E-bike manufacturer reduces downtime and increases throughput

Case study for digital transformation in manufacturing: An international e-bike manufacturer approached Workerbase with one big challenge: cut factory downtime.

• 35% reduction in production downtime over one year
• 3,500 bikes produced in the same production time

The challenge

As the bikes are produced on a conveyor belt, any stoppage time at one station affects the entire production line. The team turned to Workerbase for a digital solution that would help them bring together all the information on what’s happening on the shopfloor so they can gain transparency and prevent issues from happening again in the future. It was also crucial that the solution acts as an information system that makes it easy for frontline workers to input data, and for supervisors and managers to provide information to employees.

Case study for digital transformation in manufacturing: The Workerbase solution

Workerbase worked with the manufacturer to implement its Connected Worker platform, focusing on:

• Quick identification of problems
• Speed of issue resolution
• Data-driven decision-making for process improvement
• Avoidance of line stoppages in the first place

Workerbase kitted out every station with a tablet to physically start and stop the conveyor belt, as well as digitally register downtimes. This includes recording data on stoppage duration, root causes, as well as affected products and locations. By equipping operators with industrial-grade smartwatches, Workerbase also empowered every frontline worker, even those without a fixed workplace, to direct support requests to the right person, at the right station, in real-time. This cuts the time spent waiting around for the issue to be correctly identified, the right people to be notified, and the best-possible resolution to be executed.

The results

The results speak for themselves. With the help of Workerbase, the team was able to reduce production downtime by 35% by using real-time data to continuously improve the production process. What’s more, the increase in uptime also boosted throughput, with an extra 3,500 bikes being produced every year.

“In the past, we simply didn’t know what happened when we experienced downtime. Now, we have all the details, and we can make better decisions on what to do next,” a spokesperson responsible for continuous improvement said.

“When we looked into it, we couldn’t find a comparable solution to Workerbase. There were a number of solutions that could do some parts, but we didn’t find a like-for-like alternative.”

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