5 Critical Benefits of Shop Floor Visibility

Do these common complaints sound familiar?

“I’m accountable to our customers. I need to know when an order is going to ship.”

“If I need to know what’s happening on the shop floor, no one can give me a straight answer.”

“When a problem happens, I’m the last one to know.”

A lack of production visibility underlies each of these problems. The profit-driver and central focus of a manufacturing business is production, but few companies have any idea what’s happening on the shop floor from one moment to the next.

The Blind Spot in Manufacturing

As we discussed in our last blog, How Much Does the Lack of Production Visibility Cost Manufacturers? companies utilize flawed systems, like their ERP, or error-prone processes, like paper records, to track and monitor production. Critical data and warning signs slip through the cracks, and their business struggles to retroactively fix problems rather than proactively grow the business, even as money and efficiency drain away. Without a dedicated workflow system like Smart Manufacturing to monitor and manage production, these companies will never have real-time production visibility.

Managing and Monitoring Production

A solution based on Smart Manufacturing provides real-time visibility and delivers benefits beyond a dashboard or a morning report. Data collected becomes the foundation of proactive production management, providing a positive impact across the business. For example:

• Identify and track ship dates with pinpoint precision.

Quit paying overtime or fees for late shipments, and know with a single glance when an order will ship. With real-time production data, manufacturers can release an order and know with confidence when work will be complete. Scheduling bottlenecks aren’t a surprise, and adjustments to the schedule or routing can be made to eliminate problems before they occur. Get an update with a click of a button and stay on top of production to ensure orders ship on-time, every time.

• Lower production costs.

On any shop floor, hidden inefficiencies will drain profit from every order. With real-time visibility, you can identify inefficiencies – operations that generate additional scrap, wasteful processes or employees that may need additional training – and implement solutions. With accurate, real-time visibility you lower costs across the production lifecycle, drastically reducing expenses.

• Speedy, error-free New Product Introduction (NPI).

When complications and errors occur during NPI, frustrations and costs mount. As the company attempts to solve problems they may not fully understand, profit and production is lost. When an NPI is successful and the shop floor delivers at a lower bid, without defects and ahead of schedule, the manufacturer becomes a hero. With production visibility, manufacturers quickly identify, in real-time, where and when a problem occurs. Alternate work paths can be implemented and the result seen immediately – efficient and seamless NPI.

• Sustainable process improvement.

For many manufacturers, process improvement is a waste of time and resources. After the initiative, the shop floor quickly reverts back to the comforts of less-efficient but more familiar processes. Real-time visibility not only supports process improvement by providing critical data for measuring success, but also provides the feedback loops shop floor employees need to utilize the improvements. Companies with real-time production visibility see sustainable, improved results with almost every improvement initiative.

• Increased quality and lower scrap and waste.

Quality escapes, scrap and waste put a manufacturer at risk. With real-time production visibility, the shop floor receives immediate feedback on quality, and products that don’t meet engineering specifications are quickly identified for rework. With immediate feedback, operators can see the processes that work and the processes that result in escapes. Manufacturers with real-time visibility quickly achieve higher output, increased quality and the elimination of scrap and waste.

Turning Visibility into Increased Margins and Output

If you’re ready to quit making mistakes and errors, and optimize your profit, production and efficiency, then contact CIMx Software to see how quickly a Smart Manufacturing system can give you real-time production visibility while eliminating errors and manufacturing problems.

For most manufacturers, it’s a few simple steps to move to a Smart Manufacturing system. Processes currently draining resources and effort can be automated while error-prone paper methods can be shifted to a digital system. Collect and organize the data in real-time, rather than after work is complete and start manufacturing smarter today.