Eddy Azad is CEO at Parsec Automation, the developer of TrakSYS™, a leading real-time operations & performance management software.
Prolonged uncertainty doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon. In fact, it’s become our new normal. Against this backdrop of persistent ambiguity, many business leaders now find themselves navigating the nontrivial task of increasing operational efficiency out of a desire for improvement, yes, but also out of necessity.
As business leaders across all sectors begin marching their outfits toward becoming as sustainable and economically viable as possible, they need only look to today’s modern manufacturers to discover how to chart a successful path forward. Although it’s true that the manufacturing industry has been slower to embrace full-scale digitalization, there’s no denying that today’s preeminent manufacturers have been (for years now) laser-focused on driving process efficiency.
Manufacturing Tenet 1: Continuous Improvement
The principle of continuous improvement is a cornerstone in manufacturing. Focused on delivering value for their customers, today’s manufacturers know that they can’t create high-quality goods without first having sharp insight into their processes and a keen understanding of where their production processes may be falling short.
Many modern manufacturers have invested time and resources in technology that delivers visibility into many facets of their operations. They meticulously evaluate each step of their production process and strive for optimal efficiency and productivity. They iterate on their workflows until the desired outcomes are achieved, making seemingly imperceptible adjustments to move the needle that much further. They employ best practices such as lean management to keep teams focused, engaged and motivated.
When nonmanufacturers adopt the tenet of continuous improvement, they’ll find that chasing incremental goals—rather than untenable expectations—can do wonders for team morale and productivity. Teams thrive when they feel a palpable sense of productive camaraderie; every step in the right direction, however small, is a step toward optimization. With this mindset, teams pursue opportunities for improvement instead of symbolic activities that won’t deliver measurable results. Continuous improvement may not be fast, but it moves the entire organization forward together.
Manufacturing Tenet 2: Value-Stream Mapping
Value-stream mapping, at a high level, has clear goals: improve value-added operations, streamline nonvalue-add processes and eliminate wasteful activities. For manufacturers that must define and control many critical operational factors such as inventory management, production planning and execution and enforcing quality mandates, value-stream mapping is a fundamentally important undertaking to help ensure operational efficiency, effectiveness, customer satisfaction and consistent business viability.
You may wonder, “How do you define adding value?” For most manufacturers, the answer is the same: delivering the highest quality product in the shortest amount of time at the lowest cost.
Nonmanufacturing businesses can also benefit from value-stream mapping. Business leaders can gain significant clarity if they can identify value-additive and value-regressive activities. Then, through a culture of continuous improvement, these same value-stream activities can be refined to keep up with changes in the business requirements and operations. As leaders are asked to trim the fat from their budgets, applying a mindset of value-stream mapping can help pave the road to a demonstrably more efficient organization.
Manufacturing Tenet 3: Connectivity And Communication
Today’s manufacturers have access to many technology-based tools to help them rapidly diagnose problems and apply corrective actions quickly (or preemptively). On a relatively simple level, consider the lower-tech concept of a system called an andon, which means light in Japanese. It can be activated by both line workers and supervisors, its lights signaling where a problem has occurred. If the andon is triggered, teams are immediately notified and can start troubleshooting right away.
Running your business based on isolated pockets of information doesn’t make sense at all. Activities, as part of an end-to-end value stream, are interconnected and influence the overall production outcomes. It becomes imperative to integrate these disparate systems and communicate effectively. This enables enterprise-wide visibility and a single source of truth that drives continuous improvement initiatives and the value-stream mapping that I’ve already mentioned.
Another invaluable benefit of enterprise-wide connectivity and communication is the empowerment of human resources. Informed employees can make decisions better, faster and more often. This becomes especially important in the age of hybrid work.
Manufacturing Tenet 4: Gather, Contextualize And Leverage Data
As systems are integrated and communicate with each other, modern manufacturers can gather data in real time, contextualize it and arrive at actionable information that fuels their supercharged operations. We live in the data age. All businesses are data-dependent businesses. The more timely, accurate and relevant data you have, the more you can leverage it to improve your operations.
The impacts can be quite impressive. Whether you’re trying to forecast demand, manage your raw materials inventory, plan your daily production, assess your operators’ training needs or benchmark your quality metrics, data has become the foundation of any improvement strategy. Are you ready to be part of this data-driven digital transformation? Have you defined your strategy to sort out the gaps in your data collection process? Do you have an integrated system in place to transform data into useful insights and foresight? Time is of the essence. You need to act with purpose and intent.
Digital Transformation Is A Continuous Process
Speaking of digital transformation, one must look past the hype and the buzzwords to get to the practicalities needed to create an achievable plan with a deterministic chance of success. Many companies focus on window dressing instead of strategies that are right for them—both in terms of requirements and scale. After all, it’s not just about planning it. It’s about getting it done. An effective digital transformation strategy lends itself to a continuous improvement process that begins with a phased execution plan to tackle specific focus areas with properly allocated funding, sufficient resourcing and clear outcomes.
There are many aspects of manufacturing operations that leaders can leverage to drive continued success. When organizations focus on continuous improvement, value-stream mapping, connectivity and communication and leveraging data, they can operate more efficiently and realize superior outcomes for their teams, partners and customers.
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