Times are rapidly changing for factory managers—and not just because of the disruption of global production and supply chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. With shortened production cycles and an explosion of unknown variables, factory managers are struggling to run their operations smoothly. From late deliveries, to machine breakdowns and customer demand varying by the hour, agility has become the name of the game.
Yet, in 2021, the overwhelming majority of factory managers are still reacting, instead of anticipating, to changes in manufacturing operations. That’s because they lack critical oversight—one place that centralises all the data they need to make better decisions.
First, let’s give credit where credit is due: managing industrial operations has always been a complex problem. In assembly plants, managing bottlenecks was often a matter of managing people (by appropriate staffing and task leveling) while in process plants, equipment capability tended to be the disrupting factor. And in both cases, supply chain forecasting has always been an issue for factory managers.
But, in today’s data-driven globalised economy, complexity isn’t just a byproduct of industrial manufacturing—it’s the beating heart of it. Managers and teams need to constantly think on their feet and react to an overwhelming amount of variables that interact with each other in complex ways.
This inevitably leads to blind spots, asymmetric information and suboptimal decisions that end up bottlenecking your operations. And that, in turn, has several major consequences.
But technology can offer a way out of this mess. In recent years, progress in Data and AI have enabled the creation of platforms which centralize huge amounts of data and provide factory managers with the critical oversight they need.
Imagine showing up in the morning and logging in to a user-friendly interface—a dashboard of sorts—where all aspects of your operations are visible. The different teams—Production, Quality, Customer support—can consult this information to align over common goals and get shared visibility on bottlenecks. Imagine a system where front-line workers are empowered with personalized recommendations on how to solve certain key issues, or react optimally to daily volatility by for instance consulting computer-generated production plannings.
These are just some examples of what data-driven operations management can do to make things run smoother. Rather than automate or take away certain responsibilities from factory managers and teams, these platforms help overcome information silos. They offer intelligent assistance for operational teams, which helps them make better decisions.
Cut through the fog of uncertain operations and empower teams achieve predictable outputs
Reach out to contact@pelico.io or book a discovery call
Cut through the fog of uncertain operations and empower teams achieve predictable outputs
Reach out to contact@pelico.io or book a discovery call
We help operational teams to make performance leaps through better data exploitation