What do you do if your manufacturing solutions are not meeting your business needs?

If current manufacturing process is not meeting the business need then it’s high time to introspect and find the exact root cause. There could be multiple reasons like - Product itself is outdated/ obsolete - Quality is not upto the mark - Efficiency is too low resulting in-competitive - cost of production is too high - Team is not able to perform due to mismanagement - supply chain issues Once exact issue is observed, necessary corrective action needs to be taken using Design thinking technique so that we can meet customer expectations.

If your manufacturing solutions are not meeting your business needs shall do some assessments : *Identify Specific Challenges**: Conduct a thorough assessment to identify the specific challenges or gaps in your current manufacturing solutions. *Gather Feedback**: Gather feedback from key stakeholders, including production managers, operators, engineers.. etc *Prioritize Requirements**: Prioritize your business requirements based on their impact on operations, strategic importance, and feasibility of implementation. *Invest in Training and Support**: Provide training and support to employees. *Continuous Improvement**: Embrace a culture of continuous improvement within your organisation.

This is an extremely open ended question with a very simple answer. Business needs (driven primarily by promoting and protecting shareholder equity) and manufacturing best practices can be harmonized around the concept of flow. When flow is promoted and protected, service is high, inventory is moving and right-sized, cash follows the rate of product to the market, there are less expedite expenses and costs are ultimately under control the in period. Caveat: simply building inventory is not flow! Promoting and protecting flow in most manufacturing scenarios requires a mixture of stock, time and capacity buffering at critical points in the product and routing structures as well as appropriate and flow-centric metrics.

Identify the Issues: Conduct a thorough assessment to pinpoint the specific areas where your manufacturing solutions are falling short. This may involve gathering feedback from stakeholders, analyzing performance data, and conducting root cause analysis to understand the underlying issues. Define Business Needs: Clearly define your business needs and objectives. Consider factors such as production efficiency, product quality, cost-effectiveness, scalability, flexibility, and compliance requirements. Evaluate Current Solutions: Assess your current manufacturing solutions in relation to your business

As operations manager, I faced inefficiencies hindering our manufacturing processes. Identifying gaps in scheduling and quality control, I explored alternative solutions with my team. Through pilot testing and collaboration, we implemented a comprehensive manufacturing software suite. Thorough training ensured smooth adoption. With measured performance and continuous iteration, we achieved significant improvements in efficiency and quality, driving sustained growth. Its important to ensure proactive adaptation and collaboration are crucial for successful manufacturing transformations.

Es importante entender la naturaleza del producto que fabricamos, entender las características de nuestros clientes, el entorno social donde se encuentra la fábrica, esto nos dará las se?ales para abordar los cambios tecnológicos, ambientales y de recursos humanos que necesitamos implementar para desprogramar la planta y volverla a programar basado en lo que el futuro demanda, sin embargo, esto no será posible si Ud. al explorar las opciones no equilibra los costes de la transformación vs los beneficios no solo de rentabilidad interna sino la colaboración que podemos prestar a la sociedad donde estamos prestando el servicio.

Absolutely.No matter what method we use to analyze the reason and identify the gap, there are two results ,one that you can fill up the gap through resources you can use at present,or you can not.then just take action if it can be done,or else the.goal can be adjusted to match,or looking for new resource which can help,like uodated manufacturing equipments,new technologies application and management reform to better performance.

The Toyota Production System emphasizes the importance of continuously improving processes, products, and workflows. This involves all employees at all levels contributing ideas for incremental improvements. Workers are encouraged to be involved in decision-making and problem-solving, fostering a culture of collaboration and engagement. And have Jidoka (Autonomation) which means building quality into the production process by empowering workers to stop the production line if they identify a defect. This prevents defective products from being produced in large quantities.

One thing I have found useful in such scenarios is to always have plan B and C if one fails. We need to agree that the a plan can fail due to 'N' number of reasons and in the real life scenario it's the truth. One should not hesitate to acknowledge the failing plan and conduct modification in the plan or adopt the plan B or C as per the scenario. It's always better to be late than losing as one should not play not to lose, one has to play to win.

Don’t be afraid to outsource. You can always bring your manufacturing back in house when ever you want to. Don’t destroy your budget if you can do it cheaper by outsourcing.

Define Your Objective: Clearly articulate what you want to achieve. Whether it’s building a software application, optimizing a process, or creating a piece of art, having a well-defined objective is crucial. Research and Gather Information: Investigate existing solutions or similar projects. Collect relevant data, resources, and references. Understand any constraints or limitations. Design and Architecture: Create a high-level design or system architecture. Identify components, modules, and their interactions. Consider scalability, maintainability, and performance. Select Tools and Technologies: Choose programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and databases. Evaluate trade-offs based on your project requirements.

Un tiempo atrás me toco como consultor trabajar en una planta que fabrica detergentes de consumo masivo, que estaba en proceso de transformación de sus sistemas de software, lo cambiaron, pero no tomaron en cuenta el cambio tecnológico de las máquinas de fabricación, esto ocasiono cuellos de botella en algunos centros de fabricacion por la falta de automatización de las maquinas. Los resultados fueron malos. Aprendí que toda gestión de control de implementación no va a funcionar si antes no somos capaces de ENTENDER el norte a donde vamos a dirigirnos como empresa. De lo contrario reinará la confusión y ninguna métrica, o método servirá para evaluar y medir. Si esto se hace bien los circuitos de feedback serán un medio óptimo de control.

Have a PMBOK at hand. It will guide you through a lot of this implementations, as it is literally a project management of the implementation of a solution. You can mix some steps with Agile or Six Sigma should you want it, but at the end you are working in a waterfall environment.

If classical Plan-Do-Check-Act action does not help to improve; you can consider "thinking out of the box" i.e. checking/reviewing other manufacturing solutions different than the sector you're working in.

There are many tools, from SMART, 6 SIGMA, PMBOK, Lean Manufacturing, 5's, TOC, benchmarking, among many more methodologies, the important thing is that if you do not have the expertise, you need to invest to look for someone to guide you and complete the project, it’s important to determine what is the most critical problem to conclude.

Employee satisfaction: Proper training boosts confidence, job satisfaction, and a sense of support. A strong start leads to spontaneous innovation aligned with company goals. Higher productivity: Clear expectations empower employees to work efficiently. Enhanced efficiency: Well-trained staff make fewer mistakes, improving overall efficiency. Improved reputation: Satisfied employees spread positive word-of-mouth. Lower turnover: Investing in staff fosters loyalty and a sense of welcome. Consistent terms: Organized training ensures uniform information for all employees. Increased engagement: Knowing their roles fosters good work habits. Encourages future leadership: Early resources build confidence for leadership opportunities

A manufacturing training program is a structured educational program designed to equip employees with the skills and knowledge necessary to be productive and safe in their manufacturing role. The new technologies introduced in manufacturing facilities have created a skill gap that needs to be filled. Every successful employee training program begins with clear and well-defined objectives. Before designing any training initiative, it’s crucial to identify what the company aims to achieve.

Training and education your staff is the most important factors which can give you good results and sustain your processes and will continues improvement

Fostering a positive work culture alongside prioritizing training, education, and strong leadership can lead to significant improvements. By cultivating an environment where employees feel valued and supported, communication channels open, allowing for the identification of specific pain points and inefficiencies. Investing in continuous learning and development empowers employees to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to address these challenges effectively. Moreover, leadership plays a pivotal role in guiding teams through change, encouraging innovation, and fostering collaboration and create a dynamic workplace that maximizes the potential of its workforce to drive innovation, efficiency, and overall business success.

In my experience, many of my problems were solved by explaining the meaning of things, it took me just a few minutes and the benefit lasted forever. Teach first.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Identify relevant KPIs specific to your domain (e.g., sales, customer service, software development). Examples include revenue growth, customer satisfaction scores, or project completion rates. Regular Data Collection: Gather data consistently. Use tools like spreadsheets, databases, or specialized software. Monitor metrics related to productivity, quality, and customer feedback. Dashboard Creation: Build visual dashboards to track KPIs in real time. Use graphs, charts, and tables to display trends and patterns

Once the issues are resolved it should be noted that after implementation the process may deviate again, to avoid such situation, make Control Charts. The control charts will help in checking the process to the new SOP, for this VSM has to be updated.

Basically you have to gather the database as you need. You can monitor your data stream to get this information. Analyze your data and ask for help from analytics experts

Envolve observar seus resultados, identificar áreas de melhoria e fazer ajustes conforme necessário para alcan?ar seus objetivos. é uma prática importante para garantir que você esteja progredindo de forma eficaz em dire??o aos seus objetivos e para tomar medidas corretivas quando necessário.

Do not expect "magical" results right after implementation. Track the performance every day/week/month and compare to a valid baseline, not exactly the "all time highs" as these do not give a proper sense of reality

Review the existing manufacturing capacity and improve the production capacity based on sales budget and new product development

It is inevitable that business objectives will change over time. - Define measurable indicators that warn leaders of a solutions is now longer meeting intended outcomes. - Assess what inputs to the solution have changed and is the system capable of taking those into account. Possibly just a configuration fix but sometimes much more. - Manage technical debt before it becomes overwhelming costly to maintain or limits progress with other solutions in the overall architecture.

I would review and remove the “fix” and go back to the original process. IfI was unable to identify the reason for the failure. Bring in quality tools to identify the root cause.

Do a details study on the current status. Make cross cross-functional teams take up the project and improve the production. Have a regular meeting and review the status every week. Have a good party after the project is completed.

Work like a devil. You have made a huge mistake. Take a step back and analyse the gap between the need and existing mfg solution you have. Try to bridge the gap. If you don't anything out of it, get the help from consultants. If they also not able to help you... Then you are really in deep trouble. Take care.

If your manufacturing solutions are not delivering what you’re looking for, then you are either using the wrong measurements Or not implementing the solution well. The wrong measurements focus your time and attention on things that do not contribute to your bottom line. For example, many manufacturers use equipment, productivity, or efficiency as key indicator leading to excess inventories, lower, cash, & less profitability. I advise manufacturers to measure on time and full OTIF delivery. By improving this, manufacturers have better chances of meeting targets. On the other hand, If a solution is not implemented well, then training and auditing implementation will help improve and deliver targets.

This couldn't be acceptable but learn from competitors.. They might have insights out of the box. Visit expos and have more and more collaboration for manufacturers in the similar line.

Benchmark your solutions against those offered by competitors. Identify areas where you can differentiate yourself and provide a more compelling offering to manufacturers.

If my manufacturing solution is not meeting my business needs, I’ll consider carrying out an analysis along the 6M’s of the Ishikawa diagram - manpower, materials, methods, machines, measurements and Mother Nature (environment). This will most likely highlight where the misalignment is coming from and therefore what actions to take.