10 July 2018

5 Challenges of a Manufacturer Due to Lack of Visibility

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In our previous blog, Visibility: The Key to Success in Project-Based Manufacturing, we discussed how valuable it is to have visibility throughout the project-based-manufacturing phases. In this blog, we will be looking at how discrete manufacturing software improves process visibility. For us to understand what role a software can play to improve visibility across your business, let us look at the challenges that discrete manufacturers face and the corresponding solutions that a software extends:

Challenges
Solution

Lack of company-wide visibility

Businesses using traditional tools for gathering important information for use in their marketing or sales decision-making do not end up with a complete picture of the situation, particularly if they have multiple departments that do not communicate effectively with one another.

An integrated ERP system integrates all sales, marketing, and core disparate business functions into a single system and allows them to communicate with each other. It means that all your departments are running the business using the same information.

Absence of system integration

If there are separate systems used to manage each phase of manufacturing and they are all siloed, businesses cannot gather the insights they need.

System integration ensures seamless data connectivity and reduces errors improving the internal workflow of your organization. For example, integrating ERP and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) provides a clear and comprehensive view of the status of engineering change orders including the corresponding work orders, inventory changes, and supplier communications. This bridges the gap between the stages of product development, delivery, and replaces error-prone manual processes required to consolidate information.

Lack of process visibility

It is critical for a manufacturing business to get a real-time view of the actual path taken by business transactions and business processes.

A software enables you to create a centralized repository for all content and documentation related to ERP implementations and business processes allowing knowledge sharing and transferring. It also lets you create an alignment of your business roles, processes, and technologies with company goals. For example, if you want to set a goal of 100 production orders per week and you connect your business processes to this goal - it tells you what the best way to achieve the same is. Therefore, visibility in the company processes is critical to business performance.

Inefficient maintenance of enterprise assets

Managing physical assets of an organization – its maintenance, spare parts, inventory, and purchasing operations effectively leads to maximizing asset performance and controlling costs.

Visibility into maintenance would not only reduce downtime of the machines but also ensure increased labour productivity and reduced service costs. Visibility into maintenance also allows you to take a proactive approach instead of a reactive approach, which keeps production running at optimal efficiency.

Lack of predictive maintenance capabilities

Real time data is improving asset management practices dramatically. It helps business leaders achieve two goals – improving customer experience as well as to gain deeper insights into operations.

Visibility and predictability into assets’ health and performance monitors, maintains, and optimizes assets for better availability, utilization and performance. Software with predictive maintenance capabilities visualizes issues and enable quick and accurate actions, maximizing outcomes for the organization.

Now is the time to take advantage of business process modeling tools, service-oriented architectures, real-time data to take your business to the next level. We, at To-Increase, have solutions that can optimize your discrete manufacturing business to compete, grow, and create value for customers. Please fill the form below to get in touch with me and know how your business can be impacted with our solutions.

Hundreds of manufacturing companies around the globe rely on To-Increase discrete manufacturing software to manage their production, innovate competitive products and services, and digitally transform their business. In doing so, they build on our knowledge of the manufacturing industry and the pains and opportunities companies face. Know more on To-Increase Discrete Manufacturing Solutions, and understand how you can Optimize discrete manufacturing to compete, grow, and create value for customers.

Talk to our expert to learn more about our solutions

expert
Eric Van Hofwegen
Eric Van Hofwegen,
Eric Van Hofwegen,
Solutions Consultant

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