STRONGARM chose the Augmentir platform because of its ability to help them modernize their manufacturing environment and improve quality and efficiency
August 11, 2020
STRONGARM is a small to mid-sized company that designs and manufactures ergonomic and environmentally protected workstations for companies in a wide range of market segments, including life sciences, food and beverage, oil and gas, healthcare, and general manufacturing.
The company initially deployed Augmentir’s software platform 12 months ago, with a focus on improving quality assurance (QA) processes. STRONGARM had previously relied on paper-based work instructions and QA checklists, but as growth and shipments picked up, this method became unwieldy and the company selected Augmentir’s software platform to help digitize its operational workflows and improve quality.
“What we really liked about Augmentir was that they are a modern, SaaS-based company that really fit within our IT needs and helped us meet our quality and continuous improvement objectives. With Augmentir, we found a simple and easy-to-implement solution that allowed us to get going in less than an hour, and the results have been fantastic.”
Steve Thorne, President and CEO of STRONGARM
STRONGARM chose the Augmentir platform because of its ability to help them modernize their manufacturing environment and improve quality and efficiency. The company was able to quickly evaluate the Augmentir software platform, prove out key use cases, and fully implement the platform within days – all without significant IT involvement.
STRONGARM’s initial focus with the Augmentir platform was on the assembly and final quality control processes for the company’s most complex workstation and industrial display unit. Augmentir’s rapid authoring environment allowed STRONGARM to quickly migrate their existing paper-based instructions to digital, augmented instructions that incorporated rich media, checklists, verifications, and several other features that were central to their assembly and QC processes.
Using Augmentir has allowed STRONGARM to not only digitize their operation, but also realize significant improvements in quality and performance. With Augmentir, STRONGARM has been able to:
- Completely digitize their Quality Assurance (QA) processes
- Reduce QA time per system by 50% – from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes
- 20% reduction in average build time in their most complex workstations
- Improve and standardize on required QA and audit activities
According to Steve Thorne, General Manager at STRONGARM, “Augmentir’s AI-based ‘True Opportunity™’ system enables us to gain insight into how our technicians are performing, and autonomously identifies our largest capturable opportunities across our entire operation.”
“Because the process was so easy, our technicians were able to quickly incorporate Augmentir into their daily operations, and the results were immediate – technician productivity improved, and inspection times went down. Furthermore, when one of our senior and most experienced technicians retired recently, we were able to onboard a new technician and trust Augmentir’s AI engine to guide him during the learning curve to get product out the door at 100% quality so that we didn’t miss shipments. Once Augmentir’s AI engine determined that the worker had become proficient, it recommended that the instructions should be adjusted to enable him to complete the job faster while still meeting quality and safety goals. This has resulted in a 20% reduction in average build time in our most complex workstations.” Thorne added that based on the initial successes, STRONGARM plans to expand its use of Augmentir into the manufacturing operations of their ruggedized workstations used in the oil and gas industry.
“Based on the success of Augmentir for our QA processes, we have expanded the system into other areas of our manufacturing operation, including complex assembly, shipment staging, and preventive maintenance,” added Thorne. “Augmentir’s AI engine automatically helps identify the biggest areas of quality improvement – this is helping support our organization wide continuous improvement and quality initiatives”
From day one, Augmentir has been focused on providing affordable and easy-to-use solutions that create sustainable value for small, medium, and large sized businesses. The platform provides a suite of AI-powered tools to help teams author and publish digital work instructions and workflows and also provides an industrial remote assistance and collaboration solution to support remote expert guidance scenarios. In addition, the platform delivers AI-based organization-wide insights and recommendations that focus on improving the quality and productivity of frontline workers.
