Video conferencing has become an effective and increasingly widely-used means of communication in the manufacturing sector over the course of the last few years. The development of high-definition video and increases in Internet connection speed have led companies to adopt visual communication as a way to connect different elements of their business, reach out to their supply chain, or foster communication with customers. John Paul Williams, Global Business and Development Manager for Cisco Systems, recently spoke with Manufacturing Business Technology about the rise and development of video conferencing, the benefits of visual communication, and whether video will replace the written word as the preferred method of transferring information.
What do you feel were some of the challenges or drawbacks to video conferencing a few years ago? And how have they been addressed?
I think a lot of people might have experience with video from five or six years ago, when it was done over what’s called ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines. One of the reasons video adoption is accelerating now is video is now just over the standard Internet. Many of the technological issues that limited that five six years ago have been solved…A lot of people who had experience with it maybe five six years ago, well the quality wasn’t all that good back then, but with the advent of high-definition video and all the infrastructure products that simplify all the connections, it’s very easy to do it over the Internet … A lot of it had to do with the bandwith of the networks, and the lack of availability of bandwith. Then a lot had to do with quality. Some of…what was originally done on ISDN were not of very high quality. Often the calls were dropped because of connection problems. Now with the advent of video over IP networks, or just over the Internet, a lot of those problems have been solved, plus the bandwith is there for high-definition video. You get great picture…and great sound on these calls now.
What are some of the factors and catalysts that have led a lot of manufacturers and IT people to really embrace collaboration, video conferencing, and some of the other trends that are out there? And what are the benefits they’re seeing?
Manufacturers, even small manufacturers, become global quickly. It’s a little bit different than service industries, where they can become quite large servicing their particular region. But manufacturers, in various early stages, have become global by the nature of the business. Then, as a result of that, their footprint becomes difficult to manage if you’re going to do it all with face-to-face meetings. So what happens is video becomes a very distinct solution … Typically, a manufacturer will look into video for senior management meetings, and sometimes sales and planning meetings as well. But really, what happens when they become more mature video users is they understand that video can have tremendous impact when embedded in key processes, particularly in the relationship between the manufacturer and the engineer design and development teams. Often in a multi-plant environment, they’re not in the same region. And so when there are problems on the factory floor, or with a particular product, video is now used to connect in the R&D facility, so they can literally see what’s going on directly on the factory floor. Once they have the typical infrastructure to support management meetings, it becomes very easy to do that kind of extension … So we find that once they have that kind of basic deployment, that these new applications typically grow very fast because the ROI is very significant.
These days it seems as if one of the biggest issues a lot of companies are facing is, well, they’re looking for just about any way they can increase efficiency and productivity. Do you feel some of these new technologies, like video conferencing, are a pretty good way to go about doing that?
Very much so … (Manufacturers) connect in immediately with their supply chain, so when there’s an issue with a part or they’re thinking of a redesign of a part, they immediately can get on a video call with their suppliers and talk about the issues, show them the drawings, perhaps even show them the part …and they can collaborate immediately over that decision, rather than waiting for the project meeting. And that takes out that typical human latency in these processes, and that’s where a lot of the time is compressed.
When solving particular issues or problems, manufacturers often deal ones that are specific to one particular area of their enterprise. The solutions are very specific in terms of how they address a particular point problem. But it seems video conferencing is the kind of solution that can be all-encompassing and bring positive effects in a number of different ways. Is that a correct assessment?
One of the things I see working with clients is that video is one of the true enterprise-wide collaboration platforms. It really is used to knit together the three major elements of a business: the design/R&D group, the manufacturing group, and even the service and maintenance group. And it becomes the platform by which they … collaborate.
How quickly will this technology change? As soon as a manufacturer implements it, will it already be outdated? Is video conferencing something companies can invest in knowing that it’s going to be something that works for them for a long time?
Video hasn’t evolved as rapidly as other technology markets…One of the perspectives that Cisco has always taken is to design to standards, and also to build in an incredible amount of robust capabilities in the hardware. So it’s a simple software upgrade, to take advantage of those new capabilities … Technology changes are there. But it depends on what vendor or what supplier you’re going to be dealing with and how they decide to protect the customer’s cost of ownership.
Where is this technology headed? What are we going to see from video conferencing in the future?
This is true in very industry…video and visual communication is becoming the primary knowledge transfer mechanism in organizations. You can see that in the younger generation with Youtube and all those other video links. The written page is really being replaced by video as the knowledge transfer mechanism. Really what happens with video networks is they become knowledge management networks …Video is embedded directly in business processes, like supply chain management, even how they handle service level agreements for very complex equipment, video is being offered as anew method of customer support … All of these types of exchanges can be recorded …The other change is the data that’s associated with the event also gets integrated …This is really how organizations are transferring knowledge now. It’s much faster than the written page. It’s much more efficient, because video can place all these problems in context, whereas the written page finds that difficult to do.
Do you really think video is replacing the written word as the preferred method of transferring information in the business place? Are you getting feedback from users and potential users that this is the case?
Oh yes, very much so. The more complex the problem, the more it lends itself to video … The other reason is, it becomes knowledge on-demand …One of the things about engineering documentation is what gets documented is the final decision on how a particular part is designed. But really what happens in the development process is that five or six other avenues are discarded because there are problems with them …What happens now when they use video to record design reviews, new engineers can come into the organization and listen to the principal engineer discuss why he rejected the other five paths, and why the sixth one is the one he chose. So this saves a tremendous amount of time for the new engineers, because they understand what the thinking was behind rejecting those other courses of action. Now typically that knowledge is never recorded anywhere, except in a lab book that most people don’t have access to … But now it is, and video plays a specific role.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
From the manufacturing point of view, the three major applications for video are in the design and product development area, in the optimization of the factory…and the other is in service and maintenance. These are all applications that are outside the conference room and really are embedded into key processes, and they help transform how those processes work.
For more information on video conferencing and Cisco Systems, visit www.cisco.com.
