The arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 led millions of large and small companies to implement remote work as their main work model, with or without prior preparation, bringing challenges to all sectors in general. The industrial sector has been one of the most impacted due to its organizational difficulties and workforce schemes: if managing machinery operations, it is normal to have to physically work at the center where it is located, for example.

The current situation caused by the pandemic made remote work appear as the most effective mechanism to ensure the continuity of productive activity, in addition to preventing the spread of COVID-19; however, the industrial sector is no stranger to this reality, so many organizations in the sector have had to implement optimal mechanisms to properly manage the continuity of their operations and production processes.

Below, we share some perspectives and observations to consider in order to efficiently and productively manage your organization’s operations in the industrial sector when implementing a remote work scheme.

Administrative and operational management activities

Among the roles in your workforce where you can fully or partially exercise the remote work modality are those corresponding to administrative and operational management activities, applicable depending on the technology and the position within the organizational chart, and although possibly in the minority, they are available.

Supervision and operational management roles are among those applicable for combining remote activities with in-person activities. The idea of properly combining both aspects intelligently will achieve efficiency in your operations. Considering the in-person activities of your field personnel and their responsiveness to extreme situations, as well as productivity monitoring, value verification, energy consumption, or incidents, for example, these are jobs that in certain industrial activities can be done remotely without much difficulty. With solutions and tools that give you immediate visibility and information on how your teams work in person or remotely, you can maintain efficient control of productivity.

Accounting work can be done almost entirely remotely, as can human talent management and document management roles. The only thing needed is to be able to receive and respond by email to all the administrative information your operations require. These are some of the roles that have been most applied under remote work in times of COVID-19. Similarly, managerial roles have been working remotely for some time, given the attention to their responsibilities in the case of companies in the industrial sector, mostly complying with travel or negotiations outside the office. The most important thing in these roles is to have tools and solutions that ensure the persistent and safe protection of your data, devices, and applications.

Industrial robot

Digitalization of processes, tools, and operations

Industries and companies have exponentially opted for the use of technologies that help them improve their productivity, protect their collaborators, and operate in the new normal. The implementation of remote work has, in turn, driven the digitalization of industrial companies, such as the use of artificial intelligence, robots, data analytics, and other tools that facilitate remote work.

These technologies, in addition to facilitating remote work, have favored the control and remote management of operations, helping industries manage plants through software installed on a mobile device, for example. Likewise, there are solutions that help monitor the proper functioning of machinery and even perform predictive maintenance on equipment.

The digitalization of processes has made industrial companies even more efficient on various fronts with remote work, allowing them greater savings in operation times, control of operations, and safer communications, and even a reduction in operating costs. All this ends up positively impacting the finances of the industries.

Work flexibility

Work flexibility = higher productivity

Being a flexible organization is a challenge that demonstrates the gearing and synergy that exists between your company and your work teams, a vote of confidence placed in human talent. These types of initiatives can generate great competitive advantages in areas such as organizational climate and work motivation, which translate into an increase in productivity. Giving the collaborator the possibility of having certain freedoms in their work methods and schedules, but based on the fulfillment of obligations and objectives.

Having a work model based on projects and objectives, committed to work flexibility for your human talent in the industrial sector, and at the same time adapted to the remote work modality, will bring you efficient results and a significant increase in the productivity of your company.

At Nukke, we accompany you with advice and specialized mechanisms to help you address the solutions that can be optimally applied in your industrial sector company within your productivity schemes under the remote work modality; contact us and discover how.