SafetyChain Blog

The Dilemma

The process of turning raw materials into finished products is a massive team effort that requires the unification of all the people, processes, and equipment to achieve a common goal. Unfortunately, the systems traditionally used to facilitate efficiency often work in opposition to this goal, especially enterprise-class software.

Effective teams need a shared understanding of their goal and the progress across functions, including production, quality, and compliance. Only with a shared understanding can they take the right actions and make the needed course corrections. This level of coordination cannot happen with siloed information and data that is hours, days, or weeks old.

The manufacturing industry is no stranger to labor shortages. In our webinar, Addressing Labor Shortage: How to Increase Uptime While Empowering Employees attendees agreed that high turnover and an inability to hire skilled workers were their two largest challenges. Jeremy Tancredi, Partner at West Monroe consultancy with over 20 years of experience in operational productivity for large distribution clients, covered several methods to overcome these issues.

Adopting the right technology and instituting new and innovative ways for process optimization in manufacturing is crucial to staying competitive in the manufacturing industry. For example, a leading frozen foods company with nine plants - used SafetyChain QMS to try and determine the cause of a faulty lot of frozen dumplings. In two hours, they were able to use technology to diagnose the root cause, make the appropriate adjustments, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We’ll go over the right steps to take to ensure you’re using the right resources for your process optimization, potential challenges to process optimization, and guidance for optimizing your processes.

It is no secret that visibility is essential to optimizing your manufacturing operations. With incoming materials and outgoing orders all tracked and managed from a spreadsheet or paper forms, it is near impossible to understand what is truly happening on your plant floor, let alone where you should focus your improvement efforts. 

In our recent webinar, You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See: Three Ways to Shine the Light on Optimizing Operations, participants were asked if they could express how their operation is performing without leaving their chairs. Not surprisingly, 35% said no, and that’s not uncommon. In the competitive world of manufacturing, process manufacturers are faced with the challenge to gain true visibility into their plant operations and optimize with the resources available — this is not an easy task. However, with the right approach and tools, it is possible.

The majority of the attendees at our Demystifying Industry 4.0 webinar agreed the world isn’t slowing down and won’t stop changing. A major factor in that change is the speed at which technology evolves. Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are major parts of the ongoing shifts happening in manufacturing and production.

How do we balance time and money when it comes to plant maintenance? It’s common for many organizations to rely upon reactive maintenance, and fixing problems as they occur. While this method can seem cost-effective initially, the costs will increase over time with extended downtime and greater unpredictability. Proactive maintenance, however, while generating a higher upfront cost, can lower overall maintenance costs, reduce equipment and employee downtime, and significantly increase asset availability.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first reached the U.S. in the spring of 2020, it disrupted businesses, forcing many people out of employment. While some employees could work remotely, many roles didn’t accommodate work-from-home arrangements. To cushion its citizens from the hardships of being out of work, the U.S. government established the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, & Economic Security (CARES) Act. This move played a role in shaping the future of work—for many people, the financial benefits extended well into 2021. Stimulus checks and additional unemployment assistance helped many families and individuals in need during shutdowns, but many employers faced labor shortages even after businesses were back up and running.

Since the 1970s, an increasing number of manufacturers have used the three components of availability, performance, and quality to calculate the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) for determining how well a process is running. OEE is also used to identify areas of improvement. Understandably, most manufacturers target the more prominent areas of concern, which will generate a more dramatic or marked improvement. 

Although many manufacturers have implemented overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) over the last few decades, not every facility has embraced it effectively. Often facilities either knowingly or unknowingly neglect or overemphasize one of the three essential components of OEE. Manufacturers apply OEE inconsistently, include too much, or exclude unpleasant data. When used correctly, OEE is an excellent resource for driving continuous improvement in manufacturing facilities. Facilities that are struggling to meet goals or seeking to move up a few extra percentage points can gain the edge they need by returning to basics and evaluating processes honestly.

In the food industry, what you measure tells a story about what you value. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. This sends a strong message from the top that food safety is a priority for the organization. Establishing and communicating objectives and KPIs related to food safety can influence a facility’s food safety culture. But how do you know if your KPIs are driving the right behaviors? And are there better KPIs you could be setting?