Digital Signs in Manufacturing Are Now Standard Practice? You Bet!

Using digital signage software in manufacturing facilities is so wide spread and popular it’s now considered to be common practice. And why wouldn’t they be? The possibilities for communicating important information are endless! Safety information, health reminders, accident-free days, promotions, employees of the month announcements, emergency alerts, deadline notices, internal corporate communication and more can be displayed with these digital dashboards.

Communication challenges in manufacturing facilities are commonplace. Large facilities have a difficult time relaying important information to employees working in different departments, with some in different locations a city or state away. This breakdown can impact the company negatively with big communication gaps across the workplace.

Functioning as a key resource, digital signage fills the gaps left by phones, PA systems, emails, and 2-way radios within manufacturing facilities. Communication sharing that isn’t efficient or effective can result in disengaged, uninformed employees. There are multiple short and long-term benefits of implementing and adapting your manufacturing organization to digital signage, which is why seeing them in manufacturing settings is becoming a standard operating procedure. Let’s look closer.

Benefits include:

Improve lean strategies and facilities management. It’s routinely a challenge for management to lay out the bottom lines in terms employees can relate to and process. Visualization of integrated data, possible with digital signage’s available charts and rich graphics, enables continuous process visibility, keeping employees aware of all routine operations.

Result: Digital signage is an effective way to identify waste, reduce facility management costs, improve strategy, eliminate deficiencies, and decrease downtime.

Achieve succinct KPI reporting. Digital signage offers the ability to turn a display into a digital dashboard of graphs, tables, and charts illustrating the company’s performance matrix. Since the data will be running on the screens, it can be easily viewed by workers without any workflow interruption.

Result: With little effort, every employee can easily gain a deeper understanding of the company they work for and how they fit into the success.

Boost emergency alerts. OSHA announcements and reminders, and other specific emergency information, such as location, situation, and actions needing to be taken can be displayed on digital signage displays. The information will be seen by workers in the entire facility or zone of concern.

Result: Employees are more quickly informed during emergencies, decreasing the chances of injuries and accidents.

Reduce injuries and accidents. You can’t put a price on safety and reducing employee injury in the workplace. The cost to companies for the treatment and rehabilitation costs for injured workers can be enormous and cause a disastrous drain on company profits. When digital signage is strategically placed, workers will get the same information regarding toxic fumes, gas leakages, spills or accidents. Displaying the number of accident-free days and providing rewards is also a great way of motivating employees to follow safe and healthy procedures that avoid mishaps and maintains employee well-being.

Result: Digital signage keeps employees and visitors up-to-date with safety protocols and other valuable safety information.

Facilitate training and meetings. Working with the HR department, all meetings and training will be communicated to the relevant parties promptly. After calling for meetings, the digital signage screens can function as effective presentation tools. Content apps and widgets will bring life to your presentations.

Result: Meetings are more effective, attendees pay closer attention, retain more information, and digital signage helps keep the trainees or meeting attendants engaged.

Share product notifications and updates. With digital signage, management is able to share interesting upcoming changes to the company’s product line. New rollouts, along with product specifics and dates, can be shared along with potential volume, pricing, distribution plans, and other pertinent information.

Result: Employees can stay in-the-know easier by being privy to company updates through digital signage instead of being expected to read an email or a memo.

Display cafeteria menu boards. If a manufacturing facility has an on-site cafeteria, digital signage can make it easy for every employee to know what is available to them. In addition to regular menu items, it can promote specials of the day, discounts, and hours of operation.

Result: By being aware of their options, employees can make the best decisions for their day that will keep them focused on their work and healthy.

Impart important company announcements. Changes in leadership, exciting contests, department meetings times and locations, required overtime, and information about publicly-traded companies’ stock prices are all relevant company data that can easily be shared with every employee via digital signage software.

Result: Vital information that employees need to know get in front of their eyes faster than calling a meeting or writing out an email.

Tout employee incentives. Contests and rewards are smart ways to keep workers motivated, and digital signage is a clever way to keep these opportunities at the forefronts of their minds. Announce competitions or incentive programs with a graphically-rich video, post reminders and leader boards periodically to keep them involved and engaged, and announce the top winners.

Result: Employees increase their participation, which promotes harder work and greater productivity from everyone.

While the traditional ways of sharing information with manufacturing employees still has a place in the grand scheme of things, digital signage is making big waves as being an effective tool to add to the mix. The implementation of digital signage software into manufacturing’s communication helps reduce response times, increase safety awareness, and improve productivity. All of this can be accomplished with minimal extra effort after the software is set up and the users are trained on it. Don’t get left behind with outdated communication processes that leave employees out of the loop and disengaged; invest in digital signage software and make using it the new normal for your manufacturing facility.