Speed and accuracy have always been crucial for successful field operations. However, when frontline workers are expected to work with clunky software, enter data by hand, and fill out long forms, productivity understandably takes a hit.
It doesn’t matter how much experience they have, field workers are also prone to making errors — either as a result of misreporting or miscommunication. In this case, manual data entry can have a crippling effect on even well-oiled operations.
Faced with these challenges, industry leaders have offered several fixes. But at WizyVision, we believe one approach stands out. By replacing outdated, text-heavy processes with image-based workflows, we believe organizations and field workers can automate key aspects of field operations and work with unparalleled efficiency.
Here’s what you need to know about this solution.
How Image-Centric Tools Streamline Workflows
Regardless of the industry, field work is complex and fast-paced. We see it across sectors, from retail to logistics to construction. Workers are expected to document issues, record completed work, and meet standards with high levels of accuracy.
The challenge, however, is that even modern enterprise tools still rely on outdated, text-heavy forms that mirror paper-based systems. Workers are expected to fill out up to 30 fields of information regularly — only this time not on handwritten notes, but digital forms. As you’d imagine, this still isn’t the most effective way of doing things.
At the same time, almost all frontline workers — who make up 80% of the global workforce — say they prefer using their smartphones to record images, report malfunctions, or log assets. And this is where image-centric tools come in handy.
With the right software, frontline workers and organisations can capture and analyze information from smartphone images, reducing administrative workloads, and driving data-driven decision-making.
All the worker needs to do is snap a picture of an asset or report. The software then extracts relevant details, such as barcodes, or serial numbers, and sends this data directly to a centralized database. Teams benefit from enhanced visibility as a result, while frontline workers are freed from cumbersome manual data entry.
Moreover, an image-centric software may use AI-powered image recognition and machine learning models to automatically detect patterns, further improving efficiency, accuracy, and contributing to the automation of workflows.
In short, image-based workflows allow workers to dramatically reduce their administrative burden, cut down on the need for paper forms, and do it all while leveraging a technology they already use — their smartphones.
Applications of Image-Based Workflows
The scope of adopting such an approach is vast and far-reaching. Not only do image-based workflows offer organizations more visibility, they enable workers to streamline various aspects of their daily jobs, offering unparalleled convenience on the frontlines. Here are 4 examples:
1. Tracking Assets
One of the key challenges across logistics, retail, and manufacturing processes is tracking the movement of assets. Traditionally, field staff would have to maintain extensive spreadsheets, or rely on paper trails to locate assets. But with the right tools at their disposal, all they need to do is capture an image of the asset, upload it onto the system, and sit back as it automatically recognizes and logs crucial details.
This, in turn, allows organizations to maintain incredible visibility of an asset as it moves through the supply chain — reducing the likelihood of misplaced items, and accounting for any sudden demand fluctuations. By leveraging AI capabilities, teams also gain access to real-time insights gleaned from vast amounts of data.
2. Identifying Risk and Anomalies
In demanding sectors like construction or manufacturing, identifying and resolving malfunctions quickly helps maintain uptime and reduce costs. Adopting image-based workflows allows workers to do exactly that — as a relevant enterprise tool can study crucial data from high-quality images to detect anomalies, or potential safety hazards. This proactive approach enables faster decision-making, reduces downtime, and ensures problems don’t escalate and get more expensive.
3. Visual Inspections
Visual inspections are a crucial component of field operations — whether to identify potential faults, or maintain logs for safety compliance. They are also notorious for throwing up a lot of paperwork, and being exceptionally time-consuming.
As you’d imagine, an image-based workflow considerably eases this process — as workers can directly transmit visual data through their smartphones. The software then reads the data accompanying each image and maintains a database that can be accessed across departments and stored for compliance requirements.
This process also offers actionable insights that can dictate the frequency of future inspections or assess the condition of assets — all the while reducing the need for manual intervention.
4. Proof of Work Done
All this documentation eventually ensures workers don’t have to go through the lengthy process of submitting forms along with time-stamps, and job details. An image can relay all of this crucial information to a searchable database — and do so in half the time.
Benefits of Adopting an Image-Based Workflow
In 2023, it was estimated that only 23% of the world’s 2.8 billion frontline workers had access to the technology they needed to be more productive. But while the complete digitalisation of field operations is clearly a few years away, adopting an image-centric approach can help bridge the gap.
Consider the benefits of using the WizyVision solution.
Streamlined Workflows
Field workers who capture data by taking photos, avoid time-consuming and cumbersome paperwork. This, in turn, allows them to focus more on their core tasks, and largely eliminates one of the major challenges plaguing such operations. Being able to access all this information into a centralized system further streamlines workflows.
Reduced Manual Data Entry
By leveraging technologies like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and object detection, crucial data like serial numbers, or barcodes can be automatically extracted from images. This doesn’t just speed up the process, but minimizes errors. As a result, organizations benefit from reduced labor costs and overall productivity.
Improved Data Accuracy
Spreadsheets and hand-written notes can lead to several discrepancies, which in turn, causes massive delays. Image-based workflows, however, ensure that data is processed reliably and consistently. Our AI-driven tool helps standardize the data capture process, returns higher-quality data, and enables more accurate reporting and decision-making.
Real-time Insights
With image-based workflows, workers no longer have to go back to the office to log in crucial details. Instead when field workers capture images, the data is instantly made available for analysis and monitoring through a simple interface. Managers and supervisors benefit from enhanced visibility, while frontline staff are less burdened.
Enhanced Compliance
With WizyVision, teams across an organization can access data gathered from images through a Digital Asset Center. This allows managers to standardize processes, adhere to compliance requirements, and carry out audits with ease.
Optimized Resource Allocation
Similarly, access to real-time data improves resource allocation. With WizyVision, organizations can analyze trends and performance metrics, and use data to improve scheduling. This ensures teams are used effectively, waste is kept at a minimum, and that organizations maximize the use of available resources.
How WizyVision’s Solution is Leading the Way
Clearly, WizyVision’s image-centric approach helps field workers unlock higher levels of productivity. But that’s not the only reason our solution stands out.
Our comprehensive platform also allows organizations to optimize operations across the frontlines and in the back office. Each feature is designed to aid in the collection and analysis of data — whether it’s the Digital Asset Center that stores and organizes media files, or the advanced ML Studio, where managers can train custom models to perform object detection and recognition tasks. Moreover, all this data can be accessed even when offline, or dealing with low internet connectivity — which is often the case when working out in the field.
To learn more about how we can introduce image-based workflows into your operations, don’t hesitate to reach out to our experts today.