What kind of a “driver” should the front-line worker be in the factory of the future?

This is a question I get asked a lot, and it is valid question. With the change roles, changing scopes of responsibility, and changing demographic / way of working, certainly the generic roles of the past 20 years will not work.

But getting back to the “driver” type of the future no matter role. So many people say why not eliminate drivers and humans all together, nothing new this is “lights out manufacturing” but is it practical. I believe not and the reason is the demanding world of today which demands change. 

Certainly where we have consistent planned know execution automation makes the whole sense, but :

•         our product run sizes are reducing
•          product change overs are increasing
•          new product introduction is increasing
•          Agility is key

The ability to absorb and handle change in operations, products and personal is becoming foundational in our operational system of the future.

The above diagram shows the two sides of the thinking, but the key is you have change on the left, and in the pilot actually  is a combination of “automated and human” capability to provide the effectiveness. Most of the flying activities are automated, freeing up the pilot to work the strategy and situation to apply quick, situation-ally aware actions to control to combat the situation.

In manufacturing our productivity has been increasing significantly as seen below, for a period it tracked human compensation, but in 70’s this changed and productivity continue to rise, but not compensation. You might ask "as what do you mean" this curve is relative to team / role, what has happened in the 70s to 2000s we have increased automation, and increased the scope and work a worker covers for the same compensation. 

But this is going to take another step as the low hanging fruits have been taken, with DCS, robotics and PLCs etc. Now how can you increase alignment and decisions so you achieve that level 5 of automation levels that of “Manage by Exception”. This will require a new level of embedded knowledge, community collaboration, and augmented human interpretation.

Standby as we transition the “Driver” from Semi Manual to an Augmented Pilot, where we can easily move "pilots" between plans (plants) and not loose efficiency, and agility to absorb/ combat change!