In larger manufacturing facilities, there may be problems relaying relevant information to employees in different departments resulting in communication gaps. Digital signage is starting to be used as a form of wide-spread internal communication.
Digital signage is turning out to be a key instrumental resource that fills current communication gaps inherent in phones, PA systems, emails, and 2-way radios within manufacturing facilities.
The use of digital signage, consequently reduces response times, improves safety awareness, and increases productivity. To get these benefits, you can employ the use of digital signage in the following areas:
- Improvement or introduction of lean strategies
Manufacturing facilities have several areas of waste that can be eliminated using electronic signage. This includes waiting time, pre-production, unnecessary movement of goods or materials, excess inventory, unnecessary movement of workers, over processing, and product defects.
Visualization of integrated data enables continuous process visibility, which makes employees aware of all routine operations. Improvement of strategy also eliminates deficiencies and downtime.
- KPI Reporting
Manufacturing development programs are important in determining the key performance indices of new and old programs. Using digital signage to communicate what is going on at a manufacturing facility, enhances feelings of personal, professional growth, sense of responsibility and a healthy competitive working environment that leads to higher levels of productivity.
An analytics sign can also be employed, turning the digital signage into a dashboard of graphs, tables, and charts illustrating the company's performance matrix. Since the data will be running on the screens, it can be easily viewed by workers without any workflow interruption.
Some of the primary KPIs displayed include data on uptime versus downtime, periodical comparison figures, accident-free days and minute productivity statistics.
- Emergency alerts
Your employees' safety should be your number one concern, besides high-profit margins. Your company can lose millions when in violation of worker safety regulations like OSHA and you must have the best safety alert systems.
Instead of relying on emails, internal memos, and PA systems to communicate warnings, you can use these responsive digital signage systems. The specific emergency information, location, situation, and actions needed to be taken can be displayed on the signage TV screens, and the information will be understood instantly by workers in the entire facility or the concerned department.
- To reduce injuries and accidents
How much does your business presently spend on treatment and rehabilitation costs for injured workers? Do you want to lower these values? Well, what are you waiting for, get digital signage?
The digital signage is centrally placed, and even when your facility has 20 or more of these electronic signage screens, workers in all the levels will get the same information regarding toxic fumes, gas leakages, spills or accidents. Improvement in your facility's safety conditions directly leads to higher ROI.
Displaying the number of accident-free days and providing rewards is also a great way of motivating employees to follow safe and healthy procedures that avoid mishaps and maintains employee well-being.
- Training and meetings
Let's face it; you have probably called for meetings then have lower than expected number of attendees, and the reason for the low turnout is message delivery failure! Isn't it disappointing when you have to get more resources for a later training or a meeting? You can let go of such concerns by installing the best digital signage systems in your facility.
Working with the HR department, all meetings and training will be communicated to the relevant parties promptly. After calling for meetings, the digital signage screens will come in handy as your presentation tools. Content apps and widgets will bring life to your presentations keeping the trainees or meeting attendants engaged.
- Branding and awareness
No one mentioned that the digital signage screens work for the indoor spaces alone, right. Well, your public relations team can take up this as a marketing tool. You've probably seen several institutions using the electronic signage to advertise their products and services. Don't be left out, have the screens put up at strategic locations around the city to promote your products.
Testimonials, positive reviews, and social media comments from your happy clients can be run on the screens to raise awareness of your products. It is also easier for new customers to purchase products they have heard something positive about.
Support to the community and promotions or advertisement campaigns can also be run on the screenswithin the marketing sections of the facility, or out for the public to see.
- Production notifications
Manufacturing plants experience a lot of noise interference as well as Wi-Fi interruptions that inhibit communication between departments, managers, supervisors, and workers. Such communication mishaps can be resolved by having digital signage screens displaying notifications on production processes.
- Product use
Leading manufacturing plants employ the use of digital signage next to their displayed product to give guidelines on usage. The screens have demonstration videos running through the screens adjacent or directly across where products are placed. This is an effective strategy for your business to showcase how your products work.
- Cafeteria Menu Boards
Your employees have to eat. Your facility's cafeteria management can take up digital menu boardsto display the foods that will be served. Information may also be shared on healthy eating habits which could include displaying the calorie content of the food being served. These menu boards also help employees to plan their meals in time, as the menu board could have information based on the time and day of the week using dayparting features. Dayparting allows the cafeteria manager to show different menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. These digital menu boards can also be programmed to display different menus for each day of the week and can be set to rotate depending on the day of the week automatically.
- Company announcements
Forget for a moment about training, meetings, and seminars. The digital signage screens once installed can be used to announce about corporate celebrations, birthdays, work anniversaries, employees of the month, visitors, impromptu half-days, promotions, or awards.
Announcements can be shared via email, SMS, or memos just to complement the digital signage. This is, therefore, a swift communication medium.
In addition to displaying announcements on these signage screens, the content could also be shown on the company's website using SimulSignage. SimulSignage allows the content manager to show the same content on the site which gets updated in real-time whenever any changes are made.
- Means to incentivize
Are you a creative or a talent manager in a manufacturing facility? Are you looking for ways of incentivizing employees? How about you let digital signage help you! You can run contests between departments and have screens display weekly or even daily performance of the two units. Use it as a leaderboard and motivate employees to increase productivity.