Lack of Visibility's Blocking Your Way

Last time, we talked about inventory struggles. These are a real problem for manufacturers every day. Today, we’re diving into dashboards, and we’re not talking about the white board type in your huddle room.

Let’s go back to that train story from last time. The engineer has at his or her disposal a myriad of dials and readouts to aid them in the choices they need to make as that ___-ton vehicle is making its way down the track. From red-green choices to needles that record values on a dial that has predefined red zones, the dials are telling the story. The engineer just needs to read it and react.

Yes, let’s say that again. They read the dials and react. The dials are giving them data points (readings) and danger points, as well (colored sections that they can use for easy analysis of when things are a problem or about to be). They are using that data to make decisions. When to stop or slow down. When to ease off the gas. When to pay attention to the engine’s heat readings or fuel consumption.

What dials do you have? What story are they telling you?

Production Operations

Your team is generating data whether you are collecting it or not. They are moving ahead or behind schedule – both without intention. When you give your team a job to do, they do it. They may be incentivized to get work done by end of day or before the end of the current period (week, month, quarter). Otherwise, they are doing what you ask and moving the work through. Do they even know when they’re on schedule? Ahead? Behind?

That would be exceptionally useful information for them to know. We’re firm believers that teams and their members want to do good work. There are few individuals that truly care so little that they actively want to do a bad job. Even those that might not be as engaged still want to go home knowing that what they did mattered on some level, so setting and measuring expectations are validating if done the right way.

Paperless Manufacturing

Part of the process here is to move you off paper. In that category, we include actual printouts and the tools that get you there, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. Like the finance system you use, these are exceptionally useful in the front office. They help you get your desk work done, but they are relatively useless on the shop floor.

We talk to manufacturers from time to time who try to assure us that they have built naming conventions and network drive structures which ensure that files are kept up to date, but these strategies often fall short and are risky for you.

We want you to have actual “dials” that show you, by the moment, what is going on. When something soars or plummets, goes in or out of range, surges or slows, we want you to know. Not when the printed reports tell you later today or this week. We want you to know now. And any time you need.

Dashboards provide valuable information for you to actively use in your day-to-day operations with your team. Let’s go back to that inventory conversation from yesterday. Would you rather have a warning light that alerts you to potential over-promised inventory so you can prioritize jobs accordingly, or risk facing internal competition as two teams fight over limited stock? Only a connected system can give you the dashboards you need, and it has to take in live information to be able to really tell you what’s going on. We sort the required information into the following categories:

• Inventory – What do you have? What do you need? What are you making? What are you purchasing? When will it arrive?
• Dispatching – What orders / jobs do you have? What are you expecting to come in? How full are you on the volume you can handle at your work centers? Is there one work center that’s over- or under-whelmed? Where you could move work from or to in order to help alleviate that situation?
• Processes – What processes are you running (based on the jobs)? How much time do they take? How many steps and what inventory is required? When? Are there things you can do to align processes across several jobs to ensure that you get the work done the quickest?
• People – Who do you have today? What can they do? Does that match the work you have? Have they done the job you’re asking recently? Do they know what to do?

This is not an exhaustive list, but a good start on some dials that you need to be reading daily to both solve issues and prevent them. Need to know more about how to “clear the path” this year and what to ask for in a system? Just connect with us. We can help. Next up, your workforce.