Manufacturers have faced considerable production difficulties in recent years. As supply chains are disrupted, workforce dynamics change, and consumer demands evolve, manufacturers look for ways to optimize production efforts. Analyzing production data to identify patterns across the prevailing business landscape is one of the best ways to find optimization opportunities within a company. Manufacturers are leveraging data analytics to understand the forces influencing their operations and improve processes.

Therefore, manufacturers have been increasingly investing in new digital solutions that help them gather more data from their business operations. With this, manufacturers can gain insight into how their machines function and adjust for optimum results.

In this post, we explore some of the most common challenges plant leaders face and how you can leverage EviView business intelligence software to streamline data collection and draw more meaningful insights from your operations.

Tracking the performance of plant operations

A plant manager must know and understand the state of his plant’s performance to make better and more timely decisions. Unfortunately, most business leaders need more data they consider valuable. Despite this, they still need to track critical aspects of their operation and monitor performance trends to optimize decision-making as quickly as possible. Companies are also dealing with a shortage of skilled analytical professionals, making it exceedingly difficult for people outside their organization to understand and solve problems within their operations. This has led to a situation where many plant managers need to be more under- and over-managed. They need more information than they can access, but they also don’t want too much information because it can be overwhelming. They often feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle against their organizations, which makes sense considering that most companies lack the necessary tools to analyze operations data.

Manufacturing challenges faced by plant leaders

Manufacturing is a tough business, and plant leaders face several daily challenges. Here are some of the most common:

1. Inefficient processes
   Manufacturing companies are always working to improve their processes. They’re always looking for ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs, so manufacturers have a lot of data to analyze. The problem is that this data is often difficult to understand, which makes it hard for plant managers to know what’s causing problems or where they need to focus their attention.
2. Poor data integrity
   Data integrity is a big issue in manufacturing. The issue is that there are many data sources that may not always be accurate or up-to-date. For example, if you’re using an ERP system to keep track of sales orders and shipments but your shipping department has its own way of recording information about customer shipments, it’s easy for errors to creep into your data.
3. Burdensome validation
   Validation is another big issue in manufacturing. You might have a lot of different applications that are all trying to get data from various sources into one place, but more is needed to ensure accuracy. You also need to ensure that the data you’re getting is accurate by validating it against other production monitoring systems or manually checking for errors.
4. Unplanned deviations
   If you’re trying to automate your operations, it’s important to remember that there will always be unplanned deviations from the norm. The most obvious example is when a worker gets sick or injured, but other circumstances can cause problems. For example, if your equipment breaks down unexpectedly, it could throw off your schedule and create issues with production.
5. Low in-process visibility
   In-process visibility refers to how well you can see what’s happening in each stage of your production process. If you have good visibility into the steps being performed, it can be easier to make changes when issues occur.

   This is especially true if one step relies on another to be completed before it happens, so if something goes wrong in the first stage, then there may not be anything that can be done about it until later (by which time it might already be too late).

6. Delayed release
   Delayed releases are a common problem in manufacturing because they can cause other parts of the process to fall behind, leading to more delays and even worse quality problems. If you’re waiting on materials or other inputs from suppliers that need to meet your deadlines, it will throw off the entire schedule and create issues with production.

Leveraging EviView for your plant operations

EviView’s mission is to empower manufacturing monitoring with smarter, more effective manufacturing production tracking software for KPI tracking and reporting. We understand that the manufacturing industry is full of complex processes and production monitoring systems, making it difficult to get a clear picture of your plant’s performance.

1. Behavioral change via continuous improvement
   e-ConnX makes it easy for operators to put forward CI Ideas as part of the shift handover—when they see their proposal in action, they’re more motivated. Continuous Improvement ideas can be submitted, reviewed, and plotted on the P-I-C-K chart. The more submissions employees make, the higher the chance of time and cost savings for a company.

   CI KPIs, such as average time to respond, review, and implement, are available in the module. Stakeholders can track the status of any actions originating from CI submission to implementation.

1. Monitor issues efficiently with real-time data.
   EviView provides manufacturers with a view of their plants’ operations—a holistic, real-time look at key metrics that helps find bottlenecks, deviations, and downtime quickly. When a plant manager is notified of an issue or deviation, they can identify potential problems and prevent downtime by issuing early warnings to operators.

   It’s easy to monitor performance as it tracks all units minute by minute. Downtime and OEE scores can be seen for individual production lines as well as for the entire plant on a single screen in real-time.

2. Data visualization for easier identification and quick resolution
   EviView Analytics unlocks the power of your data to provide actionable insights that drive business-critical decisions.

   Using Fishbone, Ishikawa, Pareto, Waterfall charts, etc., clearly identifies which factors are the primary contributors to downtime events. When reporting downtime occurrences, operators can easily categorize and distinguish between issues caused by Man (for example, human error), machine, or Material variations, and those caused by Method problems such as a lack of training for new staff.

3. Intelligent work tracking for manufacturing efficiency
   Eliminate inefficient manual work processes by mapping production into quantifiable units of standard work and recording deviations from the norm. EviView allows any production or work center process to be mapped out into units of standard work. This is then used as a visual interface for Operators, who can track adherence rates under the schedule at hand.

   At the end of each shift, a report is submitted that indicates any changes made to the ideal schedule during that period. The system automatically gathers and analyzes the most important data while reducing redundant information.

4. Equipment breakdown and repair time tracking 
   Equipment breakdown and repair time are major issues for any manufacturing organization. Using EviView, you can reduce response and repair times, giving our clients a competitive advantage in the industry. EQR provides quick and accurate reporting of equipment failures, with filter functionality to prioritize those impacting the process. KPIs such as mean time to respond (MTTR), repair and recover can be viewed on the EQR dashboard. The EQR KPI dashboards can be displayed in the manufacturing monitoring area to motivate the workforce.

For a manufacturing plant, tracking essential process data on assets and operations can eliminate bottlenecks, improve efficiency, and enable managers to make more agile decisions. EviView’s business intelligence software precisely helps provide the right information at the right time to all levels of decision-makers.