Hershey, Nestle Execs Speak on the Connected Worker

“I'll start by saying that digital is not scary [although] that's often the perception. Usually that anxiety comes with the lack of information,” he said. “So just bringing people into the fold in the process and letting them be a part of the design really alleviates a lot of that scare.

“We've taken an iterative approach where we know roughly the end [point] that we're going to, what our vision is, but we've left enough space for the people actually doing the work to help design the work. And that balance of having vision but also having flexibility is what's making our deployment go as well as it's been going.”

Robert: A lot of technology people, when they talk about factory improvements, leave the people element out. But you're coming in from the lean side where respect for people, talking to people, is a key element. Can you talk about bridging those two things? How you make sure that you're getting that personal connection?

“I'll take a step back on the journey that we've been on,” said McNear. “We're on year 10 of a lean transformation where we're going through and revisioning our systems and really re-evaluating our requirements based off the context of today's world. In parallel, we had digital factory initiatives that were creating better data management systems, better tools that are on the floor.

“But it took the combination of both to really meet people where they're at, to understand what their pain points are and how to match those up with solutions. Ultimately, you'll find that people are resourceful and they'll find a solution. But those solutions aren't sustainable if they're not supported with the greater organization's vision for what the future will hold.”

Robert: If you give people an incentive, they'll find a way to it. But it might not be in the best interest of the company. It can damage your equipment. It can be a safety risk. So having the incentive and getting the control around it are two critical things.

“Yes, and the incentive [must] go beyond pure compliance, because I can check a box to make compliance look good, but am I really getting at the value that the system is intending?” said McNear. “It's linking the utilization to the performance and getting a better picture of the whole package and making it seem fun. Making it interactive in a way that it's not happening to you as an end user, but you get to be a part of the journey.”

Robert: Can you give an example of something you've done on the shop floor to give that individual line worker more information or more control?

“I'll give a very specific one,” said McNear. “I had a packaging operator who really leaned into the digital transformation for her specific unit. When she was able to see previous performance on the shift before, she already had handoff information, but she lacked the data behind it. To be honest, she’s not the most technically savvy operator, but you don't need to be if we can present the data in a way that it can be actionable.

“Now when she looks at the previous shift, she'll see what stuff they're struggling with on the shift before, call out the maintenance personnel to fix whatever problem or get the necessary people there. She prides herself on having the best shift on her line across all shifts because she's able to use data to make that happen.

“If we could just get a piece of that from every operator -- that they're looking at data, they're connecting it to the problems on the floor and connecting it to the right people to solve those problems -- we'd be in a whole different era of production and a different level of digital engagement.”

Mike Brauckman of Nestle

Brauckman is head of focused improvement at Nestle. He's had a lot of roles in the improvement side of things, was a Lean master black belt and was part of the confectionery business earlier in his career.

“We do something called a connected worker blitz, which is essentially you've got the tech in place and you work with the operators to figure out how to use it, to minimize the amount of work.,” he said. “You're already doing something to help them get rid of that transactional-type work, knowing that you're coming next with this approach that now that we have that data in place, we're going to start to use it to solve problems.

“I call it being obsessed with ECRS, which is eliminate, combine, reduce and simplify. The idea that everything has to lead to less work. It has to be less confusing. It has to be less activity. It has to require less thinking. Because that's going to create an environment where, at the end of the day, you can be proud of what you do when you come home and see your family. This place is not just a paycheck; if you get rid of the dumb stuff, you can create that environment that's actually engaging and fulfilling.”

Robert: In a lot of plants things have been done a certain way for a very long time. Even if it's inefficient or problematic, workers adapt to it, and they get very good at the processes, even if the processes are not ideal. Do you see that being a barrier to that change when you come in with a change management?

“For the most part, the only barrier I see is that the people want to be heard,” said Brauckman. “Sometimes you have to try something you know isn't going to work because they can't move on until they see for themselves, right? I think that's part of change and that's part of bringing people along, and we expect it. We know that's the way to address it.”

Robert: What makes food special? What makes food different when it comes to applying new technologies?

“I would say what's different is precision,” Brauckman continued. “I can't make a cookie identically every time. I'm not going to be able to do it. It's not worth the energy to do it. So our processes have to be a little bit more tolerant than, say automotive. [Food products] need to fit in a bag, not precisely in a slot. I want people to be obsessed with process control, [but] knowing we can't control it to the level that aerospace could control it.”

Robert: As quickly as some of these AI tools and data tools are developing, you made a comment that people won't need to really worry about developing statistics. They'll just need to know which statistics to use.

“I think it goes back to applying it,” said Brauckman. “I don't know if I'll get this quite right, but I'm either trying to compare something, I'm trying to correlate something, or I'm trying to demonstrate some sort of causality. Those are the things I want to do. For me, the statistics are about making a picture. So I can take something abstract and make it visual for the people who are going to have to live with it, whatever the outcome is. It's a way for them to see what's going on.

Robert: I've seen a lot of companies over the years develop data lakes; they'll collect every piece of data they can think of and use it later. Now is that later time. We now have the ability to process that a little more easily and intelligently.

“We're finding that even with a data lake there is latency,” Brauckman continued. “I need real time. So if I need real time, then I need it in the PLC, I need it historized. I need some way to know exactly when something happens or doesn't. So I think that speaks back to whether or not you roll out your tech with an intent.

“I didn't do any of the work when it came to rolling it out [because] I had a different role in the organization. But then I stepped into this role and saw what was possible. The team was showing me all the things they could do and I'm like, ‘Holy crap, you can do all of this?’ And we immediately started having creative time, if you will. I’d even go so far in performance objectives that I expect you to figure out how to save a day a week.”