Building a resilient supply chain workforce

How digital transformation technologies are helping organisations overcome critical workforce challenges

The global workforce shortage is expected to cost organizations more than $8.5 trillion in lost revenue by 2030. Across most industries, the supply chain function is losing its experienced workforce to mass retirement, and there just aren’t enough skilled workers available to fill this widening talent gap.

For an industry already plagued with labour shortages, this struggle to recruit and retain workers will further exacerbate supply chain disruptions. As a result, organisations are increasingly looking for avenues that allow them to do more with less. This is where augmented reality-enabled remote collaboration solutions come in. 

Augmenting the supply chain workforce

In a recent survey conducted by West Monroe and Supply Chain Dive’s studioID, 95 per cent of manufacturers and distributors surveyed identified labour management as critical to their supply and production planning. However, only 30 per cent use workflow management applications, and less than 20 per cent use AI and IoT capabilities. These technologies are critical to ensure agility, responsiveness and resilience of the supply chain. Organisations that continue to use paper-based processes or track labour and production through spreadsheets inherently risk losing critical knowledge. 

Most supply chain organisations are losing their experienced workers to retirement, finding themselves in a race to bridge and repair these knowledge gaps. Not only do they need to train their new workers faster, they also need the ability to capture knowledge from their retiring workforce, who’ve largely been considered the go-to experts. AR-enabled remote collaboration solutions such as Librestream’s Onsight allow organisations to augment their workers’ day by giving them access to the experts, content and data they need in real time, anywhere, and on any device. This technology offers workforces the ability to enhance training and onboarding for new employees, seasonal workers and contractors by enabling step-by-step guidance through digital workflows, remote mentoring with subject matter experts, and virtual in-depth inspections and audits.

In addition to ensuring workforces have critical data at the touch of a button, AR-enabled remote solutions enable organisations to build a resilient knowledge base that will continue to empower future workforces long after the retirement wave. This knowledge is critical to help ensure future supply chains can adapt to evolving government regulations, turnovers and shortages and lack of skills availability as machinery becomes more complex. As a result, the digital transformation of industrial workforces is no longer a luxury but a necessity. 

If you’re considering adding digital transformation tools to your toolkit, this guide by IDC and Librestream is a must-read. It provides insights into the critical role of AR in enabling industrial workforces and why more organisations are increasing or maintaining their spend on this technology.

Key topics covered include:

• The state of the AR market and the future outlook of this technology
• Critical use cases with real-world examples from leading organisations
• Recommendations and industry best practices to pilot, scale and leverage AR for your workforce.

Download Now