The More You Know About Your Production Processes, the More They Can Be Improved
Under the Toyota system of Just-In-Time manufacturing[1], making “only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed,” is the ideal. For most small-to-medium businesses, this is a continuing challenge that is hard to achieve. To begin with, you must be able to collect data from all aspects of your production floor.
This includes:
- Material usage & waste
- Machine setup & runtimes
- Employee abilities & efficiencies
- Suppliers & pricing
- Sales & projected sales
- All other operations
This data must be studied. Once it is understood, improvements can be made. This process is repeated through every production cycle, consistently improving efficiency and therefore, profitability.
Your Production Data Is a Valuable Commodity- If You Can Get at It
Until the improvements in data collection brought about by the Industrial Internet of Things, printed spreadsheets and manually entered data were the only way to gather information, and this (hopefully correct) information was then entered into even more spreadsheets and columns.
Similarly, drawings and instructions on the shop floor were kept in binders or printed at a station. This often led to a steady stream of people coming into the production office looking for replacements for damaged or lost documents.
Production Will Improve With Digital Data Collection and Analysis
Prodsmart manufacturing execution software (MES) was developed to help manufacturers collect, interpret, and apply the wealth of knowledge which already exists in their processes. This powerful tool was designed to take full advantage of all manufacturing information:
- Collects real-time data from workers, machines, materials, time periods and more
- A mobile app with a real-time dashboard for up to date information anywhere, anytime
- Works on all platforms
- Notifications sound the alert when attention is required
- Planning & MRP– from materials to workers and machines
- BOM’s & Product Trees to track operations
- Manage warehouse space
- Identify bottlenecks
- Set priorities
- Schedule maintenance
- Monitor employee efficiency
- Generate production reports
- Integrated punch clock
- Workers get all required information (schematics, instructions, etc.)
- Cross-reference data from different sources
- Implement a quality tracking and management system
- Create quality checklists
- Highly customizable and adaptable
Prodsmart is not just about Data Collection- We can Help With interpretation and Execution too.
Prodsmart is ready to help with assessment & analysis, management consulting, technology consulting, or training, and several different tiers of service plans are available, depending upon the level of focus required.
Step up to the next level in Production Control now and sign up for Free!
