7 Benefits of a Connected Worker Platform

March 1, 2023

Mobile transformations may seem expensive but sticking with outdated paper methods for industrial maintenance is far more costly — negatively impacting the bottom line and performance. Market leaders have invested, and digitally transformed their companies by automating every step of the industrial maintenance process. And this includes deploying mobile maintenance solutions needed to create a connected workforce.

What is a Connected Worker?

A connected worker is any member of the workforce who uses technology to connect to enterprise systems, machines, or each other for information. This provides the connected workforce with access to the right information at the right time, enabling communication flow in real time. In industrial and plant maintenance, connected frontline workers, including field technicians and equipment operators, can quickly access critical information. This connectivity provides benefits throughout each step of a worker’s day. In addition, easy-to-use mobile tools facilitate the process of accurate data collection by giving the workforce the right tools needed to exchange information with an organization’s enterprise asset management system (EAM), including SAP Plant Maintenance (PM).

Benefits of a Connected Worker Platform

Workers who have access to critical information are able to streamline maintenance tasks and complete those tasks more quickly and accurately. Providing workers with mobile maintenance apps boost industrial and plant maintenance performance by providing these benefits.

1) Enabling real-time data capture and exchange.

With mobile tools in hand, technicians have access to accurate, job-critical information in real-time. These tools also make it easy for connected workers to capture notes and update the master data, which improves data quality.

2) Streamlining work order management.

The real-time data flow also improves the work order process. Mobile maintenance solutions empower technicians with direct access to data within SAP and the ability to update data instantly from their mobile devices. In addition, the inclusion of offline functionality with auto sync saves technician time and limits disruption. It also leads to faster work order initiation and close times.

3) Increasing wrench time.

Low wrench time is one of the biggest factors impacting maintenance. According to McKinsey, wrench time, or the total time that technicians spend fixing or maintaining equipment, averages 15% to 25% across all industries. Ideally, it should be above 50%.

Replacing paper-based work order processes with mobile solutions reduces the time to complete administrative tasks. It also provides maintenance technicians on the plant floor or in the field with immediate access to the information they need when and where they need it.

McKinsey found that by introducing a mobile EAM solution, organizations can increase wrench time 2.5x due to the digitization of maintenance processes.4) Optimizing asset performance and utilization. The benefits of a connected workforce have positive add-on effects. Improving data accuracy, work order management, and worker efficiency leads to better plant performance. With higher wrench time, workers can complete more tasks in a day. And with time, the completion of more preventive work results in fewer breakdowns to provide greater equipment availability enabling and increase in plant output.

5) Improving worker safety and compliance.
With a mobile EAM app enabling worker connectivity, organizations can take steps to improve the safety of the entire workforce. Customizable workflows can include mandatory safety checklists, which must be read and completed before initiating a work order.

6) Boosting overall operations. As processes become more streamlined, organizations see benefits across key metrics. Customers using the Sigga mobile maintenance solution to create a connected workforce experienced immediate benefits.

Beverage manufacturer AmBev, a part of Anheuser Busch, saw a host of improvements after deploying Sigga’s software, including:

80% reduction in mean time to repair (MTTR)
10% increase in mean time between failures (MTBF)
15% increase in technician productivity
Significant reduction in paperwork as techs manage work orders digitally online or offline

7) Increasing software flexibility. Using a mobile EAM on a no-code platform gives non-technical business users the power to build connected workflows designed specifically for their business, without costly and time intensive customization developers. With the ease-of-use of no-code, the possibilities are endless to create productivity enhancing connected processes.

How to Enable a Connected Workforce

As part of a larger digital transformation across the entire organization, mobile maintenance solutions are key to developing a connected workforce. For industrial and plant maintenance, consider the following when choosing a connected worker solution:

Deploy mobile solutions that integrate directly into your SAP EAM. Mobile EAM apps should manage tasks and synchronize mobile databases with ERP databases in real time.
Enable fully functional offline experiences for the workforce. This creates a streamlined process and maximizes data integrity regardless of location or mobile connectivity.
Free up the IT department with no-code solutions. IT will be able to focus on more complex solutions, and a quick rollout leads to immediate business value.
Confirm security. Look for software or platform vendors that follow Secure-Software Development Life-Cycle (S-SDLC) best practices and comply with industry standards such as ISO 27001 and SAP integration certification.

How Sigga Empowers the Connected Workforce

Sigga’s no-code mobile platform helps companies quickly and easily create a connected workforce, and does so without the complexity, or the IT developer resources, of many mobile EAM apps. Combining Sigga’s mobile maintenance app with SAP PM easily digitizes paper-based processes to empower workers in the field and improve plant performance. Organizations who use Sigga experience greater ROI from their SAP deployment.