How Data-Driven Manufacturing Will Impact Your Shop Floor

More and more manufacturers are benefitting from paperless manufacturing and systems such as MES – proof of the power in data-driven manufacturing.

Change is coming to manufacturing.

Spend enough time reading material out there, listening to analysts or keynote speakers, or just studying the manufacturing market and you can see the signs of change.

As we begin grappling with change, we try to give it a name. Some are calling it “Industry 4.0.” They see the Smart Factory in our future, built on the Internet of Things with cyber-physical tools in every nook and cranny… and on and on… It’s no wonder so many are willing to wait for the industry frenzy to calm down before deciding on what to do next.

Even though we are careful to not get into the politics of trend naming, we see the changes coming to our industry as data-driven manufacturing, a term many others are also out there using.  It’s more than putting sensors on machines or collecting mounds of data for pretty dashboards, and automating everything possible. Data-driven manufacturing means collecting critical data in real-time, then utilizing the data to increase production and work better, faster and with fewer errors. Think of it as a Smart MES.

Consider this – using an out-of-the-box solution, one that is readily available today, you can:

• Measure and observe a trend before it becomes a problem. With data-driven manufacturing, you can see weaknesses and potential problems in the workflow, and quickly implement a solution through the system.

• Assess shop floor labor time against the estimated time to complete work, to create more accurate estimates and pricing.

• Identify non-conformances and quality issues quickly using automated tolerances. Quality Control can respond and solve problems from their desk.

• Implement process improvement plans through procedural enforcement, utilizing real-time shop floor data to increase and maximize efficiency.

• Automatically create a complete production record, using object-driven data that can be used in reporting and data analysis.

All of these benefits are available, in addition to the other functionality found in MES and paperless manufacturing systems. These benefits hint at the competitive advantages of a continually monitored, data-driven shop floor using a Smart MES over manufacturing operations struggling with paper-driven manufacturing. As more companies embrace digital manufacturing, companies still using paper are at a significant disadvantage.

Manufacturers need to stop seeing problems on the shop floor as simply headaches that need to be managed, and start seeing them as opportunities. A digital paperless manufacturing system such as MES or MOM is critical (and increasingly affordable and easy-to-implement) solution to shop floor problems and issues, and often represents the single biggest opportunity for operations improvement. Want to learn more, or see how paperless manufacturing can help you? Then contact CIMx today for more information.