< PreviousM anufacturing has a history of moving at a glacial pace when adopting new technology such as cloud-based solutions, but the cloud is not new anymore. In recent years, cloud computing and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) have begun to dominate. More and more manufacturers are looking to switch their quality management to a cloud- based quality system. Put simply, in today’s ever- changing and volatile manufacturing climate, the cost advantages, power, and versatility of the cloud have become essential to survival. The stakes are high when it comes to quality and safety Many food and beverage manufacturers are searching for new strategies and tools to help address their quality and safety challenges. Fortunately, the most powerful and valuable resource is already at their disposal - data. Quality data produced on the plant floor enables manufacturers to keep products and processes within specification, constantly producing high- quality products while maximising yield and minimising waste. However, this is only possible when that data is accessible and actionable. Regrettably, a lot of food and beverage manufacturers keep their quality data protected, away in paper checklists, spreadsheets, or siloed databases — leaving all those cherished insights unused. Investing in quality data management now will allow manufacturers to reap future rewards The cloud upends how manufacturers can collect, store, analyse and utilise quality data. With cloud- based quality management software, data from all processes, lines and sites — and even data from suppliers — is unified in a centralised repository. The data and subsequent analyses become rapidly available and effortlessly consumable. By bringing quality data online, manufacturers gain many valuable benefits. The following advantages help to drive higher levels of quality, safety and sustainability across processes and supply chains: 1. Collection and analysis of data from production processes in real-time Manufacturing is a continuous and real- time activity. Collecting data in batches, and performing analysis or reporting on that data in batches, inevitably means that quality issues and performance bottlenecks can potentially go unchecked for some considerable time. However, when data is collected and analysed in real-time, then trends or problems can be detected before they manifest themselves into significant events. When a quality, safety or performance issue is detected, alerts can be immediately issued to the appropriate operators or quality personnel. CLOUD-BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT Jason Chester (Director of Global Channel Programs, InfinityQS) discusses four reasons why food and beverage processors should consider moving quality to the cloud. JASON CHESTER DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL CHANNEL PROGRAMS INFINITYQS 20KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE THE POWER OF CLOUD- BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENTCLOUD-BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT 21 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINEThey can adjust or make corrections early on, ensuring products and processes are continually optimised. This proactive approach is the key to reducing waste, protecting profits and keeping defective products from ever making it out the door. Cloud-based quality management software offers the visibility process manufacturers need to break out of firefighting mode. Rather than reacting to one problem after another, they can work on preventing problems from getting out of hand or even happening in the first place. And because all that information is instantly available via the cloud, plant leaders and quality managers can stay on top of what is happening without being physically present on the plant floor. Whether they are in a back office, on the road or otherwise working remotely, they have all the information needed to ensure operations run smoothly. 2. Utilising advanced analysis tools With paper-based systems — or even legacy on-site software — quality data is often siloed between disparate production sites across an enterprise. What is more, data is often not standardised across those sites or systems. This makes comparative analysis nearly impossible and fraught with difficulty. But that all changes when data from every process, every line and every site is standardised and aggregated in the cloud. This single source of truth can guide decisions about enterprise-wide quality and performance improvements, compliance and more. For instance, modern cloud solutions offer innovative real-time data visualisations and advanced analysis tools that help executives and quality pros compare performance across all sites. They can spot problem areas in need of abrupt intervention, better prioritise resources and recognise sources of best practices to benchmark against across their organisation. 3. Ensuring compliance Food and beverage manufacturers must comply with national and international regulations, as well as numerous industry standards. Meeting those stringent requirements — with all the documentation, reporting and auditing involved — can take up serious time and resources. Cloud-based quality systems make it easier than ever to uphold compliance and make audits a breeze. Compliance can also be enhanced through the systems themselves. When quality checks or data collections are missed, automated notifications remind operators and alert supervisors. This keeps everyone on top of critical quality and safety checks. With historical data stored in a centralised cloud repository, plant CLOUD-BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT Cloud-based quality management software offers the visibility process manufacturers need to break out of firefighting mode. 22KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINECLOUD-BASED QUALITY MANAGEMENT Cloud-based quality management helps ensure that incoming raw ingredients are up to quality standards before they are accepted and incorporated. 23 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE managers can easily generate reports to verify compliance. And in the event of an audit, they can collect and present requested data in minutes — rather than the days or even weeks it has historically taken to sift through mountains of paper files and spreadsheets. With the cloud, everything manufacturers need to maintain compliance is right at their fingertips. 4. Visibility upstream Safe, high-quality food products start with, high-quality ingredients. Cloud-based quality management helps ensure that incoming raw ingredients are up to quality standards — before they are accepted and incorporated into final products. Food and beverage manufacturers can demand that their suppliers digitally collect and share quality data through the cloud-based system. They can then observe this data in real-time to monitor the quality of raw ingredients coming from suppliers around the globe. They obtain oversight over third-party quality inspections and thus ensure only the highest quality ingredients get used in their products. On top of that, food and beverage processors can evaluate the capabilities and performance of various suppliers over time to establish the best suppliers to work with. Overall, this upstream visibility helps pre-empt quality and safety issues, even before ingredients arrive on site. Getting the ball rolling One way to get the ball rolling with a phased approach is to start with a small-scale deployment concentrated on a single process that will produce quick wins and evidence of the value — a low-effort, high-return project. This will prove the value of the cloud-based quality solution to stakeholders, get plant employees happy using a new solution and lay the foundation for wider utilisation across the enterprise. Manufacturing needs to move more quickly to adopt new technologies. SaaS technology is the answer for many manufacturers. The power, flexibility and versatility of the cloud have become essential to manufacturing survival.CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT 24KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINEYour organisation has to be built on a foundation of great customer service to ensure agents are performing at their highest standard. If internal operations are insufficient, potential issues will arise in the future. Identifying, and solving pain points before they become a serious issue is vital. We all know the costs of bad customer service – the lost customers and the hits to your brand name and reputation. One of the best ways to improve customer service is to anticipate issues your team might be having and solve them before they even become a problem. There are a number of common areas of struggle for engagement teams: inflexible work schedules, staff shortages, slow onboarding and poor service systems. Some of these issues overlap with another, exacerbating the impact on operations and their customers. The first order of business is to help your team reduce customer effort whenever possible. Ask your staff about the issues they’ve been having and solicit their suggestions for improvement. They’ll probably have some interesting and helpful things to say. Here are some of the problems your team may be running into, and how you can rectify them: Lack of staff When the number of incoming contact points is ever rising, the scale of damage a disorganised team can inflict upon your business reputation and financial impact are at a high point. Working with a workforce too small for the tasks at hand is just as risky as operating with too many employees. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT MANAGING PAIN POINTS IN THE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT TEAM No business can afford to underestimate the importance of positive customer experience. Poor service can make a significant impact on a brand’s retention rates, causing would-be buyers to look elsewhere. In fact, bad customer service costs businesses a combined £51 billion each year. LEE COTTLE EUROPEAN DIRECTOR PLAYVOX 25 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINEThe contact figures flux throughout the year and depend on the industry. The retail sector analysis finds that the first quarter is both a lucrative and demanding time for contact centres, as they look at the influx of returns from Christmas, while those in finance help people who overspent during the festive period. Meanwhile, the travel industry often peaks in line with national school holidays as families are restricted to holidays outside of term time. Organisations that struggle to handle a flux in service levels across all multichannel touchpoints, will be losing opportunities, and suffering brand damage, while receiving negative publicity. Utilising a platform which facilitates the availability of resource planning tools is imperative. While hiring is ongoing, other employees must maintain service levels. The company can aid this by accommodating schedule changes, facilitating cross-team communications for ease of adaption and using coaches and mentoring to keep all team members motivated in line with the expected quality output required. Onboarding Higher queue times, increased abandonment, risk of staff burnout and poor customer service all stem from insufficiently staffed teams. Onboarding is a real challenge but important for bedding in the right hires. The key to solving this issue is a suitable platform for new hires to use for both training and quality management for all employees to grow from. Training programmes are vital for all within a call centre. As the customer service landscape evolves, the customer service skills of 10 years ago don’t quite cut it anymore. According to recent studies, 81% of customers attempt to solve problems themselves before contacting a live agent. The outcome is that the issues brought before your staff become more and more complex every year. At the same time, 53% of customers say that they expect more from customer service than they did a year ago. Agents feeling motivated and empowered at work is more important now than ever with CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT 26KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINECUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Engaging customers via the kiosk and digital signage world relies on efficiency at all levels of the operation with no leeway for anchors. 27 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE increased hybrid and remote working. According to Gallup, the level of engagement for remote employees has dropped more sharply than the engagement of other workers, thanks to the lack of clarity around expectations, recognition, and connection to the business. And with 69% of service agents considering leaving their customer service role altogether, it’s best to take action to improve morale. Improving training and encompassing remote team-building communication and opportunities within a contact centre, along with offering frequent recognition and rewards programs is a proven way to support agents and ensure they feel valued and cared for by the company. Flexibility at work A worldwide pandemic forever changed our perception of work, and today the way we work remains altered. Pre-Covid, research from the NCCI shows a mere 6% of employed Britons had tried to work remotely, by 2020 a third of the workforce were working from home and figures today remain high. An ONS study this year revealed that 84% of employees who experienced working from home during lockdowns planned to continue doing so, at least partially. This shift means that flexibility at work for employees has never been more important. Offering the ability to work part-time remotely can help attract new hires and retain current employees. With the right systems in place productivity levels should not fall based on the location of the worker. Monitoring and QA solutions can be utilised to keep track of all employees, empowering both the company and the worker to push forward together. Pain points within teams manifest in familiar ways no matter the industry. Organisations in the finance sector will feel similar struggles to those in retail and technology firms. Engaging customers via the kiosk and digital signage world, and increasingly in mobile where a staggering 53% of mobile phone users engage with their primary banking provider once a month, relies on efficiency at all levels of the operation with no leeway for anchors. B ut AI can offer many benefits for human connections and collaborations. Here, we delve into the outcomes of AI and how it can benefit businesses. Increased productivity Artificial intelligence can help the productivity of employees, which in turn benefits collaborative situations. Implementing these technologies can help recurring meetings by offering insights. It can be tricky to take note of every element of the conversation in meetings, but AI can aid transcription to ensure that vital information is recorded. Alternatively, the customer service sector can reap the benefits too. A survey from 2021 by Economic Impact and Genesys reflected that 65% of customer experience leaders who integrated AI technologies into their businesses acknowledged a significant increase in agent productivity. So not only is technology boosting collaborations in the workplace, but it’s also helping connections with customers, too. Offering inclusivity Connections can be made with remote workers thanks to artificial intelligence. With over 4.7 million people in the US working remotely at least half of the time, this is an important addition for businesses to consider. Video calls are essential to those working from home, but what can AI add to this? Weak connections during a video call can often hinder the working ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The global artificial intelligence (AI) market is predicted to reach $267 billion by 2027. But concerns have been raised about whether these advancements could replace humans in jobs as technology is being used to simulate human intelligence processes. In fact, approximately 68.5% of college graduates think that the development of AI could either take their job away or make them irrelevant in the next few years. ROSE MOODY CREATIVE DIRECTOR VITEC 28KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE HOW CAN AI TRANSFORM THE WAY WE COLLABORATE AND CONNECT?ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 29 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINENext >