Automation Tips That Can Elevate Your Business This Year

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Automation is a useful tool to reduce steps currently in work in your business. That being said, it's not a panacea to cover or fix all ills. In fact, there are projects that are made less efficient by trying to impose order; each industry is different.

Organize First

Before you add an automating step, make sure the space is organized. For example, if you have a storage space for individual parts that go into multiple units and those raw goods are not well-organized, automating it immediately may not improve the situation. For example, you may have employees who manufacture a certain family of parts. If they are tired of not finding those individual components, they may start hoarding components so they have them when they need them. While this works for them (and may be a great basis for your organizational system) adding an automating step will not stop the hoarding. It could make things worse.

Hire Smart

The 21st century workplace has been a big jolt for many employees. As you work to boost the efficiency of your workforce, make sure you hire smart. Put tools in place that make it possible to quickly verify employment and weed out applicants that will not be a positive contribution. As you seek to hire, check with local colleges, technical schools and high schools. Can you start an apprenticeship program to offer industry experience to high school students over the summer? Is there a local college that may have students who can come in part-time to help you build and fill the "back room" data fields to make future automation easier? Every step in the automation process will need continuity, but outsourcing data entry can lower your costs and speed the process, and part-time or freelancing students may be a great investment.

Share Benefits With Employees

Automating your work processes will save time and reduce costs. This will help your bottom line. It will take time to see these benefits, but make sure that, as you see benefits, those benefits are reported. Share information and, when appropriate, share the rewards.

Stop Passing Paper

No matter your industry, the act of passing paper slows things down. If you ever received a paper paycheck, you remember the effort of taking the check to the bank. Modern employees haven't had to deposit a check in years. Look around your business for folks who have to carry paper from workstation to workstation. Could you reduce this traffic with durable tablets that could transmit information from station to station?

Reducing the transfer of paper from station to station does more than save steps. You can incorporate this data into

• traceability: If a part fails, when was the batch inspected

• safety: If a machine fails, when was it last inspected?

• consistency: If a new batch of product fails inspection, where did the raw goods come from?

One formula change by a supplier can radically change your product results over time. Chasing down a failure or an unintended result will be much simpler if you can trace the product back down to the raw goods and find the source without having to dig through files.

Automate What's Organized

If you have a detailed storage area for finished parts that is reliably organized, this is the space to apply automation. Make sure that your lead employee in this space is well trained on the necessary hardware and software, whether that means putting them to work keying in products or training them on the barcode scanner.

Communicate with this employee in particular on the best spots to place

• hardware, such as the barcode printer and reader

• supplies, such as labels and parts bags as appropriate

• the charging station

Poor communication is an ideal way to create resistance and lose buy-in. If you can get your lead employees in this area successfully trained up so they can teach their co-workers, you will face a much lower level of resentment and resistance.

Conclusion

Automation is most effective when used as an enhancing feature of an organized system. You can't automate your way out of a mess. However, even the most creative fields can be made more efficient with effective data and material automation.