustments, and pace up innovation cycles. Read extra within the press launch.
Teams Shifts connector for UKG Dimensions
Scheduling is essential to making sure productiveness, plant utilization, and worker empowerment. To assist producers higher handle workers’ schedules, now we have partnered with UKG to co-engineer the Microsoft Teams Shifts connector for UKG Dimensions which provides manufacturing staff the flexibility to view and settle for open shifts, request time without work, clock out and in, and extra. It is now usually obtainable and joins our ecosystem of Shifts connectors together with Blue Yonder and Zebra Technologies.
Enable seamless activity execution and analytics
We are excited to announce a brand new guidelines requirement for Microsoft Tasks. With this new function, all guidelines gadgets must be accomplished earlier than the duty may be marked as full within the system. This ensures all essential steps are accomplished for a activity to assist scale back errors and enhance accuracy in high-stress or high-risk environments. By requiring each guidelines merchandise to be accomplished earlier than the duty is marked as full, services can scale back the chance of apparatus failure and manufacturing downtime. This new function can be usually obtainable in May 2023.
For the manufacturing firm Ricoh, a essential issue within the manufacturing course of is monitoring and sustaining the standard of merchandise in growth and precisely detecting any defects. These steps beforehand required a number of stakeholders throughout numerous departments, and time-consuming telephone calls, emails, memos, formal stories, and conferences. The integration of Teams and Power Platform has allowed the digitalization of those mundane and prolonged processes—optimizing effectivity and considerably accelerating the manufacturing line.
Enable real-time communication and collaboration from wherever
The fast-paced, industrial, and generally hazardous environments in manufacturing make fast and clear communication essential to security, well-being, and effectivity. As staff all through the {industry} really feel the stress of frontline shortages, provide shortage, and excessive demand, having fast, clear, and simple channels of communication are extra helpful than ever.
Teams is working to cut back communication siloes, accidents, and undesirable downtime by enabling real-time communication and collaboration in a single place. In reality, a Forrester Consulting research discovered a 25 % discount in manufacturing unit ground errors attributable to misinformation with Teams for manufacturing staff.2
Communicate with ease by enabling shared use of cell units
Leverage Teams as your calling resolution to attach with teammates, clients, and suppliers. Later this yr, manufacturing unit ground workers will be capable to make and obtain calls by shared cell Android telephones from wherever their work takes them. Read extra on this Microsoft Tech Community weblog.
Connect your workforce with prompt communication
The highly effective options of the Walkie Talkie app in Teams that enhance communication and collaboration throughout your workforce are actually obtainable on units from our industry-leading companions together with Honeywell, Samsung, and Zebra Technologies. Each machine comes with devoted push-to-talk buttons, eradicating the necessity for extraneous units for handheld communications. Additionally, we’re excited to announce that nudge to discover, which helps onboard new customers of Walkie Talkie, can be usually obtainable in April 2023.
Enable immersive collaboration with the up to date Teams ActualWear app
We’re excited to showcase the newest replace to our voice-optimized model of Teams, which allows staff to collaborate with distant consultants and shortly troubleshoot urgent points by a totally voice-controlled wearable headset—all whereas lowering enterprise journey prices and carbon footprint affect.
Further, Teams and ActualWear have improved the app to reinforce zooming capabilities, now with 4 ranges of digital zoom inside Teams on ActualWear Navigator® 500. We’ve additionally added Teams breakout room integration, enhanced the consumer interface navigation, and upgraded the app with 720p HD video and 15 fps help for added picture readability.3 These new options are actually usually obtainable.
Increase frontline well-being, engagement, and productiveness
According to the Work Trend Index, 59 % of frontline manufacturing staff in non-management positions report that management doesn’t prioritize constructing office tradition, and 50 % don’t really feel valued as an worker.1 To assist reverse this pattern, producers want a straightforward approach to assist securely foster neighborhood and enhance engagement throughout distant units, channels, and groups. Our newest product and associate capabilities assist preserve the frontline related, knowledgeable, and engaged.
Put essential sources and updates entrance and heart
We’re excited to announce that the pre-configured residence expertise for frontline staff on Teams is now usually obtainable, rolling out all through April 2023, streamlining entry to info for the manufacturing workforce.
The new residence expertise is now rolling out on desktop and pill. Learn extra about how Teams is enhancing the desktop expertise and the best way to customise the expertise.
Etex workers throughout the globe log into Teams by firm units, kiosks, or private units. No matter how they log in, all workers can take pleasure in a customized expertise consisting of significant communications and work functions. Louise Cail, Chief Human Resources Officer at Etex, says, “We saw a well-over 80 percent return rate from our factory employees on a recent survey—that shows how important it is they connect on their devices. Our active engagement has increased dramatically right across our employee population, from the low 70s up to 86 percent—all since we adopted [Microsoft] Viva Connections.”
Secure your small business throughout each machine and endpoint
The pandemic accelerated digital manufacturing unit investments for a lot of producers—a shift that has additionally led to elevated danger for cyberattacks. In 2020, the manufacturing {industry} moved from the eighth most focused {industry} by cyber attackers to quantity two, falling behind solely finance and insurance coverage.4
Teams helps producers safeguard operations with built-in safety and compliance throughout endpoints to guard companies from pricey cyberattacks and safety breaches.
Seamlessly handle and deploy shared machine mode
Previously, frontline staff utilizing Microsoft 365 functions on shared units needed to individually signal out and in of every utility firstly and finish of their shifts. This made it troublesome for frontline staff to shortly begin their shift and to make sure their machine was absolutely cleared once they gave the machine to a different worker.
In May 2023, shared machine mode help for Outlook, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Viva Engage, and Power Apps on Android units can be usually obtainable, becoming a member of the portfolio of apps together with Teams that may be securely accessed by Microsoft Intune.
In addition, producers who make the most of SOTI and VMWare Workspace ONE as their third-party unified endpoint administration options for Android can enroll units in Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), which is now in preview.
FUJIFILM Group is a home movie producer that has expanded its enterprise within the 4 fields of healthcare, supplies, enterprise innovation, and imaging.
“When company information is managed, not only does file sharing need to be convenient but security must also be firmly guaranteed. Implementing Microsoft 365 was a good opportunity for us to be aware of governance as a team,” mentioned Allan Feeney of the North American area of FUJIFILM.
Join Microsoft Teams at Hannover Messe 2023
We can’t wait to see you at Hannover Messe 2023 on April 17 to 21, 2023! Come go to us in Booth 14 to study how one can speed up frontline effectivity by streamlining operations, enhancing communication and collaboration, and growing safety with Teams.
1Technology Can Help Unlock a New Future for Frontline Workers, Microsoft. January 12, 2022.
2Microsoft Teams Empowers Frontline Workers and Drives Efficiency for Manufacturing Organizations, Forrester Consulting. July 2022.
3Microsoft unveils extra options for ActualWear customers, ActualWear. October 21, 2022.
4Up to 300% Increase in Attacks from Opportunistic Targeting, 2021 Global Threat Intelligence Report, NTT. May 11, 2021.