7 Ways to Improve Manufacturing Efficiency during Coronavirus
It’s official – coronavirus is here, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Countries all over the world are asking their citizens to make drastic changes to their daily lives in order to fight the spread of the disease. With such a massive shift in behavior naturally comes a shift in manufacturing needs.
Luckily, you don’t have to go into this alone: manufacturing shop floor control software is here to help. The seven things listed below are just some of the advantages it can bring to you. With this tool on your side, you’ll have no trouble keeping up with the demands of these tumultuous times.
Top 7 Ways to Improve Manufacturing Efficiency
1. Create Total Visibility
Coronavirus is a global pandemic, so it’s important to look at the big picture of how it might be affecting your operations. However, it is not affecting all areas equally, so you need to examine what is happening in smaller local sites as well. Manufacturing software can deliver information on your real-time production efficiency and other key metrics at all times, and in as many or as few of your facilities as you need, no matter where they are. This detailed data allows you to maintain control over your operations from any distance, and it can be accessed through a convenient cloud-linked app.
2. Maximize Production
If you are manufacturing a product that is truly in demand right now, you need every little boost to your production capacity that you can get. Shop floor software has advanced production efficiency tracking capabilities that allow you to make sure every machine is running at full capacity. It can also let you know when you are about to run out of vital supplies, allowing you to restock before you have to interrupt your production lines. You can even track how many employees you still have to work with at a time when many may unexpectedly call in sick or have to isolate themselves at home. You’ll have all the information you need to keep your output high and your buyers happy.
3. Minimize Costs
Responding appropriately to crises like this takes money, so now is the time to save as much of it as possible. Detailed manufacturing analytics like the ones that shop floor software offers can draw attention to areas where expenses could be cut down. By taking the advice it offers and optimizing your factory’s operations, you could save on:
● Energy
● Waste
● Labor costs
● Sick pay, vacation time, and other ancillary employee benefits
4. Perform Second-by-Second Data Analysis
Conditions change fast during a crisis – what makes sense to do today may not even be possible tomorrow. Real-time manufacturing analytics and associated insights allow you to be as agile as this high level of uncertainty demands. When demand suddenly increases, you will know and will be able to ramp up production immediately in response. If it falls again in a matter of hours, you will be able to cancel those changes just as easily. You will also be able to give your buyers extremely accurate delivery estimates that they will no doubt thank you for as they try to keep their customers supplied with all of the things they need.
5. Maintain High Product Quality
Rushing to keep up with a sweeping market shift like what coronavirus has prompted sometimes leads quality standards to slip. However, you still owe your buyers the same high-quality product that they have come to expect from you. Manufacturing efficiency software allows you to review incoming quality control data, determine which lines or machines are to blame for the spike in errors, and correct the problems that led to that outcome. It’s a simple way to ensure that your products and reputation for quality do not suffer as a result of this pandemic.
6. Maintain Easy and Rapid Communication
Social distancing policies are currently keeping us all as far away from one another as we can get, but that doesn’t mean teamwork is any less important to the success of your facilities. Everyone on your staff has a role to play and needs a way to stay in contact with their coworkers. With manufacturing software, you can give them a way to keep in touch with each other instantly and stay on top of vital happenings like production halt alerts and technician visits. You can also use it to grant them access to supplemental materials like training modules and technical manuals so that they can refresh their knowledge as needed on their own and from any place.
7. Empower Your Workers
In times of extreme stress, it’s important to keep morale high among your workers. Using software in your manufacturing facilities makes it easy for everyone to stay informed about what’s going on at work. Workers can check up on their own productivity, track their progress toward goals, and survey how overall progress is going as well. Even better, they can input the relevant data remotely and keep a safe distance between themselves and their colleagues. Everyone can focus on their work without worrying about their own safety or that of others, and that can go a long way toward making them feel in control again.
Changing the way people work in factories
Request a DemoDon’t Let Coronavirus Drag Your Factory Down
There’s no telling how long manufacturers will have to operate under the pressure and constraints that coronavirus has caused. The best thing you can do right now is adapt to these changes using tools that will still be extremely useful later on when the status quo is restored. Matics’ software solution can help you with all of the above functions and more, and will continue to do so once coronavirus has run its course. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you implement it in as little as a single day.