Manufacturing Careers Offer Opportunities to Work with the Latest Technology
While cleaning out a desk a couple of weeks ago, I found a slide rule that was handed down from my father. Yes, I really did learn to use a slide rule while in high school! It really struck me how the rate of technology advancement has fundamentally altered my life. It’s hard to imagine a world without instantaneous knowledge at our fingertips. We’ve gone from encyclopedias to Wikipedia, folded paper maps to GPS, old fashioned word-of-mouth to online reviews like Yelp and TripAdvisor, and learning from our parents how to repair something to watching YouTube. We use this easily attainable and immediate knowledge to accomplish tasks and make decisions in our lives. We are used to communicating with others and taking care of personal business by electronic means.
So, our vision at Whirlpool Corporation for Smart Manufacturing is that we shouldn’t settle for less than what we use in our everyday lives when we come to work in our factories. The key word is smart — using technology to get information in the hands of employees when they need it, in a way that is visual and meaningful so they can learn, make more informed decisions and be more effective overall. Here are just a few examples of putting technology in the hands of our operators:
- We are implementing something better than YouTube in some of our factories today — a version of augmented reality using lights to guide an operator to perform job tasks correctly and in the right sequence.
- We use mobile devices to take photos and enter information while conducting safety audits.
- And we use bluetooth technology to track material delivery from warehouses to our assembly lines.
When people think of technology advancement, they tend to think of the tech giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. But the digital revolution is not limited to tech companies — it’s alive and well in the manufacturing industry! A career in Whirlpool manufacturing can provide opportunities to explore many technology applications. Throughout our global manufacturing engineering teams and plant operations we are exploring and implementing things like machine learning to optimize our processes, Artificial Intelligence to train vision systems to detect defects, exoskeletons to enhance ergonomics, drones to inspect plant roofs, automated vehicles that use lidar, laser systems to measure products and components, 3D printing of production tools, and virtual reality to concurrently engineer products and processes. It’s an exciting time to be in manufacturing!
Senior Director Global Advanced Manufacturing
