by Kelsey H | Jul 19, 2021 | Debottlenecking, Process Improvement
In our line of work, reducing bottlenecks is the name of the game. We know how important it is for successful plants to produce as much output as possible in the shortest amount of time. With this goal in mind, it can be difficult to sacrifice additional run time to keep up with maintenance tasks.
However, the consequences of postponing maintenance can be harsh and will eventually lead to even more bottlenecks in your process down the road. When equipment breaks down and employees don’t have all the tools they need to perform their jobs effectively, you may have to deal with decreased output and lost revenue. According to research from Aberdeen, every hour of unplanned equipment downtime costs manufacturers $260,000 on average. With just a few adjustments to your maintenance scheduling process, these bottlenecks (and the high costs associated with them) can be avoided.
Survey the Plant
Before you can deduce the best process for your maintenance activities, we suggest getting started by compiling a detailed survey of every asset within your plant. This process will help ensure all the equipment used for production is accounted for. Once you have your full list, identify the maintenance actions needed for each individual item. If you need help determining the recommended frequency and time spent on maintenance for a particular part, be sure to consult the manufacturer’s instructions. With a complete catalog of tasks to work from, your maintenance team will then be able to anticipate all the plant’s upcoming needs. At the same time, your operations team can begin to reconcile their daily or weekly output with the corresponding maintenance requirements.
Prioritize Activities
After your survey of assets and related maintenance tasks is completed, your maintenance team can get to work planning a strategic approach. In every plant, some resources will be more integral than others, so it can be helpful to prioritize each asset based on how critical they are to the production process. The most vital equipment may be necessary for long periods during the production cycle, but it also must be well-maintained to function effectively. The maintenance for these high-priority assets will require more thoughtful planning. On the other hand, less-critical pieces of equipment can be arranged into the rest of the maintenance schedule as needed and won’t require as much detailed attention.
Create an Optimized Plan
With every maintenance activity prioritized, you can begin fitting each action into your ongoing production schedule. Aim to start by scheduling the highest-priority tasks first, and look for times when those pieces of equipment will not be in use to minimize the disruption to the plant’s workflow. If there will still be maintenance outages needed, plan for these in advance to give production planners time to prepare and work around them.
Taking these steps toward a more optimized maintenance schedule is a huge improvement over continual outages for reactive maintenance. It may seem counterintuitive to plan downtime when equipment isn’t technically broken, but when you can’t anticipate which pieces of equipment will be down and when, it often causes substantial waste and more missed opportunities for revenue.
It’s also especially helpful to schedule maintenance using an advanced planning and scheduling tool, such as VirtECS. This tool allows you to plug different blocks of time for maintenance into your schedule and see how it will affect your total output in real time. VirtECS completes all these calculations to find the most optimal schedule in just minutes. VirtECS can also communicate the finalized schedule to every employee who needs it, from maintenance experts to engineers on the plant floor, to keep processes flowing smoothly. Find out more benefits of implementing VirtECS at your plant here.
by Kelsey H | Jul 7, 2021 | Industry News
Though the US is well on its way toward containing the COVID-19 pandemic, not all countries have been as fortunate. In Taiwan, the struggle to control COVID-19 cases has caused a disruption to the production of semiconductor chips, and companies across the world are already feeling the ramifications.
In time, the semiconductor shortage will be solved, but the situation has exposed a troubling snag in the supply chain. Industries that depend on these products should prepare for extensive changes heading their way in the months and years to come. Keep reading to find out the latest updates on the manufacturing situation in Taiwan and all the related supply chain consequences.
What’s Happening with the Semiconductor Supply Chain?
Following an oil crisis in 1973, a group of businessmen and Taiwanese government officials met to discuss potential new endeavors into technology to improve Taiwan’s local economy. Taiwan’s government quickly began funding research for a new form of technology – semiconductors. Within years, manufacturing plants began to form and earn business from companies around the world. One of those plants, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, eventually became Apple’s semiconductor supplier of choice and is currently the largest chip manufacturer in the world. Thanks to those early investors, Taiwan is now the epicenter of semiconductor manufacturing, and many of the world’s largest companies are heavily reliant on them for a steady stream of chips.
Unfortunately, Taiwan has seen COVID-19 cases surge in recent months. Due to geopolitical tensions, the country has had a limited supply of vaccines, and less than 1% of the population is fully vaccinated so far. Taiwan spent much of May and June under Level 3 restrictions, just short of a full lockdown. Over the past few months, many plants in Taiwan have been continually affected by outbreaks, leaving them short-staffed and making production difficult. Some have even had to halt operations completely for periods of time, and consequently, the total output of semiconductors has been significantly lower than usual.
How Have Companies Been Affected So Far?
Although most companies that design and utilize semiconductor chips are located in the US, almost all the major semiconductor manufacturers are based in Asia. In fact, just two semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan hold 72% of the global market revenue, according to TrendForce. Throughout the pandemic, corporations that rely on these manufacturers for their parts have discovered that they are extremely vulnerable to any price increases, disruptions, and delays.
So far, automakers have felt the semiconductor supply shortage the most. In order to function properly, most new vehicles require hundreds of semiconductor chips. Research from Bloomberg suggests the shortage may cause carmakers to lose up to $61 billion this year in revenue. Additionally, tech companies like Apple and Samsung have had to delay new smartphone launches due to limited access to semiconductor chips. By the end of Q2, smartphone production will likely be reduced by an estimated 5%. For reference, that means there will be about 15.5 million fewer smartphones available than usual. Companies that produce other electronics, including televisions, video game consoles and home appliances, are also expecting future delays and product shortages.
What Are the Long-Term Consequences?
This serious disturbance in the semiconductor supply chain is drawing scrutiny from many sources, including international governments. The European Union’s Commissioner, Thierry Breton, reportedly sees the shortage as an opportunity to overhaul the industry’s supply chain. Earlier this year, President Biden conducted a 100-day review of the US’s manufacturing supply chain and specifically assessed our process of obtaining semiconductors. Then, last month, the Senate approved a new bill, the US Innovation and Competition Act, which will provide $52 billion in funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The bill is designed to encourage companies to build new tech hubs throughout the US and begin reshoring semiconductor production to prevent supply chain disruptions from happening in the future.
If the semiconductor industry continues to be reshored, it may prompt some companies to become more vertically integrated to avoid rising costs. For example, Intel has already started to take on more of their own semiconductor chip manufacturing. This integration process, while potentially beneficial long-term, will require significant capital up-front, along with an increased workforce and constant innovation to keep up with competitors.
If you’re considering vertical integration or simply wondering how your company can plan production around potential disruptions, it may be helpful to utilize an advanced planning and scheduling tool. Thanks to nearly 30 years of R&D investment and real-world experience with some of the most complex manufacturing processes, VirtECS is the most complete design, planning and scheduling solution. For more information on how VirtECS can optimize the processes for your organization, download our guide here.
by Kelsey H | Jun 17, 2021 | Process Improvement
Automation has been on many manufacturers’ minds for years, even before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, once the coronavirus started spreading rapidly and causing serious disruptions to the manufacturing supply chain, interest in automated solutions skyrocketed even higher. According to a 2020 Honeywell survey, the pandemic has inspired 42% of manufacturers to plan to implement automation technology within the next year.
Organizations that prioritize adaptability have already started to turn toward automated technology. Automated systems have become more appealing than ever primarily because of their ability to weather disruptive situations while keeping production running efficiently. Manufacturers in any industry can use automation in a variety of ways to improve their processes and better serve existing employees. We’ll dive into the biggest benefits below.
Eliminate Waste
Product waste can cause some of the biggest headaches for manufacturing plants, for both environmental and financial reasons. There is such a high cost associated with waste, and because it provides no benefit to the plant (or the planet), eliminating waste has become a priority for many organizations. To combat this issue, some plants have started using automated technology to pinpoint areas producing the most waste. Last year, nanomaterial manufacturer Promethean Particles began logging data from their plant to train artificial intelligence programs to identify instances of increased waste in its processes. Utilizing this technology has significantly sped up their process of minimizing overall waste, which has been a long-time goal of theirs to help cut down unnecessary costs.
Identify & Prevent Defects
As we discussed in another recent article, mistakes happen from time to time at every manufacturing plant. Monitoring is essential to help catch more errors or defects earlier in the process. However, the pandemic highlighted the challenges plants face when they rely so heavily on in-person-only roles. That’s where remote monitoring technology and automated data collection come into play. Many companies have started to test these forms of monitoring which allow supervisors to work from their homes or offices. Newer forms of this technology even offer geolocation restrictions, which can limit the service to devices in specific locations to decrease security risks. Some monitoring services are also browser-based, making it easy for employees to access no matter which device they use.
Adapt to Changing Needs
As consumer demand quickly increases and decreases depending on uncontrollable outside factors (such as a pandemic), manufacturers have had to find ways to adjust their plant floors to account for these shifts. Some organizations have started utilizing automated methods to scale production up or down quickly to meet changing deadlines and stay flexible during uncertain economic conditions. In the automotive industry alone, manufacturers using augmented intelligence have helped their employees perform their jobs more efficiently, leading to a 40% increase in productivity.
It’s important to note that even though automation technology can be incredibly beneficial, human employees are still the critical elements needed to provide expertise and insights. Advanced technology can give us much-improved methods for data collection, but it simply can’t contribute the deeper knowledge that we rely on from experienced people. Your employees are the ones who will ultimately implement and operate these new systems, so technology solutions must be people-centric to be the most successful.
Advanced planning and scheduling software, such as VirtECS, is one tool manufacturers can use to improve their processes and easily adapt to disruptions. VirtECS works to optimize production by creating a detailed model of your plant and automatically performing calculations to find the most efficient schedule. Any time you introduce new equipment or experience changes in demand, the tool will quickly readjust and find the best schedule to use moving forward. If you’re interested in finding out how to implement VirtECS into your manufacturing facility, click here to download our whitepaper.
by Kelsey H | Jun 7, 2021 | Industry News
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford
All manufacturing plants, especially those that produce highly advanced or brand-new products, are bound to experience mishaps and mistakes from time to time. When these errors occur, it’s best to take a cue from manufacturing pioneer Henry Ford. What can your team do to learn from the mistake and prevent the same issues from happening over and over again?
To quickly minimize the effects of the mistake, there are a few immediate steps your organization can implement. Down the road, if you notice continual issues, you may discover deeper-rooted challenges that you will also need to address. We’ll discuss both kinds of solutions below.
Short-Term Solutions
In any industry, it’s important to own up when you make a mistake. This is especially critical for manufacturers that are handling products that can cause harm to consumers if not produced correctly. After the problem is discovered, the first thing you need to do is report it to the appropriate parties within your own organization. Once everyone is brought up to speed internally, you may also need to alert outside groups, such as federal regulators, distributors, or clients who will be affected by the setback.
After you’ve notified the correct people, you’ll want to act immediately to solve the mistake temporarily and enable your plant to resume production. One way to cut down on errors is to increase the number of people onsite who are monitoring for irregularities. Simply having more eyes on production will increase the chances that issues are noticed while they’re still fixable. These supervisors shouldn’t be intimidating or micromanaging to others on the plant floor, but rather they should help where they can and serve as a reminder to pay attention to the work. However, the expense of having more people working at once will add up over time, so this solution is best used only in the short-term.
As another precautionary step, the added supervisors could take time to check the progress between multiple stages of production. Reviewing products throughout the process will help your organization pinpoint exactly where mistakes are happening, and you’ll be able to remove affected materials before they cause more issues down the line or take up wasted time.
When Johnson & Johnson experienced issues with a contract manufacturer that resulted in the contamination of 15 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine, they quickly set these initial solutions in motion. They had to notify officials at the FDA immediately, and because the errors occurred at a contracted plant, Johnson & Johnson chose to increase the number of its own employees on-site to monitor the work and perform additional checks. Had these precautions been in place to begin with, they may have discovered the contaminated doses in hours rather than days and could have avoided such a disastrous delay in production.
Long-Term Solutions
While quick actions can help put out fires in the short-term, they’re often costly or unrealistic to sustain for years to come. To nip these mishaps in the bud, you may need to revisit the drawing board on your overall processes. Addressing the root cause of these errors will be more cost-efficient and provide many benefits down the road.
If many of the mistakes come from human error, you may need to consider that your organization isn’t properly prepping new employees for their duties. Before new hires start their job at your plant, increase the intensive training they receive to help each person become more comfortable in their role before they’re thrown into real situations. As part of this training, you might give them advice from long-time employees on how to overcome common mistakes to prep them for challenges they’ll likely face eventually. To prepare employees most effectively for their unique tasks, you’ll want to make sure a portion of the preparation is on-the-job, as well.
In order to catch and prevent more potential mistakes, employees must also feel empowered to report any concerns they have or errors they’ve made. If your plant encourages a culture of transparency and continual improvement, all employees will feel capable of playing the supervisory role we discussed as a short-term solution. When everyone works together to make each other and the entire organization better, it eliminates the costly need for additional oversight.
To aid employees’ work, reassess your current work areas with people’s movements and capabilities in mind. The placement of the mechanisms and controls may have made sense in theory, but in reality, they could be making your team’s jobs harder than they need to be. Similarly, if your processes still require extremely close observations, manual calculations, or constant multi-tasking, it can be difficult for any human to avoid occasional mistakes without additional assistance. If you can automate the more arduous calculations or give employees convenient tools that will relieve some of their stress, you’ll see the investment pay off with more precise results.
One improvement that can help streamline and optimize your entire plant is an advanced planning & scheduling solution. Planning & scheduling software, such as VirtECS, uses virtual plant modeling to replicate your facility’s unique characteristics and find the most effective production schedule. VirtECS can both identify inefficiencies in your processes and easily adapt your existing schedule to account for any changes you decide to make. If you’re interested in learning more about the ways VirtECS can minimize inefficiencies at your plant, check out our guide here.
by Kelsey H | May 17, 2021 | Process Improvement, Supply Chain
Raw material costs are generally some of the largest expenses any organization incurs. It may seem like your plant has no control over the cost, and you’re simply at the mercy of your suppliers. After all, you certainly don’t want to sacrifice on quality for the sake of new, cheap materials that your customers won’t recognize.
However, manufacturers still have the ability to take back control of their raw materials. Over the years, we’ve uncovered a number of effective strategies for reducing supply costs that any manufacturer will be able to implement.
Negotiate with Suppliers
If you’re like most manufacturers, you may have a specific set of suppliers you work with on a regular basis to source the raw materials your plant needs. Over time, these partners have likely learned the ins and outs of your business, but prices and other terms may have remained stagnant since you first started working together. In many instances, though, there is room to reassess those agreements. Your supplier depends on your organization as a valuable customer, so they will likely be inclined to meet your requests (within reason). Requesting small changes, such as better financing terms, discounted shipping, or other perks can significantly lower your total costs over time.
In the event that your suppliers refuse to provide any additional benefits, it may be worth shopping around for alternative options. There’s no harm in looking, and a simple search may turn up a partner that can provide a better deal, faster shipping times, or other favorable improvements. Just be sure to do your research on the quality of their materials to ensure there will not be a noticeable difference that shows up in your products.
In any new supplier relationship, be sure to ask upfront if they can add in any discounts in return for a long-term agreement. Companies trying to earn your business are often very willing to provide extras that can create substantial savings for your business in the long run. You might also take this opportunity at the beginning of a partnership to create a plan to review the terms of your deal regularly so that that your agreement doesn’t become unfavorable down the road.
Buy in Bulk
If you have the space available at your facility and the cash to make larger purchases, buying raw materials in bulk can be a simple way to reduce expenses. Typically, the more materials you buy at once, the less each individual unit will cost. To take full advantage of these savings, consider whether there are specific times of year, such as an off-season or slower economic climate, when material costs will be lower. Purchasing a larger amount during these times can result in major savings on the products you know you will need in the future.
However, it’s important to note that you should only use this strategy for materials you know you will use during production well into the future. If it’s possible the material will be phased out or will sit around without being used, do not purchase bulk quantities of it. Buying larger quantities at once is only a good idea if you’re sure none of the supplies will go to waste.
Minimize Waste
Often times, manufacturers design their internal processes without considering the standardized formats that most vendors use. If your plant’s systems don’t align with the vendors who supply the materials you need, it can create a high degree of waste. To overcome this issue, consider whether you can modify your process to avoid scrapping any excess material. Using all of your raw supplies and minimizing related waste can start to reduce the $8 trillion of waste produced by manufacturers each year, according to Forbes.
If it’s not possible to change your internal procedures to account for the differences, you might be able to recycle the leftover material into a form you can still use in your existing process. Another approach would be adjusting designs to use less of the raw materials overall. The less total product you have to order, the more money your organization can save for other more beneficial uses.
Adjusting your production processes doesn’t have to be such a complicated and intimidating task. By using software that creates a virtual plant model, you can test out changes before you formally implement them. This strategy can help ensure you’re making the most beneficial modifications and relive some of the risks involved. VirtECS, our planning and scheduling optimization tool, has been used by many of the world’s leading manufacturers to provide solutions for their complex processes. If you’re interested in finding out how VirtECS can help optimize the processes at your plant, download our overview guide here.
