Real-Time Manufacturing Challenges
With 28 years in business, more than 650 successful implementations and a strong focus on SMBs Manufacturers, we’ve heard about manufacturing challenges, and we have implemented different solutions over time.
These are the Top 12 questions (in no particular order) that we’ve seen advance technology solutions in different sizes of Shop floors.
- I never know at which stage of production each part is and when they are going to be finished. How can I schedule and follow our daily production in the most effective way?
- We must perform setups on the machines when switching from one product category to another. How can we optimize production planning to help reducing setup times?
- We need the system to check if we have all the materials in stock before allowing the start of the production, and reschedule the planned dates for production if there is any delay from the providers. How can we do it in a fast way, without requiring someone to manually check this information?
- We have a problem with defects that are only found at the product’s final test and we want to be able to detect them earlier. How could technology help us?
- We use molds to produce plastic injected parts and our greatest problem is to manage production considering injection machines and molds. We have 2 injection machines and 3 molds; if mold is in use in one machine, it cannot be planned for the other machine at the same time. The molds have a direct impact on production times as the number of cavities for each mode is distinct. Can technology help us better manage these variables?
- Our machines have PLC interfaces, and we must speed up the process of registering production data on the system. How can we capture information from the PLC interfaces and register the times automatically?
- We have a problem knowing our real production costs for each one of our Work Orders. How can we register all production activities (Materials, Labor, Machine Time, etc.) and have these actual costs collected for each production work order?
- We must perform quality assurance checks before producing the items to verify the parameters of the product (BOM and Routing) and its attributes (like temperature). How can we prevent the production from proceeding if these quality assurance checks are not performed or if there is any wrong parameter?
- Every time we sell a product to a customer, an engineer must list the components that will be included based upon the customer preferences. However, we want the salesperson (or the customer) could configure the products and the system could calculate prices automatically. Is this possible?
- Our products’ BOMs are created in a separate software (like a CAD system or a formula calculator, in the case of chemicals, foods or medicines). Can these types of software integrate seamlessly with the latest manufacturing technologies?
- We want to be transparent with our customers about when their products will be finished. How could we calculate this?
- We constantly need to change our production priorities according to the customers’ needs. This is a big problem for us. How can technology help us?
Do you have a specific manufacturing question that was not included on the list? Send your question to us →info@consensusintl.com!
If you can’t attend the Seminar, stay tuned for our next webinar series on Real Time Manufacturing!
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