Improving Operational Efficiency: Part 1

Utilizing visual scheduling to reduce machine downtime.

How well raw material flows through the factory has a direct impact on costs, inventory levels and

reliability and responsiveness to your customers. 

The good news is that you don't need a crystal ball to improve your operational efficiency. 

Having the tools like Vicinity software to leverage production analytics to improve operational effectiveness by reducing machine downtime, changeovers, and cleans is critical.

Every company has limited production resources. Whether you run one, two or three shifts you have a finite amount of time to make your products.

What you do with your production time can directly affect profitability of your company.  

Every minute that your facility is not converting materials to saleable product is lost time that will never be recaptured. Much like a plane – if it takes off with a seat empty it will never get that revenue back.

So how can you make sure you are running to your maximum capacity?

Envision seeing your schedule on a Gantt chart or an outlook calendar.  When you can visualize your production starting and stopping you can easily see the gaps in your schedule.  If a machine is not scheduled it may be underutilized.

In today’s age there is no reason to wade through lengthy reports or lists of production batches.  View it on a calendar and the down times will become obvious.

At Vicinity Manufacturing we allow the user to display the production schedule on a calendar familiar to most users. We use an office look and feel to view, filter and manage the calendar.  Changing the production schedule is as easy as rescheduling an appointment.

Vicinity visual production calendar.

So take a look at how you are doing things today.  Can your production schedule be viewed and edited in a calendar?  You will be amazed at the insight you get.

If you would like to discuss this further feel free to reach out to Vicinity Manufacturing.  We are happy to help.