Bridging the manufacturing skills gap with improved process adoption

Michelle Mimms Date published: May 16, 24

The ongoing skills shortage is having wide-reaching impacts across the global manufacturing industry. With over 10 million vacancies currently unfilled worldwide, manufacturers are struggling to maintain productivity and output levels to meet customer demand – leading to lost opportunities for growth and, ultimately, lost revenue.

When workforces are stretched, quality can also suffer. Facing increased workloads without a full team, workers can be tempted to take shortcuts, bypassing vital processes and leading to increased errors.

However, maintaining productivity without sacrificing quality is key to mitigating the impacts of the skills shortage. To achieve this, processes must be followed efficiently, accurately and consistently.

Ideagen Smartforms is an intuitive data capture platform that simplifies and enhances process adoption in quality management. By making processes clearer and easier to follow, and minimizing errors, the tool helps to bridge the skills gap by maximizing productivity.

Here’s how Ideagen Smartforms can help manufacturers improve process adoption and take their quality management processes to the next level.

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Complex processes made simple

When processes are complex or unclear, valuable time can be lost while employees struggle to figure out their next steps or resolve errors they’ve made by not following the process correctly.

By integrating forms and inspections with step-by-step checklists for task completion, Ideagen Smartforms empowers all employees to proficiently follow a range of processes. With a user-friendly, intuitive interface, it makes processes clear and easy to follow – reducing the time spent on form filling during inspections by 67% on average.

Reduce the chance of errors

Errors can be hugely problematic for manufacturers, resulting in wastage, reduced quality and poorer data analytics due to inaccurate information – all of which can be damaging to both productivity and profitability.

Ideagen Smartforms streamlines and automates data capture, ensuring consistency and quality in performing tasks. By engaging workers with quality processes, the platform fosters a culture of quality throughout the organization to help keep standards high and errors low. Additionally, by eliminating manual paperwork, Ideagen Smartforms simultaneously saves time on form filling, while reducing errors.

Traceability and accountability

To achieve maximum productivity, manufacturers need to ensure each and every employee is following processes consistently and accurately. But without transparency into workers’ performance, it can be difficult to pinpoint where improvement is needed.

With Ideagen Smartforms, team leaders can monitor and manage staff performance – tracking all form completions and identifying non-conformances. Not only does this help identify any issues, but it can also help boost process adoption by increasing individual accountability.

Identify areas for further training

Training is a crucial element of optimizing productivity and quality, as well as a key component of employee retention.

Gathering and analyzing data on employee performance, Ideagen Smartforms enables managers to pinpoint areas where more training would be beneficial. So, training resources can be allocated more effectively, resulting in targeted interventions to elevate competency and performance.

Speed up onboarding

Extensive onboarding processes can result in lost output and diminished productivity, with both new employees and those training them taken away from core activities to complete onboarding.

Ideagen Smartforms makes it easy for new recruits to learn and follow quality management processes. Facilitating efficient, effective training and task management, it speeds up process adoption to get new recruits up and running, while reducing the time spent by other recruits to train them up.

Boost confidence and independence

Ensuring employees feel comfortable and confident in their work is key to improving process adoption. If they’re unsure of what steps to take, they’re likely to work slower, require more support and miss key steps.

By guiding employees through every step of inspection and quality processes, Ideagen Smartforms reduces the learning curve for new recruits. So, employees can quickly develop the confidence to independently follow a range of processes.

Use Ideagen Smartforms to bridge the gap

As manufacturers around the world struggle to meet customer demand in the face of the global skills shortage, maximizing productivity through process adoption is crucial. The industry’s issues with recruitment and employee retention are unlikely to be resolved quickly, so organizations must look to technology to keep the wheels of industry turning.

Ideagen Smartforms is a game-changer for organizations looking to boost operational efficiency and modernize their quality management processes. By making inspection and form-filling processes clear and easy to follow, the platform can increase the field of productivity by 1100%.

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