The question becomes, how can a company minimize a skills gap? Honeywell discussed how its customers will embrace automation, such as the various products in thes discussed at HUG. “One challenge is digitizing systems in a way that allows its customers to capture an employee’s knowledge gained from years of working with Honeywell equipment.” said Mr. Maheshwari. Companies are also thinking differently about education.
Maheshwari said, “If people are not following the right process and performing it correctly, there can be safety hazards. To support this, we use analytics, virtual reality, and AI. In the past, it was akin to an apprenticeship, where an individual had to have newer employees follow them for many months before a new hire could work independently. Additionally, specific tasks such as shutting down a refinery for maintenance may only happen every six to seven years.
Remote assist features will allow an expert at one location to monitor and guide an employee that can be thousands of miles away, improving quality and training. While we’ve discussed these features for some time, we’ve finally entered an area where we have a range of technology options, from smartphones to virtual reality headsets, that are cost-effective and high-performance. Given the labor shortage, organizations are more likely to embrace these new solutions.
Honeywell can codify these learnings using AI models, but that doesn’t mean a company can eliminate employees from the process. Organizations still need to check to ensure the models are working as planned. According to Maheshwari, the first step is understanding the knowledge gaps within an organization. The traditional way of understanding the knowledge gap was by asking people to fill out forms and answer questions.