Using Data to Enhance Raw Material and Inventory Planning

One of the top challenges manufacturers face is having full visibility into what is happening across their business and the ability to make critical decisions in real-time proactively. This is difficult since many facilities predominantly have manual data collection and analysis or have multiple solutions in place for various departments, leading to silos of data and often outdated view of operations. Even manufacturing facilities with digital solutions often do not have an integrated and consolidated view of their entire production line. The result is highly fragmented information typically not shared with the right person at the right time - creating inefficiencies and production bottlenecks. 

Proper planning is a critical element of successful manufacturing. However, the limitations described above on data access and visibility make raw material and inventory planning a significant challenge for many manufacturers. The following details the importance of the planning role and how Matic's manufacturing analytics enables planners to integrate and optimize planning across the entire supply chain.

Why Raw Material and Inventory Planning Are Crucial to Success  

Regardless of the size of your business, a robust materials and inventory planning system is key to the health of your bottom line and the long-term success of your company. Regarding planning, manufacturers aim to strategically and cost-effectively manage the types and quantities of materials they procure to ensure that current and forecasted demands are met. A nimble planning system can better absorb and respond to sudden changes in market conditions and demand changes without sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction. Proper planning delivers many, benefits including: 

• Optimize Inventory:  inventory is often one of the most valuable assets within a company and balancing between the risks of surplus or insufficient inventories is a challenge, especially for complex supply chains. Overstocks and shortages of inventory both have negative effects financially as well as on your brand reputation.  Inefficiencies in inventory management lead to waste and extra cost; thus, it is critical for companies to have accurate and timely data regarding materials and inventory. Robust planning results in optimized inventory levels, reducing the costs associated with surplus inventory, including warehousing expenses.  When planners can depend on the output from their planning tools, “safety stocks” can be minimized, further reducing inventory to the level that is truly necessary for the business to operate optimally. Precise tracking of inventory also helps when determining strategic pricing structures.  
• Productivity Gains: in a competitive market, even a small increase in productivity can offer a big advantage to your company. When production is properly planned, operations run more smoothly. Planners are able to optimize equipment utilization and personnel schedules to achieve the highest level of productivity. When production is running smoothly, there is less opportunity for error or product that does not meet specifications. Fewer bottlenecks and downtimes result in higher product overall quality rates.
• Enable Just in Time (JIT) Manufacturing: Just-In-Time production is a lean manufacturing approach that focuses on sourcing raw materials just in time for production use according to a manufacturing schedule. The key to JIT manufacturing is to have the right materials and products at the right quantity where and when they are needed during the production process – in order to produce only the volume that is required at the right time. The JIT approach reduces the level of inbound inventory required as well as the duration that materials and products are stored before being incorporated into the final product – leading to less inventory sitting on shelves and not adding value, translating to more organized and efficient manufacturing and lower overall costs. JIT manufacturing is also able to more easily adjust to changes in market conditions and customer demand. A JIT approach is nearly impossible to achieve with traditional, manual planning methods, thus, companies benefit significantly when they embrace Industry 4.0 and implement digital planning solutions, such as Matics manufacturing analytics.
• More On-Time Deliveries: robust planning is able to schedule each step of the supply chain to ensure the product arrives to the customer on or before the desired delivery date. Proper planning also enables the most cost-effective transport solution for the goods, resulting in lower costs and eliminating the need for costly expedited deliveries.
• Higher Customer Satisfaction: customers that consistently receive on-time deliveries of high-quality products make for more satisfied customers.  As is true for most sectors, happy customers are repeat customers.

Matics Manufacturing Analytics for Planners

In order to provide relevant and useful output, planning tools require timely and accurate data input. Unfortunately, this is often not the case in many manufacturing facilities. This results in planning output that cannot be fully trusted, leading planners to put buffers in place such as holding more inventory than necessary as a form of protection. 

This is not efficient and can be solved if planners use more reliable and dependable technologies like Matics manufacturing analytics.

Matics manufacturing analytics offers planners some excellent tools to perform their job more efficiently. Our lean manufacturing technologies enable facilities to optimize integrated planning and scheduling for real-time data analysis, proactive decision making – leading to a higher Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). An OEE score reveals your plant’s true productivity by measuring how long your machines are running, how much product you are making, and how many of those products meet established quality standards.  

With our technologies, planners receive real-time alerts and notifications on performance discrepancies as they happen. You can track production plan progress, proactively respond to operational slowdowns or disruptions, and adjust your plan when necessary.

Matics solutions are versatile and can be used for material planning to enhance procurement, storage, and preparedness. Below are 3 key benefits planners realize with Matics manufacturing analytics:     

• Reallocate your time for better scheduling: our tools do the work for you so valuable time is freed up that would otherwise have been spent on acquiring, cleaning, and preparing data prior to data analysis. You can now use this time to optimize your multi-site or single site schedules.
• Reduce material and energy consumption: Matics manufacturing analytics enable manufacturers to create a holistic enterprise integration of energy efficiency. Minimize waste via dynamic fulfillment. Decrease energy usage through planned staggering of resources, and identify exact machines or parts to retrofit or upgrade to save energy.
• Plan the entire process from material to finished goods: have all the tools you need to keep accurate tabs on your resources and capacity and know how much you can produce at any given time – across the entire supply chain. Our tools enable planners to simplify complex job orders, batch production, and sequences.

About Matics Manufacturing Analytics

Matics is a Real-Time Operational Intelligence solution that was designed to enable rapid Industry 4.0 best practice adoption via a user-friendly non-disruptive digitalization platform. Matics manufacturing analytics instantly improve visibility and shop-floor management, reducing response time to critical events, and increasing OEE and profitability.

Matics manufacturing analytics solution continually aggregates data in real-time, transforming it into knowledge manufacturers can use to optimize key metrics on their shop floor. Matics provides manufacturers with powerful work management tools that deliver notifications when attention is needed and enable remote tasks management, process automation, and more. 

Over 80% of manufacturers do not have real-time solutions on their shop-floor. Below are a few leading manufacturers who choose to digitize their facilities with Matics manufacturing analytics solutions:

Ready to upgrade your shop floor to Industry 4.0? Visit our website to learn more about Matic's solutions or to book a demo.