Why should you consider introducing or expanding automation in your business?
Today I’ll help you identify one important area of your business where you can automate and the BIG BENEFITS of doing so.
In my early 20s, I was coating the inside of vessels with epoxy. There was three of us, a friend and I, and our supervisor… All dressed up with safety glasses, full body suits, and respirators. The only exit was a 24 in manhole. It was uncomfortable and mind numbing work and I wasn’t smart enough at the time to put in an Audiobook. So my friend and I settled on entertaining ourselves by singing muffled Nursery songs through our respirators to annoy our supervisor… he ended up leaving us alone to finish the job.
There were many Engineering tasks that needed doing where I worked at the time but it just so happened that the epoxy coating needed to happen and we were the most junior staff…
Think about your company. Is there a lot of untapped talent?
How many of high performers are committed to doing mundane tasks on a daily basis? Could their time be better used else where?
What about employee engagement? Are there tasks that can potentially become boring? Could those tasks be done by a machine instead?
Automation can help reduce or eliminate tasks that are mundane so that employee efforts can be diverted to value added activities.
Typically it is a shift from manual work to cognitive work (which is higher paid).
Freeing up additional thought resources allows employers to shift their focus to producing higher value (and higher margin) products without increasing their payroll.
Marlin Steel, a US based company moved from producing Bagel Baskets to all sorts of metal wire products by investing in automation.
Play the video above to see how Automation has helped Marlin Steel stay competitive, and how the employees feel about the increased automation.
I hope that this video helps gets you thinking about employee engagement and what higher margin or higher value products you could offer to your customers… if you weren’t bogged down by mundane tasks.
If you have process in mind that could be automated and you’re ready to take the next step, reach out to us.
