Are your teams constantly missing targets and deadlines? Perhaps you’re looking to increase employee engagement? Maybe you need to broadcast policy changes that affect everyone – at lightning speed?

Digital signage in manufacturing offers real-time delivery of vital information, placed around the building for maximum visibility. 

Keep your team on track by displaying real-time production metrics and progress towards productivity goals. Keep sales teams up to date with factory inventory levels. And even boost morale by letting employees know about specials on the cafeteria menu. 

This article is all about the benefits of digital signage in manufacturing: how it brings teams together while keeping everyone informed. 

1. KPI Reporting

Many American manufacturers have adopted the process improvement principles of Kaizen and Six Sigma, incorporating workplace efficiencies while minimizing waste.  

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) displayed on digital displays can help managers analyze the workflow on the factory floor. But KPIs aren’t just for managers: digital signs can show real-time data that every employee can see throughout their working day.  

The main benefits of live KPI reporting are:

• Increased worker productivity – employees can see how close they are to their targets
• Team cohesion and responsibility – employees can see how their work contributes to group goals
• Fosters healthy competition – workers can see their productivity in comparison with others

KPI reporting is made possible through user-friendly analytics widgets that turn your digital display into a central dashboard, displaying charts, graphs, and live performance metrics.

These charts offer glanceable insights for workers without interrupting their workflow.

The data displayed is totally customizable, including:

• Comparison figures with previous periods
• Live productivity statistics
• Real-time data on up-time versus down-time

2. Reduction of Accidents and Injury

Digital signage systems help keep employees safe. 

A single workplace injury – on average – costs organizations around $78,000. But it’s not just the cost of injury that most organizations are keen to minimize – safer workplaces help retain staff.

Many manufacturing plants find it difficult to attract new Millennial and Gen Z employees because factories are perceived as dirty, noisy, and dangerous. But younger generations are attracted to workplaces that embrace technology – especially hardware that helps keep them safe from harm. 

Use your digital signage network to broadcast safety information in hazardous workplaces. Immediately inform and protect your staff from: 

• Gas leaks  and toxic fumes
• Toxic airborne particles
• Machine malfunction/breakdowns
• Spills and slip hazards

Traditional static signs lose their impact over time; people stop looking at them. But digital signs reinforce safety messages by keeping them fresh.

And when your safety KPIs improve, display the number of accident-free days on your digital displays, and help maintain constant safety awareness. 

3. Introduce or Improve Lean Strategy

Lean strategy (or the Toyota Production System) eliminates the “seven wastes” of industry. 

These are:

• Transport
• Inventory
• Motion
• Waiting 
• Over-processing
• Overproduction
• Defects

These wastes are known by the acronym TIM WOOD. The most efficient organizations develop a digital overview to keep track of these seven wastes. 

Most digital signs are equipped with data visualization software, giving managers and employers continuous visibility towards efficiency goals. 

Digital signs help managers pace the workflow on the floor, avoiding costly overproduction and manufacturing bottle-necks.

Additionally, digital displays help you maintain inventory levels, enhancing communications between the manufacturing floor and your sales teams.

4. Gamification 

This all sounds a little cold and data-driven, perhaps. But that cold, hard data can help keep employees motivated, focused, and productive via gamification. 

Gamification uses game-playing metrics (i.e., point scoring, rules of play, competition with others) to incentivize the fastest (or most accurate) goal achievers on the floor. 

See how everyone pulls together and focuses their attention when you make everyone feel like they’re part of the team. And a prize for the highest achievers certainly helps! 

Run a contest between underperforming departments, with performance data represented on a leaderboard. 

Leaderboards tap into our innate drive for recognition and status. Employees put in extra effort to complete their tasks for a chance of credit on the leaderboard.

Gamification is proven to improve productivity, and you’ll find that employee morale skyrockets. Employees who realize what they can accomplish when they really try are more likely to maintain that new level of performance.

5. Emergency Alerts

Along with day-to-day communication, digital signage reinforces your emergency processes.

Let plant workers know if there’s an emergency. Give them information that will keep them safe: where it is and what they need to do. 

We’re talking is lightyears ahead of the whistle or sirens that used to alert workers to danger somewhere in the building. With digital signage, you can keep everyone informed – containing the emergency while evacuating workers, and minimizing damage. 

Remember, clear instructions can save lives. 

6. Production Notifications

Factories are often noisy places, making it difficult to take phone calls. And many manufacturing plants are located out-of-town, meaning that cellphone signals are often weak. 

This poses significant communication barriers, resolved by digital production displays that broadcast time-sensitive messages to reach relevant personnel where traditional communication mediums like phones and emails fail. 

Maybe you’re struggling to meet deadlines and need to ask workers for overtime to hit production targets? Use your digital display to instantly send out the request, giving everyone an equal chance to respond. 

7. Digital Menu Boards

The plant floor isn’t the only place where digital signage earns its keep.

Cafeteria managers can use digital displays to promote colorful menu dishes and nutritional information to encourage employees to make healthy food choices.

You could even allow your employees to plan ahead with menu boards strategically placed around the building.

Use the media player built into your digital sign to show entertaining video clips in between your menu highlights. Engaging content improves the perception of waiting time by over 35%, so it’s a great way to improve the customer experience.  

8. Safety Training and Meetings

Digital signs aren’t just for information; they’re multimedia hubs, complete with a high-quality media player for HD video and audio. 

Elevate training presentations and meetings with content widgets and apps that encourage engagement, keeping the driest of subjects interesting. 

For example, interactive meeting room signs make it easier to book your training room. Use a central calendar app to avoid double-booking, and schedule some text to post to your digital sign that confirms the details of your session; all in one go. 

Training sessions can be stressful – let your digital sign solution introduce a more structured and hassle-free environment! 

9. Company Announcements

Use your digital signage for company announcements, such as:

• In-house promotions
• Employees of the month 
• Work anniversaries
• Company celebrations 

Last-minute schedule changes are no longer a problem with digital signs placed around the building. Much more flexible than memos, SMS, phone calls, and emails, digital signs help employees get the correct information whenever they need it. 

10. Brand Awareness and PR

Reinforce company culture through your digital signage content. Create a sense of community in your workplace by using your digital signs to celebrate achievement and cohesion. 

But it doesn’t all have to be about work. Show the human side of your business by using your digital signs to celebrate big ball games and national sports events. 

Or send a shout-out for local high school football teams – it makes everyone feel included. 

Ready to get started with digital signage?

We’re always happy to help, here at Mvix. If you’re looking to install digital signs into your manufacturing facility, let us know. 

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