System and method for increasing employee productivity through challenges

A system for increasing employee productivity in an industrial manufacturing production activity, said system comprising:

• a series of industrial manufacturing machines, each configured to accommodate an employee and assist the employee with producing tangible components as part of accomplishing an industrial manufacturing aspect of the industrial manufacturing production activity for a common assembly line, wherein each of the industrial manufacturing machines comprise a data acquiring device configured to measure actual production metrics for a respective one of the industrial manufacturing machines in substantially real time;
• at least one database in electronic communication with each of the industrial manufacturing machines by way of an electronic interface and comprising a pay rate associated with each employee, predetermined production metric thresholds associated with each employee, and graphics, wherein each of the graphics is associated with one of the predetermined production metric thresholds and comprise non-numerical, pictorial images;
• one or more processors in electronic communication with each of the data acquiring devices and each of the at least one database and adapted to, for each of the employees associated with each of the industrial manufacturing machines, receive the actual production metrics from each of the data acquiring devices, retrieve the pay rate and predetermined production metric thresholds associated with each of the employees, determine a real-time-pay rate for each of the employees as said actual production metrics are received, wherein each of said real-time-pay-rates are determined based on at least a most recently received one of said actual production metrics and the retrieved pay rate for a respective one of said employees, determine whether the real-time-pay-rate exceeds one or more of the retrieved predetermined thresholds, and retrieve an associated one of the graphics where the real-time-pay-rate exceeds at least one of the one or more of the retrieved predetermined thresholds, wherein said one or more processors is further configured to generate a ranking of each of the employees based on the real-time-pay-rate for each of the employees;
• and
• a common display associated with the one or more processors, wherein the display is configured to, in substantially real time, display said ranking, a bar chart reflecting the real-time-pay rate for each employee, and the retrieved associated one of the graphics for each employee.

A method for increasing employee productivity in a production activity, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a series of machines, each associated with an employee, for producing units of output as part of accomplishing the production activity;
• storing, at a database in electronic communication with each of the machines, a pay rate for each employee for the production activity and one or more predetermined thresholds associated with each employee;
• monitoring, by way of data acquiring devices, each associated with one of the machines, an actual production metric for each of said machines for said production activity in substantially real time, wherein each of said actual production metrics comprises a number of the units of output produced using a respective one of the machines over a period of time;
• retrieving the pay rate for each employee from the database;
• receiving the actual production metric for each employee from the respective data acquiring device;
• determining, at the processor, a real-time-pay rate for each employee based on the actual production metric and the pay rate for the employee, wherein each of said real-time-pay rates comprise an amount of pay per unit of time;
• and
• displaying, at a display associated with each of the machines, in substantially real-time, a ranking of each employee comprising the real-time-pay rate for each employee, a visualization reflecting the real-time-pay rate of each employee, and a graphic indicating whether the real-time-pay rate for each employee exceeds one or more of the predetermined thresholds, wherein said graphic comprises a non-numerical, pictorial image, and wherein said real-time-pay rate is displayed as said amount of pay per said unit of time.