No business comes without challenges. However, there are some industry sectors that have complex processes and therefore face various internal and external challenges. For instance, discrete manufacturers continuously face production bottlenecks. They keep looking for effective solutions to reduce overhead costs and improved productivity at their manufacturing plants.
Sacrificing the product quality may help decrease the production cost, but eventually, it will result in dissatisfied customers who will stop buying from them. So, why not modernize and automate your manufacturing processes and streamline production workflows. It will help you control and minimize the possibilities of production bottlenecks.
Get the ease of production management in your control.
ERP production management system plays a significant role in improving your business agility by making your production plants more efficient. If you are in a manufacturing business, you have a pretty good idea of how production bottlenecks result in time, money, and resource waste. It’s something none of the manufacturers or any business owner can afford.
Well, production line issues are quite common, but their early identification could help tackle them timely to avoid production gaps and inefficiencies.
Let’s see how to make it happen.
Systematize your production processes with reorganized resources:
Mismanagement of production workflows is the biggest of all issues. It results in a consistent rise in WIP (work in process) factor, which is not acceptable at all because it will increase the cost and reduce the profit margin.
The solution lies in production flow automation. Streamline all your manufacturing processes from the shop floor to the assembly line and supply chain with the best ERP software. Plus, improved scheduling of the production processes helps allocate your people and machinery more efficiently and hence timely delivery of customer orders.
Now, as you will have a deeper insight into what’s happening on the production line, you can quickly identify the potential bottlenecks and take necessary measures to handle it before it causes you any loss.
MIE Trak Pro provides a flexible production management module to help manufacturers build accurate schedules using real-time data. It will also aid in the precise reorganization of both tangible and intangible resources you need at the shop floor and assembly line to avoid possibilities of production bottlenecks.
Focus on procedural guidelines related to shopping floor labor and machines:
Lack of resources is another issue that could decrease your production rate. Manufacturing bottlenecks do not only mean you are having problems on the shop floor or assembly line. It can be related to not having enough and competent labor and modern machines. Your machines may need maintenance, but since you are operating the shop floor with insufficient guidelines you are unaware of this thing. Moreover, you might be using an outdated ERP or one that lacks proper integration with the production line.
It means you need to reevaluate and redefine your production process guidelines focusing on labor and machines. Also, you need a fully integrated production management system to manage production jobs and resources. If you don’t have accurate guidelines for production manpower and equipment you will keep facing problems in the form of faulty products and order delays. Put corrective actions in place without missing the big picture – satisfied clients – and by ensuring that every single employee is following the predefined, accurate instructions.
Make sure your machine’s capacity is up to the mark:
It’s not only the timely maintenance of your production equipment but its capacity of meeting the customer demand. If your machine capacity isn’t keeping up with the daily demand, it may need to be replaced. Now, how come you get to know about this issue if your production supervisor doesn’t inform you because he was trying to use it beyond its capacity to increase his team’s production numbers. An ERP system will help you in this regard. The ins and outs of raw materials and components and completed jobs will tell you how your workers and machines are performing.
It seems too appealing to push your machines beyond capacity to meet the production demand or when deadlines start to bite down or you get urgent mid-order changes or increments in the product quantity. For all these reasons, when you use a machine without breaks and try to take it beyond its standard capacity, it will accelerate the wear and tear process – it will increase the possibilities of its absolute failure. It will result in a serious production bottleneck which may not only be associated with only one phase but may halt the entire assembly line.
Last but not least is poor forecasting about required materials, components, and resources you need on a production line and times of high sales orders. This will cause a grave bottleneck before you even get started with the production process. Here, you need flexible production management software like MIE Trak Pro that will help you with predictive analytics for accurate production forecasting and the ability to think long-term for business success. As you can predict the times of high customer demand, you can easily plan for it beforehand.
In a nutshell, you need to pay more attention to your production processes and make sure that each and everything related to it is in perfect shape and order; be it the shop floor and assembly line workers or machines. Don’t let anything disturb your manufacturing plan performance because it can put your production to a halt.
Concluding Thoughts:
You must achieve a harmonious balance of people, processes, and technology to avoid any chance of congestion points along your production line. But, what exactly does it mean? You need to implement an ERP solution that helps you streamline your manufacturing processes and elevate the capacity of your tangible and intangible resources you engage at the shop floor. Choose the right enterprise resource planning software to get rid of production problems and failures.
Want to increase your production efficiency by eliminating the potential bottlenecks? Bring MIE Trak Pro into practice. Schedule a free demo now.