Have you ever wondered why your factory is not operating at its full potential despite your seemingly having enough resources, equipment, and personnel? If so, you might be facing a problem known as the hidden factory: the gap between your factory’s actual performance and its potential performance. This gap, caused by various inefficiencies, waste, and non-value-adding activities that are hidden from plain sight, can be difficult to not only identify but subsequently bridge. Fortunately, utilizing an MES Platform like TrakSYS™ can help. Unlocking your factory’s true capacity means unlocking significant improvements in productivity, quality, and profitability. Here are just three of the ways TrakSYS makes that possible.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
Achieving peak capacity first requires manufacturers to have a thorough understanding of their factory’s value stream—the end-to-end process that transforms raw materials into finished products. With its ability to seamlessly integrate with an array of shopfloor infrastructure, TrakSYS provides users with a real-time picture of their enterprise—from receiving, through production, to warehousing and distribution—enabling them to undergo comprehensive value stream mapping. Once done, mapping helps identify non-value-additive processes that create waste and bottlenecks. Armed with these pertinent, actionable insights, business leaders can focus their efforts on creating effective solutions that will punctuate their continuous improvement initiatives, reduce lead times, increase throughput, establish repeatable performance, and improve quality.
Implement Lean Manufacturing Principles
Further aiding in the reduction of waste (in all its forms) is TrakSYS Lean Management capabilities. With tools like just-in-time (JIT) production, Kanban, and 5S workplace organization, it becomes possible to create a culture of efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness.
Use Data Analytics and Digital Technologies
TrakSYS enables data-based decision-making. From monitoring inventory levels to enable practices like first-in-first-out and last-in-first-out (FIFO/LIFO), to optimizing production schedules to account for things like customer demand and order commit dates, TrakSYS gives you the tools you need to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible.
With detailed information pertaining to asset performance (both historically and in real-time), up-time, actual vs. planned use, and spare part inventory levels, leaders gain the ability to adopt preventative and predictive maintenance practices which decrease downtime and help increase on-time and in-full percentages.
The Road Ahead
Unlocking your factory’s hidden capacity requires a holistic approach that addresses the root causes of inefficiencies, waste, and non-value-adding activities. By conducting a value stream mapping analysis, implementing lean manufacturing principles, and utilizing pertinent, real-time data and analytics, manufacturers can reveal and solve the hidden factory problem and achieve sustainable improvements. When it comes to revealing and leveraging your true capacity so you can operate as effectively as possible, TrakSYS has you covered.
Contact us today to get started.