Improving Factory Productivity in the Age of Covid-19
The current Covid pandemic is challenging for manufacturers. Most factories have seen demand significantly down or up depending on what is being manufactured. In both cases, factories need to save cash while trying to adapt. The problems are being compounded by the need to socially distance, keep the workplace safe and prevent a virus outbreak that has the potential to close down a whole site.
Most factories are suffering efficiency limitations due to over-reliance on manual tasks, many of which are close-contact. Factories are solving problems station by station rather than considering the whole production process. The solutions lie not in replacing the human workforce but aiding it with technology to improve efficiency.
Productivity and adaptability failings stem from a lack of digital transformation. While many companies have digitally transformed sales and marketing, most core manufacturing operations use old fashioned, inefficient manual processes. This short article examines the problems, the solution and gives some tips on how to how to start improving productivity through the use of technology.
The Problem is Visibility
Manual assembly lines are very fixed and only small incremental changes are possible. It's not possible to easily adjust what's done or change the capacity at the pace businesses are now requiring. More specifically, there's a need to accelerate training, track and reduce defects and monitor processes so that they can be optimised. There is need for remote visibility and more collaboration.
The Solution is Measuring
Digital measuring technologies solve some of these problems and scale up and down. However, it's important not to chase technologies and instead analyse the top problems and solve these to get a return on investment. The aim is to get more out of what you have while ensuring safety and physical distancing. Measuring makes worker more productive, enables them to do their jobs and keeps them safer.
It's important to start from a value rather than a cost mentality. Think in terms of less time finding things, more efficient assembly, fewer defects, faster time to market for new products and greater resilience to workforce churn.
Get Started
Start where there’s most value. Devise a scenario that will prove worth to stakeholders. Work out the key problems that, if solved, would achieve the greatest gains. You have probably ignored problems or inefficiencies for years or decades because they were thought to be insolvable. Technology might now be able to solve these problems.
Think about bottlenecks, human effort-limited tasks, costly workrounds stoppages, downtimes, process delays, under-used equipment and under-used people. Can you measure these things and react? Can you predict they are about to happen? This is where you can introduce sensing.
Start by automatically quantifying your key problems through the use of tracking assets and/or people. Measuring provides visibility that, in turn, can be used to improve productivity.