People-oriented systems in Manufacturing
Personal Involvement
What keeps operations managers awake at night?
The short answer is: uncertainty – but there is more than one type of uncertainty, as 2020 has demonstrated. There are those things over which you have no control, such as Covid-19 and Brexit. Their ultimate resolution is out of our hands.
On the other hand, there are uncertainties that we can influence. Lack of visibility, human error (and fear of it), delivery failures and lack of clarity over what is happening on the shop floor are born from lack of controls.
How do we improve visibility where it is needed? Over the supply chain, personnel performance, machine performance, warehouse stock, finished goods inventory and work in progress (WIP)?
“Automation” is the easy and obvious answer but it’s not that simple. What sort of automation? Where and when? Automating the wrong thing and at the wrong time can be disastrously counterproductive. We know of a commercial vehicle maker whose ERP system became so bloated that there were more people employed running it than were on the shop floor. We heard recently of a transport company whose systems are so chaotic that drivers are being sent to the wrong place, or arrive to find themselves at the end of a long queue, waiting for hours to offload or collect.
Archie McPherson, CEO of High-Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC) at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) has said that businesses must sort out methodology, first. The most advanced management system in the world will not fix broken systems or processes. McKinsey, the consulting firm, has talked of ‘IT Overload’; looking to automation to solve every problem. It doesn’t work. Hard yards have to be won, first.
Lean manufacturing’s value stream mapping is a useful tool. Follow work through the process, see what is being done, ask the ‘why’ questions about every step in the process – why are we doing it? Is it necessary? Does it add value? Why are we doing it this way? The good news is that this process itself will help to identify savings and opportunities to take cost out of the business and generate savings that will help to cover the investment in automation that, if done right, will improve visibility, efficiency, productivity and profitability.
Automation does not start with machinery or IT; it begins with people and it is the shop floor personnel who are going to be involved with it, every step of the way. Companies must demonstrate their belief in the workforce by investing in the tools to enable them to achieve. Automation is something that can make their jobs easier and more secure, as it improves the competitiveness of the company; it must be presented that way. As the vehicle manufacturer’s plight demonstrated, systems must be built around people, not the other way around.
The rewards can be significant. Transparent, digitised processes can improve forecasting accuracy dramatically, with benefits to effective resource employment. Improving visibility enables companies to know when machinery really needs to be maintained, intervening before breakdown or extending service intervals and cutting downtime by 20-35%, according to a global lubricant supplier. In a particular large automotive OEM client, the first stage – introducing automated metering that monitored performance and consumption every 30 minutes, rather than every month - cut lubricant inventory by 20%. The company is working with a European OEM to extend fluid life by more than 200%, through better understanding of wear and effective fluid life. Data analytics and the use of dynamic resource management identified the causes behind the regular failure of a gasket in a vulcanisation machine, and the symptoms of failure. Replacing the gasket with a sealant cut unscheduled downtime from five per quarter to just two – a saving of 60%, on just one machine. The increased availability was clearly obvious to operating personnel, as well as management.
Closer supply chain collaboration was identified by NatWest Bank[1] as something that will become increasingly important. Whether as supplier or customer, visibility and control are essential to eliminating uncertainty and delivering effective, competitive collaboration.
[1] Future Fit 2.0 Manufacturing Thought Leadership. NatWest Bank 2018
