Here's how you can develop an innovative solution for plant operations.

Although I agree with all the input added here I humbly submit there’s one crucial element missing . I believe the input of the technicians on the floor is crucial. I believe this resource is the best for any improvement but unfortunately often overlooked, dismissed or disregarded.

"Involve all team members and encourage them to share their opinions. This way, you will receive more ideas to improve the current process."

In my experience in plant operations, assessing needs is crucial for driving innovation and efficiency. We start by diving deep into our processes, working closely with frontline workers who bring invaluable insights. Root cause analysis helps us understand where we can improve, especially with vital innovations like automation, IoT-based tracking, and management information systems. Collaboration across departments ensures we address challenges comprehensively, whether it's optimizing inventory management or streamlining e-procurement. Innovation isn't just a buzzword—it's what keeps us competitive and responsive to evolving demands.

First understand your needs and clearly identify and prioritise the areas of need GEMBA Walks can help understand the big picture, before you look to implement any solution In my experience in a lot of cases, problems up stream contribute a lot to the issues down stream So don’t implement sticking plaster’s solutions Understand problems from source, if you can undertake POC and simulation, so any solutions identified can provide confidence they are totally fit for purpose

I agree with the previous comment. But would add - Choose to innovate for the purpose of innovation. Looking to cut costs or to avoid loss in sales is an empty reason for innovation. Innovation means you expect failures as you learn. If you don’t have failures, it is not innovation. If the business is just looking to cut costs or avoid sales losses, it harder to accept failures and innovation becomes a cost/ benefit analysis.

Indeed, integrating technology like MES, ERP, automation, and robotics can revolutionize plant operations. They act as accelerators, propelling efficiency and accuracy to new heights. By harnessing these tools, you not only optimize processes but also gain invaluable insights for continuous improvement. Keeping an eye on emerging technologies ensures your plant remains at the forefront of innovation.

I have learn during my years of experience in the industry that ERP software is one of the most important tools you should have for follow up and analysis, aside of knowing the actual status of the operation, with the information collected in this tool you are able to find the root cause of many operation problems, so then you will be in the possibility to take actions and use your creativity to stabilize or improve your processes.

You should be abreast of the latest developments in your field and apply it to as many processes as possible in the plant operations. Lay more emphasis on the research and development activities to develop new products and encourage innovation and innovative methods to improve the efficiency, yield, productivity etc. in the plant and minimise waste and idle time between processes. Also, try to use more and more industrial engineering principles/concepts and bring into practice to make processes better and efficient.

While the focus on data acquisition is critical, I find that the contextualization of the data, transforming it into intelligence is where the real magic happens. When a person without almost no organizational experience can make the absolutely correct, optimal decision, relative to data, you can know that you have a well designed system. Don't stop until you achieve that state.

I agree that culture of innovation starts at the top, but often is stagnated or withheld at the sake of "forecasted" production targets. Ensure that the team has real time and space to experiment and try new solutions. The culture is also not a one-time event of occurrence. Culture requires a present focus and display frequently for it to yield tangible results.

Absolutely, cultivating a culture of innovation is fundamental for sustained progress. It's about nurturing a mindset where creativity flourishes and taking risks is part of the process. By fostering an environment where every voice is valued and experimentation is encouraged, you empower your team to push boundaries and explore new possibilities. Leading by example, demonstrating openness to new ideas, and providing support for experimentation are crucial elements in fostering such a culture.

One important thing that I have observed as operations manager is that supervisors and area chiefs normally don′t promote the innovation culture in operators to improve their processes, sadly it happens only when there is a quality alert or a customer complaint. In my opinion it is due to different factors, one of the most important is that supervisors have unbalanced workloads and only have time to keep their process running and I say it is one of the most important because supervisors are the link between shop floor and administration. To foster the innovation culture we should analyze this situation in our companies. Innovation is not only good wishes from top management.

Foster the culture of critical thinking and using innovative methods at all levels in the plant operations. Also, stress the importance by conducting regular brainstorming sessions across all levels in the plant. Also, give more importance to training and practical hands-on-experience type of activities to improve the overall processes in the plant.

In my opinion, fostering a culture of innovation is one of the most important and impactful qualities of a successful operations team. Advocating for innovation within the group not only encourages individuals to think ‘outside the box’, it keeps the group engaged in ways to improve operations as a whole. I feel group participation is too often overlooked, and can often keep a group motivated while boosting morale amongst the team.

When ideas are still just ideas, you're still not ready to embrace a pilot. A pilot project needs: A plan - How are you expecting to introduce it? Resources - You need to understand how much resources you'll be allocating to the pilot project. Definition of Success - What makes the pilot a success or an unsuccess (optimization is always a good indicator). Definition of MVP - What are the "must-have" features/characteristics that define the minimum viable product? These features should be the absolute minimum to test if there is success. Roll-out plan: If everything goes well with the pilot, how will it be implemented in the rest of the operations?

Once you have made headway in some process or manufacturing methodology by your innovative thinking, testing the idea is very critical at the pilot scale level to optimise the process before rolling it to the entire plant to avoid any unforeseen problems. Also, you can work on scaling up the process from the pilot scale to the actual production level to keep it equally efficient in spite of the scaling factor involved and optimise all the parameters needed for the plant operations.

Exactly, pilot projects serve as testing grounds for innovative solutions, allowing for controlled experimentation and refinement before full-scale implementation. They provide invaluable insights into feasibility, performance, and potential challenges. By starting small, you mitigate risks and have the opportunity to fine-tune the solution based on real-world feedback. This iterative approach not only validates the innovation but also builds confidence for broader implementation across the plant.

A typical misconception is that it requires the management teams and dedicated space to analyze results. In your plant, there should be robust daily tracking to capture trends and concerns in real-time day to day. If this is done correct, the analysis and root-cause analysis is readily present and represents the voice of the front-line team.

Yes it is very critical to analyse the results from pilot projects as it is essential for refining and validating innovative solutions. By delving into the data collected, you gain valuable insights into the effectiveness and implications of the changes made. Assessing metrics such as efficiency, waste reduction, worker satisfaction, and safety helps in understanding the holistic impact. This analysis guides decision-making, enabling you to fine-tune the solution for optimal results. It ensures that innovations are not just conceptual but have tangible, measurable benefits for plant operations.

A common mistake is to try to Analyze Results that weren't collected or defined properly beforehand. When setting up a Pilot, you need to know exactly what you're tracking in terms of data and follow through to collect the important data points while making your pilot, not after. Data analyzed after the pilot is finished that wasn't meant to measure its efficiency isn't actionable. Understand, before you make the pilot happen, what data you need to collect, its purpose, and how you want to use it in the future. Try to use Ordinal data instead of Binary data when you can (1-10 instead of Yes/No) so you have better data to make correlations. Above all, have fun! Analyzing results is a fun journey and when done properly, it's very rewarding!

I have already covered this in the earlier section on the pilot scale testing to some extent. One can make the scaling process better by using innovative technologies, methods and implementing innovative thinking for all the staff. Scaling up requires good hands-on knowledge and understanding of the various engineering principles related to the plant operations.

Scaling up from a pilot may be harder than you think. When you're experimenting you have the mindset of discovery and are given some "freedom" to test, iterate, and learn. When scaling up from a pilot, it's crucial to focus on the long term and the system as a whole instead of the pilot individually. Some questions you need to consider when scaling up: If this needs to scale up again, how easy will it be? What is the impact of scaling up on staff needs? What other processes will be impacted by this scaling up? What are the most obvious bottlenecks as it grows? What are the less obvious bottlenecks that can have a great impact? How dependent will I be on a specific supplier by scaling up? What are the metrics I will look at now?

While I consistently hear the buzz words “pilot purgatory”, my eyes roll every time I hear it. I say that as a person that executed many pilots, one of which turned a $0 market share into a globally extended billion dollar business within a business. The purpose of pilots is to fail, but a successfully run organization will celebrate the failure of pushing the envelope and take what works really well, fix what you can and get rid of the failure modes and make something truly brilliant out of the pilot. So many managers fear and punish failure, such that people will not go down that path a second time, and that is the real purgatory…….an anemic, fearful, organization that lacks confidence. Celebrate failure, Benjamin Franklin did!