Friday, June 30, 2006

'Real-time' information makes managers 'proactive'

A totally integrated manufacturing execution system enables workloads across all manufacturing and support operations in the workplace to be graphically scheduled.
The drive is on for electronic component suppliers to reduce stocks and batch sizes to meet 'made to order' targets. This means faster changeover of production equipment is required coupled with greater levels of flexibility resulting in ever shorter lead time to get new products into manufacture faster. However, in moving towards smaller batches the downside is lower utilisation of costly production equipment due to more frequent stoppages and by the time production reporting information has been collated for management, it tends to be based on historical information.

As a result, immediate attention to problems only tends to occur when assembly stops or the customer screams over late or missed deliveries.

According to David Moody, chief executive of Brighton-based manufacturing software specialist Seiki Systems: 'This forces companies to be driven by reacting to events in a highly stressful firefighting scenario when they should be pursuing a proactive strategy.' For production management to be proactive (and not reactive) it needs access to live and exact information that has been created seamlessly from order to despatch.

No matter how flexible or streamlined the business, if the production area cannot deliver a quality product at the right price and in a timely fashion, then ever-growing competitive pressures will take their toll.

Real time information is the key for production to be under control.

Once management has the data, it then has the tools at its fingertips to quickly and easily make decisions.

Indeed, it is from this sound business footing that confidence grows, a judgement on return on investment can be made and, key to any business, if the customer can be pre-warned of possible problems on delivery with positive decisions and actions put in place by the supplier, a much stronger bond or secure relationship develops.

Grown out of the manufacturing sector supplying the likes of aerospace, automotive and contract production companies where some 7,000 separate production units have been integrated around the world, Seiki Systems' iMES - a totally integrated manufacturing execution system - enables workloads across all manufacturing and support operations in the workplace to be graphically scheduled.

These activities can now be directly integrated with an existing MRP/ERP system to provide a live information trail with the capability to handle the effects of a 'what if?' alternative scenario.

The advantage - and drawback - of any MRP/ERP system is that it will schedule the works order to a particular production station.

However, the assumption is made that an infinite capacity is available with no regard to the actual capacity or machine availability.

Also MRP/ERP systems are unable to influence or dynamically change workloading when information is fed back from production, such as a job is complete or a hold up is being caused by a task being slowed down or a breakdown.

Until now, monitoring production and machine utilisation or performance, was an intensive manual task and, once again, it does not report a live situation - only one involving retrospective historical events.

When integrated with MRP or ERP, the Seiki Systems' iMES provides unbiased real-time feedback creating a true, live and dynamic prediction of workloads in any production area.

If required, this can even drill down through the production sequence to individual workstations capturing direct information such as the batch status, thus confirming actual completion dates and reporting performance in a true paperless environment.

Through graphical work planning and full integration, the system is able to transform the original 'work to' data from any existing MRP/ERP scheduling system into a dynamic real time planning system that automatically updates as time and work in progress changes.

It is even possible to account for shift patterns, multiple operations and varying levels of skill without any manual intervention or interpretation.

The system is also able to account for any implications imposed by new or unplanned jobs, hold-ups or maintenance.

In addition, iMES has the capability to identify unused capacity in advance of production, enabling work in progress to be prioritised and lost time avoided due to waiting for inter-operational staging.

There are also spin-off advantages of improved internal communication throughout the manufacturing area.

Not only does this help to minimise error but it also ensures that the latest possible process data or customer requirements are transmitted to the workplace.

Because jobs are allocated electronically to each production unit, iMES eliminates paper-based job queue tickets.

Electronic work queues become interactive not people dependent, which also enables other departments to be informed of detail such as tooling, special settings and availability of materials.

Because of communication between different facets of the business, any problem can immediately be notified, recorded and appropriate alarm issued.

On the shopfloor a 'single mask' common screen viewing for operators enables them to see the work queues at a glance and view the manufacturing data, while back in the management office Accumulative Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) analysis, originally developed for the volume hungry automotive sector to determine the performance of each operational unit, enables the smaller business to compare the detail of jobs carried out on different shifts, different workstations and at different times.

Now with web-based reporting, electronic information on machine performance and production data can also be transmitted to virtually anywhere in the world.

This means production reporting, event logging, machine utilisation analysis, trend analysis and collated data comparison charts can be compiled through Seiki Systems' iMES and be made available to a single or number of destinations.

At the touch of a button, vital production management information is available in a live situation as it develops.