Robot Operations Framework

Managing expectations is important to get green lights and support for the first PoC. To get the support you want and need to succeed you should talk about everything with the employees onsite. The employees on site will also need their time to explore the new colleague. All-hands meetings with the employees that are involved in operations are a good option to keep everyone involved in the process. If they are not part of the process and the planned PoC, they will not promote it. It also makes sense to provide information about the robot as well as the process to the shop floor workers. This can be done through a one-pager that describes all important facts. For this, you can also use the template: Best Practice for shop floor worker communication.

It is also important to update the top-level management, invite them over to the facility to show progress, and also to share successes with them. On the other hand, it is also important not to overcommit to the first project. Employing robots is very new to all departments and people in an organization. The effort for technical and cultural integration should not be underestimated. Therefore managing the expectations of those controlling the budget for further projects is important.

Nurturing contact with the works council is also a crucial pillar of success. Of course, the works council is also interested in the health of employees, freeing them from repetitive tasks and ensuring a safe work environment. All of this can be achieved using (mobile) robots. But on the other hand, they also see the problem of reducing the workforce and of course this is a topic to talk about. Here our Sustainable Automation Journey can help you with facing these challenges. For now, please be aware that having a good relationship with the works council is key for success.

If you are working as a third party for a client, you should also think about having a representative of your client to communicate changes to the current process well. In case you are changing how you interact with the product, you need the buy-in of the client.

All in all, starting with robots and walking the first steps into your future facility will not be easy. Some problems will occur, either on the infrastructure side, regarding the involved team or the current processes. Also regarding the robot that is not always free of problems. Integrating robots during a PoC requires the ability to learn, adapt and master challenges that will occur. If you are good at this, you will improve step by step every week.

Sharing and communicating this with all the stakeholders involved, can be the most important aspect if something is not working out perfectly and first concerns and doubts arise. In addition to that also make sure that you communicate what the scope of the robot operation is and explicitly what is not. Through talking about the limits of the robot you can earn a lot of trust and confidence.