Why Do Manufacturers Need to Improve Manufacturing Processes?
Many manufacturing companies these days struggle in making their processes more efficient than ever. In this fast-paced IR4.0 era, any form of inefficiency could cause a business to lose millions of dollars. In the meantime, new technologies that are more efficient and capable are entering the manufacturing scene, making it crucial for manufacturers to step up the game and improve most of their processes to not be left behind by other competitors. In this article, we summarised 5 ways manufacturers can improve their processes and grow bigger despite facing the on-going challenges post-pandemic.
#1: Leverage Manufacturing Intelligence Data
Manufacturing intelligence data (or business intelligence, BI) is the data generated when manufacturing processes are carried out, including the data related to the production environment and the performance of equipment, processes, and personnel. Machines, sensors, and systems contribute to manufacturing intelligence data. These data can then be analysed for manufacturers to get valuable insights into the manufacturing process and helps with decision-making for further improvement. Thanks to manufacturing intelligence data, manufacturers can deeply understand their processes and drive continuous improvement. Apart from that, manufacturers could see better production efficiency, improved product quality, and maximised margins.
#2: Reduce as Much Waste as Possible
Consumer these days have shown an increased demand for manufacturing process transparency from manufacturing companies – big or small. A manufacturing company could face public backlash if they were found to contribute large amount of waste, which affects both the environment and the profitability of the business. By improving product measurement methods and having accurate data logging, manufacturers can prevent as much wastage as possible. For example, inaccurate production data can cause defects to final products that can start to add up to the amount of manufacturing waste.
#3: Focus on Inventory Management
The inventory consists of not only your finished goods or products, but it also contains the stock and material needed to manufacture your products. This makes inventory management a critical element in manufacturing – getting real-time information of items moving in and out from your warehouses is crucial. Also, manufacturers need to ensure that they don’t overstock or understock. Overstocking might cause an increase in wastage, while understocking could cause manufacturers to lose money due to slow or stopped production. A platform that allows manufacturers to provide automated, real-time updates on stock levels will help manufacturers from overstocking or understocking.
#4: Predictive Maintenance of Machines and Equipment
By machine monitoring and adopting predictive maintenance, manufacturers can cut unproductive and unplanned downtime. This way, production backlogs can be significantly reduced, improve production uptime, and eliminate possible waste that could occur due to unplanned machine breakdown. Predictive maintenance specifically helps in reducing unplanned downtime by giving early warning or reminders of equipment failure, improving machine reliability, increasing overall production productivity and efficiency, as well as allowing for better material or resource allocation.
#5: Invest in New, All-in-One Platform or Technology
As we’re currently in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) era, manufacturing processes are always evolving. As the processes get more and more complexed, a well-connected platform is a must for manufacturers to have on board. A cloud-based, well-connected business management platform like Enterpryze allows team members to get updated, real-time data from a single source of truth, while also simplifying all production processes and lowering costs. To stay competitive in the global manufacturing industry, manufacturers should not be afraid or reluctant to invest technologies of the future.
Improve Your Manufacturing Processes with Enterpryze
Enterpryze, a cloud-based, all-in-one Business Management Platform helps make manufacturing processes run more efficiently. With our drag-and-drop production scheduling feature, production managers can properly plan processes and have bigger visibility on the entire production process. With Enterpryze, manufacturers can also allocate or move stock and materials across multiple production locations easily based on the product Bill of Materials (BOM). Manufacturers can better plan the restocking of items by having the real-time stock balance across multiple warehouses with suggested reorder quantity and committed quantity. With our Bill of Materials (BOM) feature too, manufacturers can re-order stock that are low in availability based on the product Bill of Materials or track any ongoing purchase orders to see if the purchase has been made. Lastly, our cloud-based platform can easily be accessed by functional team members, via web or via mobile apps which allows team members to effectively contribute towards better production planning and strategised decision-making.
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