Assembly Line Workers Use Smartwatches to Improve Productivity

At the Bosch plant in Anderson South Carolina, Pebble Smartwatches are now used by operators on select lines. The operators quickly came to rely on the real-time information they provide, and the system adds 122 hours per year of additional production on this line alone. To me, this is a simple yet compelling example of the transformation already underway in manufacturing today.

Previously, like many plants today, buzzers and red lights informed the operators of problems on the line - but only when the machine had already stopped and needed attention. With the smartwatch solution in place, machine stoppages due to feeder jams and other specific faults have been eliminated. The smartwatches also improve operator response time to general machine faults, which results in a significant savings of time and money. The team had tried using an iPhone to do this, but it was not audible and the vibration often was not noticed.

The smartwatch system runs 24/7 on the LSF Xfour (lamda sensor) line. Three other smartwatch systems have already been successfully rolled out, and a fourth is in the works.

For more information about this solution, see Josh Lee's article on Bosch ConnectedWorld Blog.