Stop tracking production with manual time sheets! Stop making excuses for a lack of real-time information, information your production team needs in order to reduce the cost of manufacturing for your company. Stop rationalizing your decision to continue on with manual processes simply because you are unaware how to justify the investment needed in an upgrade. Instead of making excuses, start finding viable reasons to invest in an enterprise mobility network that will not only improve your manufacturing, but dramatically upgrade your company’s entire operations. If looking to simply justify this investment, think of the high costs of downtime. Think of how much that costs your enterprise. Ultimately, think of how much faster your enterprise will respond once it is able to see production happen in real-time. Granted, the global economy today is difficult to navigate, but it is that much more difficult with manual production tracking methods. Manual processes make work stoppages more costly, and your enterprise must be able to respond immediately in order to limit the damage.
There are all kinds of reasons for downtime in manufacturing. Some are unavoidable, but many can be avoided. It’s not about trying to control what can’t be controlled, but more about mitigating the impact of work stoppages and most importantly, reducing the high costs of down time. Ultimately, it’s really about how fast your enterprise can respond to these urgent situations. Time is of the essence and manual processes only make these work stoppages far worse than they need to be. Why? Simply put, there is an inherent lag in being able to reconcile production volumes via manual processes, or being able to respond to downtime, when the consequences of that downtime are only understood the next day. Every second and minute counts in manufacturing and when your manual processes inhibit your ability to respond, your company is bound to see costs increase. It’s just that simple. Want further proof? If so, take the time to answer the following questions with the mindset of answering them from the perspective of a manufacturer running manual tracking methods.
- How quickly can your enterprise respond to the high costs of part and raw material shortages?
- What does your enterprise do when confronted with quality issues from vendors?
- How accurate are your current manual processes in reconciling production levels?
- Are you currently able to track manufacturing cycle times and make immediate adjustments, or can this only happen when you visit the production work station in person?
When answering these aforementioned questions, take the time to write down how much these issues cost your enterprise. Think of the costs of delayed reaction. Now think about how much faster your enterprise will respond when barcode scanners are present in all production work stations. Think of how rugged handheld mobile devices will empower your sales and field service technicians to get immediate feedback from production managers. Think of how much easier it will be to analyze a given production work station. Finally, think of how your entire enterprise will be able to mitigate down time and its costly effects. By no means is anyone implying that upgrading to an enterprise mobility network is inexpensive. However, it’s one decision that will pay for itself by empowering your company to reduce the high costs of indecision.