Whether you’re manufacturing consumer goods, automotive parts, or virtually anything else, it’s probably time your factory needs to speed up to keep pace with new automation and technology.
No industry is exempt from the current wave of disruption, and that should be a very good thing for your business.
If it’s not, then you’re likely falling behind.
What is Smart Manufacturing?
The term is an industrial household name across manufacturing sectors. Smart manufacturing is not just being intelligent about your managerial and machine operations. Rather, it is a category of computer-integrated manufacturing that utilizes utmost adaptability, design changes, and digital technology.
A “smart manufacturer” is also consistently educating their workforce on new cutting-edge methods and best practices. This “re-skilling” is becoming necessary to keep good employees and replace the leagues of retirees leaving the workforce.
Be Agile for Smart Manufacturing
Today, most factories operate under agile methodologies. If you haven’t adopted agile, your new goal should be to get on board before your waterfall methods run dry.
The rapid advancements in manufacturing technologies make flexibility and agility critical to operational excellence. Old manufacturing equipment may be lacking in consistency, while preventing labor cost savings. If you can’t track or measure data produced by your equipment, then you can’t effectively improve its performance.
It’s not just equipment that needs upgrading or replacing during this new phase of Industry 4.0. Your data management tools also need to be up-to-par, in order to adopt agile conceptualizations and continue to rise with the future of the industry.
How to Increase Factory Agility
Start implementing more agile processes by stepping back and evaluating your internal operations from a high level. Ask yourself: what is your current capacity? Then identify which bottlenecks might be occurring. You are only as fast as your slowest process in the production line.
Measure your changeover time in seconds, or at the very least in minutes. Every time a machine or crew is sitting idle, your bottom-line is hurting. Have all the tools and materials staged so when one process stops, your floor is prepped and ready to tackle the next process.
Don’t overcompensate on machinery. It’s important to think big and dream even bigger, but you don’t want to be wasting capacity with too much emphasis on machinery. Make sure your machines match your current demand and then budget for an upgrade when demand increases.
Let’s further break down the three different areas in your factory that need agility and then cover some great solutions to help achieve your new goals.
People Agility
Being “people agile” means adapting your labor force to meet the current production needs at any given time. To avoid inflating costs, you’ll need to be more flexible with how you scale manpower, which means a more flexible work schedule for employees.
When you’re running a traditional flat workforce with “9 to 5” hours, your productivity slows because people eat up labor costs during peaks with overtime.
The same goes for the opposite when production is slow, but you're staffed to the max: people become less motivated and become unproductive.
Figure out your full-time crew based on a business case analysis. Then, run with your fixed crew and outsource to solve for boosts in volume.
Process Agility
This goes hand in hand with the changeover optimization mentioned earlier in this article. Your processes need to constantly change in order to reduce costs, increase quality, and gain a competitive edge.
Start implementing management systems that set standards and drive the need for continuous improvement. Then, develop the best training program you can imagine. Make onboarding smooth and re-skilling routine. Finally, if you haven’t done so already, get lean.
By employing lean practices you’ll drive process improvement — think: Standard Work, Kaizen, and Root Cause Analysis, to name a few.
Technology Agility
How quick are you able to change packaging or switch materials and processes? A technologically agile factory can handle multiple packaging types on a single production line. If you find your factory separating lines per material or format, then you’re in trouble.
Use more sensors! IoT is a real thing, and if your machinery isn’t connected and providing your ERP with invaluable data, you’re missing out on cost-savings.
Have you considered additive manufacturing or 3D printing? Take note, your competitors are already profiting from this windfall advancement.
Stop wasting time on designs that won’t work by utilizing more advanced data management tools that can accommodate fast and frequent design changes.
Leverage the data generated from your ERP system and IoT connected machinery to help people understand performance data and capacity across the supply chain.
You’re Not Alone!
Without agility, your factory will not have a competitive advantage. Get to know your factory floor intimately. From the processes to machinery and people, you have to keep a finger on the bottlenecks and always be improving.
If you feel like the new generation of manufacturing is outpacing your factory, hire an agile manufacturing expert from Emerge IT. We’ll help you streamline and improve your factory’s transformation.