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Gamification: The Future of Manufacturing
Image: © Maxim / Adobe Stock
Chess or darts?
Do you enjoy playing games? Well, everybody does in one or another way, it could be playing video games, board games, sports games or any other type of games but I am sure everybody has once experienced that feeling of enjoying something till the point your mind wanders and loses track of time. What about if you can borrow some of these sensations and translate them into your work environment, in our case, into manufacturing? Well, let’s not deceive ourselves, work is work and there is no magical recipe to change that, however this blog will try to shed more light on the matter.
Gamification of the production line
Manufacturing is probably not recognised as one of the most enjoyable environments and with the current digitalisation process taking place in the industry, there is an associated risk that tasks in the production line will become even simpler and more repetitive.
To adapt to the new times manufacturing will also require a massive transition in employee skills, recruitment and training. We need to focus on people and culture to drive the transformation. But it’s not only about upskilling the employees – it’s also about engaging and involving them with the new changes and challenges that smart technologies present. How do we do that? By bringing a bit of their gaming life onto the shop floor.
The gaming sector was not related with manufacturing in the past. The truth is that nowadays we are starting to apply virtual and augmented reality technologies into manufacturing, both, gaming technologies. But not only can we take advantage of the gaming technology – we can also transfer the gaming knowledge and expertise on game design to motivate and encourage people. This is what is meant by the term gamification.
Gamification is?
The most accepted definition of Gamification is ‘’the use of game elements and game-design techniques in non-game contexts’’. Gamification isn’t a technology it is a mindset, that’s why one of the key points about gamification is understanding what the psychological and social motivations of human beings are and how game mechanics can help when it comes to satisfy them.
HSSMI is currently looking at how to apply gamification in manufacturing, particularly, for assembly operations on the shop floor. In a manufacturing scenario, there are many factors at play which can be gamified and there is a huge amount of data captured which can be used.
Gamifying the operations on the production line would give the operators a voice beyond the shop floor, it would increase their motivation and will also improve the communication with the management. Gamifying manufacturing will create a better work environment which will have a huge impact on your business, we should not underestimate the power of happy and engaged workers.
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