What do you do if you want to revolutionize the Manufacturing Operations industry?

At this moment of manufacturing in the U.S., we need to go back to the basics of Standard work and documented procedures. In today's time, employee turnover is common and there is always a learning phase for the new hire. Standard Work will reduce that learning curve and make the new employee productive quicker.

Revolutionizing the manufacturing operations industry demands a multi-faceted strategy. Begin by pinpointing existing pain points and opportunities for improvement, leveraging advanced technologies like AI, IoT, and robotics. Embrace Industry 4.0 principles to create interconnected, agile systems. Foster collaboration across departments and prioritize sustainability and resilience. Invest in talent development and continuously seek feedback to iterate and improve operations. Lead by example, championing innovation and inspiring a culture of creativity and adaptability. Through this approach, you can drive meaningful transformation and position yourself at the forefront of revolutionizing manufacturing operations.

When rolling out AI deployments, you need to start with quick wins to get the org to support the change. After a few quick wins, the attention span will increase to support longer timelines with bigger ROI.

Revolutionizing the manufacturing operation industry involves a combination of innovation, technology adoption, process optimization, and a deep understanding of the industry's pain points and opportunities. Here's a high-level roadmap/KeyPoint : Research and Analysis: Analysis of manufacturing operations, including challenges, inefficiencies, and emerging trends. identify the pain point and area of improvement. Invest in new technology such as artificial intelligence , robotics, automation. optimize resource allocation, minimize environmental impact and reduce waste. Implement energy-efficient technologies, Continuous Improvement, adopt new technology ,Focus on customer needs ,adopt new technologies.monitor industry trends.

Embracing Tech is definitely an important aspect, but in developing economies, it's equally crucial to consider the ethical aspects of automation, or may I say "over-automation". The goal is to keep the costs optimal and sustain a market for consumption of whatever product you're making. While its quite easy to get overwhelmed by persistent flashing of new tech, automation for the sake of automation often leads to inflated costs in the long run, especially in developing markets where labor is still very cheap and abundant. In one of my previous jobs, I was told to work on a downstream automation project. It turned out that we wouldn't have been able to recoup the depreciation expense, even if we had removed entire workforce on that line!

There is an extreme saying, "Even the turning of the screw is waste. The only value add is when screw touches the surface". This is the extend how the Japanese define was is value added versus non-value added work (waste). Hence train the workforce to be part of the lean journey. With every reduction of non value added work, comes an opportunity to reduce the headcount for the specific production line. This additional headcount can then be relocated to other production lines and teach lean to others.

Lean principles often drive the easiest (and best) results when changing a manufacturing process. It is easy to locate issues, it is not as easy to fix those issues, or eliminate waste from those issues. Try working backwards, with a solution for a problem first that then can be moved to all parts of the facility.

A key shift is looking at the extended value chain vs a microcosm. Inventory is a great example where adding additional safety stock at key points will make the overall process run smoother. Broad perspectives and collaboration are key to making true impact to the business.

Caterpillar does a fantastic job of this through their Reman divison. It’s routine that components get third and sometimes fourth life cycles because they have made great strides in building robust core components.

Prioritizing sustainability is a necessity at this stage and every moves we make professionally automatically draws our attention to contribute to sustainable approach. In that case, green manufacturing will be a necessary measure in a short run

How about something different What if one would put its entire Materials and Bill-of-Materials Database publicly available. What if you would then allow any customer to build/design its own product, where you would coach/train them about your factories' process capabilities, and train about the product characteristics and choices made. Not only would the customer own its product-design, it would also understand how it is made, and thereby understand the process and energy choices (carbon footprint) and the impact that it has on materials and energy consumption (and thereby cost-choices). Combine that with the Green-Lean-Tech-Machine inner processes (love that). Now that would be a radically transparent "ACME". I want to be the CEO of that!