SMB manufacturers tell us that in order to be successful they
have to meet their customers' desire for shorter and unpredictable
lead times at competitive prices - with quality being a
given. The uncertainty in the US economy and global market
means they must quickly respond to changes in customer
demand. To meet customer and market demands, the trend for
manufacturers is to improve operations to be more adaptive and
agile, and thus avoiding increases in finished goods inventory.
Agile and adaptive manufacturing means that manufacturers have
visibility of their production capabilities and their manufacturing
value chain, and have the ability to quickly react to changes in
customer demand, supply, and conditions on the shop floor.
Manufacturers are more agile, flexible and adaptive to the
changing marketplace when they have an automated management
solution enabling real-time coordination, showing key performance
indicator data in dashboards, and allowing employees to manage by
exception with alerts. The trend is to give the decision makers one
place to go to easily view raw materials availability, see customer
demand and know the constraints on the shop floor - all in
real-time.
Automated management solutions supporting agile and adaptive
manufacturing provide a centralized, synchronized, real-time view
of the enterprise - across the front office and shop floor to value
chain partners. ERP systems help, but unique gaps exist
between ERP, the shop floor and SMB manufacturing partners.
Implementing manufacturing visibility solutions bridge these gaps,
consolidating shop floor and enterprise data that enables efficient
decision-making necessary for agile manufacturing operations.
Manufacturing operations visibility systems push data from
engineering and operations into ERP systems and pull data out from
ERP to the shop floor and the web, creating a unified view of
orders, schedules, quality control and inventory. They
provide real-time visibility of the shop floor, event management
and analytics that enhance problem solving, accountability and
predictive operations. As a result of implementing a
manufacturing visibility solution supporting agile manufacturing
operations, SMB manufacturers see that product quality improves and
variability is reduced. Another key result is that custom
jobs and rush orders become just part of the standard process,
opening up new opportunities.
Agile and adaptive manufacturing is rarely achieved at SMB
manufacturers using disparate spreadsheets and standalone
proprietary systems that do not share critical business data.
When different, unconnected IT systems are used to collect and
maintain business data, the information is often not useful to
employees for day-to-day operations due to the cumbersome nature of
finding the information and pulling it all together. SMB
manufacturers end up with silos of information in each department
resulting in redundant, wasteful management and usage.
It is important that the manufacturing visibility solution
integrates the front-office to the shop floor and with vendors and
partners. In a recent global study by the Aberdeen Group,
manufacturing companies that automate and harmonize workflows
throughout their company and with suppliers and partners produced
66% greater improvement in reducing the total time to delivery. The
study found that these companies gained more than 10% in market
share.
Manufacturers wanting to be more agile and adaptive can start by
studying their operations processes and how they respond to
changing customer demand and marketplace. An assessment is
performed of the current visibility of the shop floor, value chain
partners, and decision making processes. People,
business processes, information systems and technology
infrastructure are noted. Typically the first application
created is automating production scheduling, implementing as an
extension to ERP or as a cornerstone application of the new
manufacturing visibility system.
TwinEngines' custom manufacturing operations and web portal
solutions are one option for SMB manufacturers. Our
experience and solutions cover the spectrum of manufacturers using
spreadsheets and Microsoft Access and no visibility of the shop
floor to those that need to evaluate and extend their ERP to the
shop floor and partners on the web. SMB manufacturers find us
most valuable in assessing the current ERP/MRP/financial systems in
place and creating the strategic technology roadmap showing the
right mix of legacy systems, third-party products and custom
systems on top of the technology infrastructure needed to support
agile and adaptive manufacturing now and in the future.
To continue the discussion on agile and adaptive manufacturing
or to discuss your manufacturing operations management
capabilities, please contact us at 404-522-4262 x606.