There are many interesting things that have made businesses and workplaces more productive over the years. Some of them are obvious because we have read many articles about them in business news – they are likely to be more recent inventions. But there are many which go overlooked because they are not the latest craze or the hippest consideration at the moment, and therefore do not get as much press. What solutions have you been forgetting? Here are a few:
Wheels
The most obvious are things like the wheel – many people say it is the most seminal invention the world has ever experienced – and really, that is not an exaggeration. While we may not think of the wheel as technology, many centuries ago, it was considered as such because it made processes much quicker and meant people could get around without so much effort – be it on an old-fashioned bicycle, or a cart, or anything else. Although wheels may sound like an unimportant consideration now, consider that almost all of our modern economy is based around wheels. Whether it is how employees travel to work (by car, bus, or bike), or how they transport things around the work floor (in trolleys or carts), the wheel is indispensable.
Conveyor belts
Conveyor belts came a long time after the industrial revolution, but they are still considered one of the greatest masterpieces in modern technology. They significantly decreased the time which workers spent traversing the floor of the factory and moving in between the actual productive, money-making tasks such as creating a product by mixing ingredients in the case of food, polishing in the case of cabinets, or packaging – which is the final stage in a factory. They meant that there were fewer issues with health and safety because employees were not carrying items that were too heavy for them – instead, they could just put the item on the conveyor belt and let it be passed to the next person down the line. This is useful to this day when many products are far from man-made, which is why so many look to conveyor solutions to help them optimize efficiency on the factory floor.
Computers
Last, but by no means least, there are computers, which have allowed us to communicate, store data, and do all manner of things which used to take ages to do by hand. The internet is perhaps the biggest draw of computers because it allows us to find out information on virtually any topic almost immediately. Although more senior members of workplaces may find it hard to use computers, there is good advice you can give them, and many people find that the learning curve becomes quite shallow with computers – once you know your way around the programs, that is!
All in all, there are a lot of solutions that are still not given enough credit for changing our lives and making our work easier. We shouldn’t forget that sometimes the most simple things, whether on a factory floor or in an office, can make a difference to what we achieve.