Manufacturing Challenges 1# - Plant Wide KPI's

Knowing what is going on in your manufacturing facility at any one time is hard to achieve let alone define what you would like to see. There are many things happening which many people need to know about. The information will directly affect priorities, decisions and actions. The informed company will be more competitive than a company without such insight.

Knowing everything is not a realistic target, but the right people knowing everything about what is within their function is a target that can be achieved, as well as consequences of focused issues will have on the operation as a whole. This affects all staff at all levels – and those that are closer to production can often make best use of operational information.

Companies will probably have SCADA or HMI systems that provide operator feedback, equally they will have reports about past production achievements and failures. The middle level supervisor will frequently be some distance from either of these information sources, but still be required to make informed decisions.

Information, suitably filtered by function, is the key to being both better informed and including all staff and functions. One customer said that such a system allowed ‘real time management’ - with the consequence that every supervisor was empowered and every person in the operation was informed, obviating the need for many ineffective meetings. Today, solutions will involve the use of personal devices such as smartphones and tablets, each accessing information sources and thereby overcoming one’s location being a limitation to being kept informed. A single Plant-Wide Information System is achievable which will benefit all stakeholders.

Would it help if information was available to the right person at the right time regardless of location; minimising delay and ensuring that informed decisions are made by all personnel by having continuous visibility to manufacturing events and data?