Operational Excellence in Manufacturing

There are many benefits to reshoring, including:

Reduced transportation costs: When manufacturing is done domestically, the costs and time associated with transporting goods internationally are significantly reduced. For example, car manufacturers like Tesla benefit from reshoring by producing cars closer to their main market, reducing logistics costs and time.

Quality control: Reshoring allows closer oversight and higher control over production processes, ensuring a consistently high-quality product. Apple, for example, has brought some of its manufacturing back locally to tightly control the quality of its products.

Speed to market: Domestic manufacturing can significantly reduce the lead time from production to market, allowing quicker responses to market changes. When faced with sudden demand for ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies were able to pivot and produce them domestically, demonstrating the agility of re-shored manufacturing.

Local job creation: Reshoring can stimulate local economies by creating jobs.  

Expect this trend to continue as companies look to become more resilient and less vulnerable to global crises that impact their supply chain.

Manufacturing disruption is every manufacturer’s worst nightmare. You can work to avoid it by analysing risk and managing supply chains.

Less wasted time: Identifying and addressing disruption leads to less wasted time. This will enable you to know where to focus your efforts and when to admit that a particular element is beyond your influence.

Added flexibility: When uncontrollable production disruption does happen – beyond your business continuity plans – you need to be prepared. We prepare our clients to quickly, efficiently and effectively clear up their other shop floor issues, giving them the flexibility to problem-solve when something unexpected happens.

Improved resilience: We help our clients identify the key points of failure and supply disruptors to allow them to eliminate inefficiencies, get the most out of those hard-to-find materials or re-design their products for greater flexibility.

Operational goals

Operational goals focus on enhancing company productivity and improving product or service quality. Examples include stepping up safety measures and enhancing product or service flexibility. Lean, Toyota Production System, 5S and Six Sigma are all strategies that can help you achieve these goals and drive operational excellence.

People-oriented goals

People-oriented goals concentrate on workforce-related and cultural efforts that play a critical role in meeting (and exceeding) organisational operational excellence targets. Examples include growing employee engagement in operational excellence efforts, increasing skill training and maximising employee productivity.

In the dynamic landscape of digitisation and the Internet of Things (IoT), data management and monitoring are justifiably important. An IoT monitoring dashboard simplifies the visualisation of large volumes of data but also makes the process more efficient and informative.

An Internet of Things dashboard is the command centre for your connected devices, as it provides a visual representation of data and facilitates control. Such a dashboard helps manufacturers understand their operations as they happen, troubleshoot issues in real time and gain insight into areas for further improvement.

It’s important to realise that such a dashboard doesn’t work in isolation. For it to work you need to define targets, KPIs and objectives to focus the collection of data and the amount of information to be fed back.

Improved product quality: Automated processes and quality control measures powered by AI can lead to significantly improved product quality. Machines are less prone to error than human operators, and consistent performance ensures uniformity in products. Additionally, machine learning can predict and detect defects or faults before they become critical.

Increased efficiency: By leveraging automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, smart factories can optimise production lines. They can reduce downtime, minimise waste and enhance operational efficiency. Real-time data analysis helps identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies that can be addressed quickly.

Sustainability: Smart factories can also contribute to sustainability goals. Automation and AI optimisation can lead to more efficient use of energy and resources, reducing a factory’s environmental impact. Also, predictive maintenance means machinery can be kept at peak efficiency, further saving energy.

Predictive maintenance uses data analysis tools and techniques to predict possible defects in equipment and processes so that you can fix them before they result in failure.

Predictive maintenance can result in a 40% reduction in maintenance costs, a 70% decrease in downtime, and a 25-30% increase in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

Digital twin manufacturing is a concept that uses a digital replica or “twin” of a physical manufacturing process or system. This digital model mimics the behaviour and performance of its physical counterpart in real time, providing valuable insights and enabling better decisionmaking.