Jaume Carreras

Digital Transformation Manager , Henkel

Henkel was founded in 1876 and holds prominent market positions worldwide in both industrial and consumer sectors. Its Consumer Brands division dominates laundry and home care and hair care segments across numerous global markets and categories. Its extensive product portfolio includes laundry detergents, household cleaners, hair styling, coloring, and care products. Henkel's strategic framework revolves around innovation, sustainability, and digitalization, fostering a collaborative culture and empowering its workforce. In 2023, the company reported sales nearing 22 billion euros and an operating profit of 2.6 billion euros. With approximately 48,000 employees globally, 83% of whom work outside of Germany, Henkel stands as a formidable force in both consumer and industrial realms.

Supernova Award Category: 
Future of Work: Employee Experience
The Problem: 

Aiming to streamline workflows, enhance user experience, elevate productivity and improve as well as complete data, Henkel faced a roadblock: a lack of developers to create apps for their diverse workforce across various devices. Their “Connected Worker” initiative involved developing in-house mobile and web applications focused on Manufacturing, Health, Product Safety & Quality (HPS/SHEQ), and Logistics. Key goals included: 

  • Streamlining operations: Eliminate paper-based processes, simplify workflows, and capture real-time shop floor data. 
  • Data-driven insights: Collected data from mobile devices and touch screens would be validated, transmitted to the cloud, and analyzed. Insights would then be used to generate reports, visualizations, and notifications for relevant personnel.

The desired solution required a multi-experience development platform capable of: 

  • Building global manufacturing apps: These apps would address various needs like quality control, safety procedures, training, and materials management.
  • Data integration: The platform would seamlessly connect with web services, databases, MES, IoT, and SAP systems.
  • Device flexibility: Users could access applications from various devices, including phones and tablets, essential for the mobility of shop floor workers.  

This approach empowered Henkel to create a connected worker ecosystem, fostering a more productive and efficient shop floor environment.

The Solution: 

Henkel identified a critical gap in their shop floor operations - a lack of integrated mobile applications. This limited real-time data capture, process efficiency, and worker agility. HCL Volt MX emerged as the ideal development platform. It provides two key functionalities:

  1. Foundry: This middleware streamlines data integration from any source while fortifying security. Built-in analytics offer insights into service calls and application metrics.
  2. Iris: This user-friendly IDE allows building native mobile and web applications from a single codebase, fostering a seamless development experience. Iris integrates deeply with Foundry, completing the data flow loop.

Volt MX empowers Henkel to create a connected worker ecosystem, addressing both application development and data integration needs. This fosters a more productive and efficient shop floor environment.

The Results: 

Aiming to streamline workflows, enhance user experience, and elevate productivity, Henkel faced a developer shortage hindering multi-device app creation. Volt MX addressed both.

  1. Single Codebase: Design apps for all devices (phones, tablets, web) from one codebase, reducing development complexity and eliminating separate development teams.
  2. Simplified Maintenance: Volt MX handles OS upgrades and new device compatibility, further streamlining the process.

Within a year, Henkel implemented a multi-channel experience with mobile and tablet apps. These apps leverage functionalities like data export, OCR, barcode scanning, and multilingual support. Example apps include QControl (ensuring product quality) and Cetrelining (streamlining production lines). 

Volt MX empowers their workforce for a connected and efficient shop floor.  

Metrics: 

This story began with a clear vision: a simpler, more efficient, and engaging shop floor experience for Henkel’s workforce. The results were impressive. What started with just 10 apps and 7 users on a handful of devices worldwide blossomed into a thriving ecosystem. The number of apps grew to 15, with a staggering 3,000  users accessing them on 500 shared iPads.

This momentum hasn’t slowed down. Henkel currently has over 20 apps in the pipeline, catering to a global workforce. With over 650 shared iPads deployed across their factories, these apps generate over 30 reports daily. The impact is undeniable: over 10,000 data points are submitted daily from over 30 locations with more than 3,000 active users. The success story of Henkel’s connected worker program is a testament to the power of low-code development in revolutionizing shop floor operations and plays a crucial role on Henkel’s 4th Industrial Revolution journey.  

The Technology: 

Henkel explored various low-code options, ultimately choosing Volt MX. Its flexibility in deployment, seamless integration with existing systems, and competitive pricing were all key factors. But the real clincher was HCLSoftware’s exceptional support. They went above and beyond, co-developing custom app components and offering ongoing guidance. This close partnership allowed Henkel to move swiftly and see results almost instantly. 

Disruptive Factor: 

Henkel’s Connected Worker Revolution:

Game-Changing Agility: Henkel embraced an agile approach, empowering them to own, operationalize, and train on the final product. They transformed project management into impactful change management, exceeding the expectations of their global centers of excellence.

Beyond the Machine: The team challenged the status quo by delving into supply chain digitization. They started by analyzing the machinery, the backbone of their operations. Algorithms extracted data, revealing process intelligence. Recognizing a missing piece, they combined this data with worker usage information, fulfilling the project’s core mission: to unite machine data with real-world human input.

A World Apart: Henkel’s commitment to transformation was evident. New learning spaces were established across 17 countries to support adoption of the apps. Initial app versions were designed and developed for rapid concept testing and user feedback. Equipped with this knowledge, they iterated quickly, building functionalities while keeping workers involved and engaged. Feedback sessions and access to reports empowered workers, fostering such enthusiasm that they volunteered for testing at each iteration. 

Shining Moment: 

Henkel’s journey is far from over. With over 15 apps in various stages - design, development, and active use - they gain a comprehensive view of user behavior and overall adoption. Their unwavering commitment to continuous improvement, particularly in quality and safety, finds a perfect partner in the Volt MX platform. This agile environment allows for rapid fix-test-deploy cycles, ensuring issues are swiftly addressed, and the connected worker experience continues to thrive. 

About Henkel

With its brands, innovations and technologies, Henkel holds leading market positions worldwide in the industrial and consumer businesses. In fiscal 2023, Henkel reported sales of more than 21.5 billion euros and adjusted operating profit of around 2.6 billion euros. Henkel’s preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX. More information at www.henkel.com