AGCO

AGCO, a $7B global leader in agricultural equipment manufacturing with distribution across 3,000+ dealers in 150+ countries, faced a persistent shop floor efficiency problem: work instructions were not consistently accessible at the point of need. Internal engineers discovered that operators were walking back and forth to computer terminals to consult assembly procedures — adding up to an hour of lost time per operator per day. In a complex manufacturing environment producing large-scale equipment like tractors, this friction compounded across shifts, threatening both throughput and product quality. The lack of hands-free, line-of-sight instruction access made it especially difficult to onboard new operators quickly or maintain consistency across highly variable product configurations.

AGCO first experimented with tablets for delivering digital assembly instructions, but the hardware proved impractical — tablets were easily misplaced and vulnerable to damage in a heavy-equipment environment. The team pivoted to wearables, adopting Google Glass as the delivery hardware after evaluating multiple smart glass options. With the hardware validated, AGCO integrated SymphonyAI's Proceedix Connected Worker platform via its API, delivering step-by-step digital work instructions directly into operators' line of sight — hands-free. The platform directed each operator through the correct procedure in real time, eliminating terminal walks and supporting safety monitoring during climbing, assembly, and material handling. The implementation aligned with AGCO's Lean manufacturing framework, treating all seven Lean wastes — including motion, waiting, and defects — as trackable metrics.

Deploying the Proceedix Connected Worker platform produced measurable gains across both efficiency and workforce development:

• 35% decrease in process time — achieved by giving operators real-time, hands-free access to work instructions without leaving their workstation
• 50% reduction in operator learning curve duration — new operators ramped faster with contextual instructions delivered exactly when and where needed
• 10+ year partnership — AGCO and SymphonyAI have sustained continuous improvement across manufacturing operations over more than a decade

In 2023, AGCO was recognized by SymphonyAI as an exceptional industrial leader for its digital transformation outcomes, alongside five other global manufacturers cited for gains in process efficiency, quality, and cost savings.

• Hardware selection is critical: tablets failed in AGCO's environment; wearables like smart glasses succeeded because they matched the physical demands of heavy-equipment assembly
• Hands-free, point-of-need instruction delivery addresses one of the most overlooked sources of lost time on the shop floor — the walk to a terminal
• Framing AI adoption within an existing Lean framework accelerates buy-in and makes ROI measurable against established KPIs
• Connected worker platforms compress onboarding time significantly, which matters when product configurations are complex and operator turnover is a factor
• Long-term vendor partnerships enable iterative improvement; the 10-year AGCO-SymphonyAI relationship reflects the ongoing nature of shop floor optimization