(Rockwell: Milwaukee) -- Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, has launched its connected worker solution from Plex by Rockwell Automation. These industry-leading capabilities were developed to help users enhance productivity, quality, and safety on the shop floor.

Manufacturers face a perfect storm of challenges: a dwindling workforce, knowledge gaps, and a skills shortage. A recent survey of manufacturers found that attracting employees with desired skill sets is their leading internal obstacle, while the skilled worker shortage is among the top five external obstacles.

The new connected worker solution addresses this challenge by providing advanced digital tools to retain, attract, and reskill workers. It empowers them with real-time guidance, visual aids, and multimedia content, enhancing comprehension and reducing errors on the job. By streamlining the number of applications manufacturers need, the solution also reduces total cost of ownership, time to value, and cybersecurity risk.

“Connected frontline workforce (CFW) applications are a strategic imperative to address critical challenges in safety, quality, and productivity,” says Allison Kuhn, Future of Industrial Work, EHS, and sustainability research analyst at LNS Research. “Manufacturing leaders are deploying CFW applications to bridge skills gaps, improve employee retention, and enhance the overall employee experience through better user interfaces, interactive training, and real-time insights. These solutions not only tackle immediate issues but also upskill the workforce for long-term success, making them essential for the future of industrial work.”

The new capabilities are directly embedded within Plex’s manufacturing execution system, providing a single source for optimizing manufacturing productivity without the need for multiple subscriptions. The solution also benefits from the broader Rockwell Automation portfolio through its hardware and software offerings, as well as its world-class partnerships. The connected worker offerings provide several benefits.

Recruiting and retaining a connected workforce: The new capabilities provide digital tools and real-time information to enhance worker productivity and engagement.

Addressing the talent gap: Through these offerings, Plex helps manufacturers empower their workers with advanced training and tools to stay competitive in the evolving workforce landscape.

Knowledge retention and transfer: As a large amount of the current workforce in manufacturing retires, safeguarding industry expertise is critical to ensure smooth knowledge transition to the next generation. The capabilities create and capture the corpus of manufacturing knowledge in an organic way.

“Driving productivity, safety, quality, and sustainability has been the forefront of our strategy since our inception,” says Anthony Murphy, VP of product management at Plex. “With the introduction of our connected worker capabilities, Plex has taken another strategic step forward in addressing the critical manufacturing skills gap. The launch of these new offerings accelerates Rockwell Automation’s world-class industry partnerships and Plex’s mission to attract, retain, and reskill the manufacturing workforce, ensuring that manufacturers are best suited to meet the challenges of today’s dynamic industry and factory environments.”

The latest capabilities feature guided and interactive work instructions, providing step-by-step task guidance for people, machines, and devices. Interactive work instructions—developed in partnership with Canvas GFX and currently available—enables users to write and work with model-based 3D and 2D multimedia formats within a single document to drive better understanding of the work at hand. Advanced capabilities will include chat features in partnership with Microsoft Teams, activity management of people and machines, key measurable capabilities, and smart tool integrations that offer manufacturers a unique edge to customize their connected worker solution.

“Guided work instructions have helped us keep ourselves accountable and ensure we’re doing the same tasks in a repeatable, dependable way,” says Christopher Giles, senior IT ERP analyst at RECARO Automotive. “We’re not relying on a particular person’s experience. Instead, someone that has been here five years and someone that has been here for a month can both produce the same quality work.”

To learn more about Plex by Rockwell Automation and its manufacturing solutions, visit https://www.plex.com/smart-manufacturing-platform.