Laptops Are an Ill-Suited Tool From an Age Gone By
I saw an interesting article this week on 9to5Mac about how Volvo is ditching laptop computers for their service organization. Their repair technicians are now able to do their job using their iPhones and Apple Watch.
“With Apple Watch, I have everything I need for my job right on my wrist,” said Johnnie Andersson, a personal service technician for Volvo.” It’s also way easier to train a new technician on the Apple Watch and the iPhone than our desktop systems.”
In fact, the old way of working really got in the way. The research showed that to do their job well, technicians needed to be mobile for 40% of the day, moving in the workshop, speaking with customers, or visiting stockrooms for parts. Scuttling back to the PC for information interrupted workflow.—9to5Mac 02/24/22
Why an Apple Watch? Because they are encouraged to make/receive calls to customers as they work in the shop. Being able to tell your watch to call a customer while you’re under a car is a lot easier than grabbing your iPhone or walking back to a desk.
For years I’ve been preaching that in large manufacturing companies, people don’t use their laptops anymore. I’ve been watching manufacturing supervisors, engineers, and technicians essentially do their entire jobs on a cell phone or tablet. They use their laptops for a few minutes in the morning and at the end of their day.
I’ve watched technicians in the plant adjust the settings on injection molding machines to compensate for changing conditions by just using an iPhone. No fancy apps required. They simply plug numbers into their homegrown Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. It’s a pain to walk around with a laptop. But an iPhone or an iPad is not a problem.
And it’s not just manufacturing types. I’ve witnessed many administrative leaders go from meeting to meeting and don’t want to carry a heavy laptop around. They are using their cell phones or a tablet to take notes and compose e-mail.
The funny thing is, the corporate IT departments continue to purchase everyone a laptop. There seems to be little recognition by IT departments on how people actually use tech in the business. Sooner or later, this has got to change.
But it’s not just corporate IT departments who are oblivious to the transformation of how work is done. All the tech news websites, YouTubers, and blogs are even worse. They are the biggest deniers of the fact that people are using laptops less and less when actually getting real work done. For these writers and YouTubers, the world revolves around their own workflow, which is laptop-centric.
But to the majority of us who are actually in the business of making things. Real work isn’t about making frivolous videos or writing a 2-page article. It’s about transforming raw materials into something that people can use. And for that, laptops are less and less relevant.
In fact, the old way of working really got in the way. The research showed that to do their job well, technicians needed to be mobile for 40% of the day, moving in the workshop, speaking with customers, or visiting stockrooms for parts. Scuttling back to the PC for information interrupted workflow.—9to5Mac 02/24/22
Why an Apple Watch? Because they are encouraged to make/receive calls to customers as they work in the shop. Being able to tell your watch to call a customer while you’re under a car is a lot easier than grabbing your iPhone or walking back to a desk.
For years I’ve been preaching that in large manufacturing companies, people don’t use their laptops anymore. I’ve been watching manufacturing supervisors, engineers, and technicians essentially do their entire jobs on a cell phone or tablet. They use their laptops for a few minutes in the morning and at the end of their day.
I’ve watched technicians in the plant adjust the settings on injection molding machines to compensate for changing conditions by just using an iPhone. No fancy apps required. They simply plug numbers into their homegrown Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. It’s a pain to walk around with a laptop. But an iPhone or an iPad is not a problem.
And it’s not just manufacturing types. I’ve witnessed many administrative leaders go from meeting to meeting and don’t want to carry a heavy laptop around. They are using their cell phones or a tablet to take notes and compose e-mail.
The funny thing is, the corporate IT departments continue to purchase everyone a laptop. There seems to be little recognition by IT departments on how people actually use tech in the business. Sooner or later, this has got to change.
But it’s not just corporate IT departments who are oblivious to the transformation of how work is done. All the tech news websites, YouTubers, and blogs are even worse. They are the biggest deniers of the fact that people are using laptops less and less when actually getting real work done. For these writers and YouTubers, the world revolves around their own workflow, which is laptop-centric.
But to the majority of us who are actually in the business of making things. Real work isn’t about making frivolous videos or writing a 2-page article. It’s about transforming raw materials into something that people can use. And for that, laptops are less and less relevant.
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