Regain shop floor control with visibility across operations

Eliminate bottlenecks and optimize productivity

Access to real-time data from the shop floor is fundamental to better planning and decision making for manufacturers. With a single version of the truth and two-way informational communication flow between shop floor operators and managers/supervisors, everyone's empowered to make better decisions that can propel your factory to higher efficiency and increased productivity.

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According to Forrester Research, the biggest challenge for operations, supply chain and distribution decision makers is visibility into inventory, raw materials and WIP goods (31%). Compared with 20% stating difficulties sourcing supply chain material, the biggest need is to improve accessibility and control of internal data first to drive important changes faster. 

Armed with advanced digital capabilities of an ERP like Microsoft Dynamics 365, you gain total visibility into performance and operations data from supply chain and inventory management down to tracking parts and operator productivity on the shop floor. With visibility across shop floor operations, you can take actionable decisions on things within your control and be better prepared for things outside your control.

The data and insights from the shop floor control system can be gathered and accessed through dedicated workstation terminals or from any digital device. The information collected by the system can also be relayed to all concerned departments and team members involved in the project. Specifics like: 

• How many parts were produced in what time and in what quality?
• Why and for how long did it come to a standstill?
• How many personnel were registered for how long on the order/work process?
• How long did the setup take?
• When was the process started, interrupted, or finished?
• Are there deviations from the specifications in absolute and percentage values?

This type of visibility enables you to exploit that data into actionable decisions on things within your control to optimize processes, reduce waste, and increase productivity.

Shop floor control is a two-way street

Improving your company’s shop floor processes and communication will also boost efficiency and most probably cut a chunk off your usual lead times.

As production cycles and equipment start running smoothly and more efficiently, organizations instantly experience a decline in wastage and overhead — and, consequently, an uptick in profitability. That’s made possible thanks to tools, systems, and processes that support predictive data and analysis of the manufacturing shop floor.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is a proven solution for large manufacturing organizations to unify and streamline data across the entire supply chain, down to the shop floor. 

The importance of collecting real-time data from human and digital sources is vital to get an accurate picture of production operations:

• Production information like item quantity, product specs, time constraints, in-depth product reference information, data from bill of materials, routing information.
• Accurate reporting on progress against production orders: amounts, time spent, issue resolution.
• Access to real-time data avoids stoppages to search for additional reference information.
• Visibility into equipment performance data and connected devices (IoT) increase efficiency and decrease downtime.

Data gathered and reported on regarding labor, work progress and production time can also increase worker productivity, reducing throughput and cycle times. Giving operators access to their own work process empowers them to set, meet and exceed their targets and goals.

Discover more ways to regain shop floor control with Microsoft Dynamics 365 in our new eBook.