Hexagon connects shopfloor processes with real-time information in productivity-boosting Nexus Connected Worker suite

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division today released Nexus Connected Worker, a suite of manufacturing software solutions that connects workers to real-time data for actionable insights and reporting on operations, maintenance, quality, and audits. Powered by Hexagon’s Nexus, a digital-reality platform for manufacturers that simplifies collaboration across departments, the suite offers powerful enterprise-system integration and provides a central location for digital representations of assets, processes, and production facilities to support real-time decision making.

The ability to correct course using guidance from shopfloor data is an advantage for manufacturers who struggle to remain competitive in an evolving industry. Because rigid departmental divisions have long been the industry operating norm, breaking down these siloes remains a challenge despite the need for better data collection and information sharing being clearer than ever before. Nexus Connected Worker provides the operational agility and the IoT connectivity needed for a responsive workforce to react to immediate needs and glean insights from data that has been collected over time. The mobile-first applications can be easily accessed from the shop floor and the workflows can be tailored to meet specific needs across industries.

“Nexus Connected Worker has been shown to increase the productivity of a manufacturing operation by more than 20% on average through the digitalisation of manufacturing processes and real-time access to critical information,” said Dr. Asif Rana, president, Nexus Connected Worker at Hexagon. “By enabling much more agile decision making, the suite also empowers businesses to transform processes such as downtime management and final product quality inspection that span different departments for a truly connected workforce. We have found leaders struggling to make transformations stick, but they have found that adoption improves organically when teams become more productive and empowered with easy access to up-to-the-minute information.”

Parth Joshi, chief product and technology officer at Hexagon, commented: “Our new Nexus Connected Worker solutions will make a valuable contribution to digitalising our customers’ shopfloor processes today, and we’re excited to make more insights available to frontline workers as we leverage data from siloed functions through the power of the Nexus platform. Nexus Connected Worker is the latest addition since we launched Nexus in March, and a significant milestone as we continue to enrich the solutions available to our customers and empower their teams to make smarter manufacturing decisions.”

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, that are now adapted and available through Hexagon’s Nexus digital-reality platform, will be further developed to meet the future needs of the connected worker. New use cases will benefit from connectivity with other relevant applications and data sources connected to Nexus, including Hexagon’s apps for metrology reporting and asset management.

Using Nexus Connected Worker, renowned recreational-vehicle (RV) manufacturer Airstream transitioned from a paper-based inspection process, to a digitised process with a standardised inspection process for all manufactured vehicles. The simplified inspection workflow enabled Airstream to reduce quality reporting time from one week to one day and report quality data for 100% of its products.

Another compelling example of Nexus Connected Worker is the partnership with a major food and beverage packaging company. This leading and highly innovative company was challenged with overall productivity issues rooted in paper-based processes. The solution enabled the client to deploy mobile apps, automate data collection, utilise analytics and reporting, and swiftly implement corrective actions to enhance plant performance. Using Nexus Connected Worker, the packaging company has improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and now has the capability to gather deep insights from real-time data. Improvements included a 25% decrease in scrap for improved sustainability.

Nexus Connected Worker includes software solutions for manufacturing operations, maintenance, and quality activities, as well as for the performance of audits. It is available now as SaaS through Hexagon’s Nexus platform.