If you wonder if the digital factory trend is a good fit for your manufacturing business, you're not alone. Many manufactures have been honing their processes for decades and have survived many economic storms; they should examine change carefully.
But labor shortages, cost reductions, and competition continue to put pressure on manufacturers to increase throughput and efficiency. This is where implementing digital factory concepts can help, specifically Machine Tracking. Real-time data from your machines provide insight about unexpected downtime and how to reduce, if not eliminate it.
Before you even consider going digital there are some key characteristic of your work place you need to consider. We touch on this in Choosing The Best Industrial IoT Solution but break them out specifically below.
4 Characteristics Of The Ideal Manufacturer For Machine Tracking?
The President/Owner knows the names of the employees (and probably the name of at least one family member)
There is a passion for efficiency
Communication flows freely across all levels
People are encouraged to share their improvement ideas
4 More Not So Obvious Characteristics
The lunch room is clean, bright, and people eat together
They celebrate together and often
Continued investment in their people and tools
Shared sense of purpose in what they are making
If this describes your production facility, then great job! You are ready to make the adjustment to real-time data driven decisions that will significantly improve production output.
Maybe your shop doesn't have all 4 characteristics, that's okay. During our 2 month trial our team will work with yours to build a strong, more productive, team-oriented culture.