Despite the interconnected nature of the modern business world, many manufacturing companies still treat their production sites as individual, separate entities. These facilities are often located offsite from the company’s headquarters and tend to focus on their specific production duties, rather than the business’ broader strategies. As a result, these sites can end up disconnected from each other, with each plant using its own operations procedures, software systems and tools.
While giving plants the autonomy to make their own decisions might seem like the most efficient strategy, having a different system at each site can create siloed data and a lack of coordination across the entire organization. This frequently leads to errors in data reporting, forecasting and decision-making, as well as more labor required to sort through information from each site’s software. According to research from IDC, companies lose a significant amount of revenue each year due to inefficiencies from siloed business systems.
Breaking down data silos and increasing coordination among plants can help resolve many of these pain points. By implementing one software system across all manufacturing sites, businesses can improve their efficiency and decision-making as a whole.
More Powerful Data Set
When a company’s manufacturing plants all use the same software tools, it makes it much easier to compile and analyze the data generated by these sites’ production processes. Instead of sorting through multiple sets of data organized in all different ways, business leaders can use one tool’s powerful algorithm to quickly sort and analyze all of the information available at once. With a higher volume of data to access, the tool will be able to identify more opportunities for process improvements at each site. Even if the sites work on different products or perform different functions, data related to production efficiency can still provide relevant insights that every plant can benefit from.
Sharing Data Between Sites
On a similar note, easier access to mass data can also help plants share strategies and implement successful tactics more quickly. For example, if one site finds a base schedule that optimizes their material usage or minimizes downtime, other similar sites can access the published schedule and immediately start aligning their operations. If plants use competing programs, it can be difficult to translate the data and insights between them. Collaborating and sharing information about how to be as efficient as possible will help the entire business produce a higher output and generate more profits.
Smarter Decision-Making
The benefits to more accurate and accessible data aren’t limited to the plant level. With an interconnected system of software and data, company decision makers can also make more informed investments into their manufacturing processes. For example, a company may be considering adding capacity to one of their sites to increase production of a high-demand product. If they can access a virtual model of each site within one shared tool, they’ll be able to test and compare the impact of added capacity at every plant. Alternatively, shared resources can also be helpful in more urgent situations. When one plant experiences an unexpected delay, manufacturing leaders can identify available capacity at other sites with the necessary equipment and materials on hand to complete the production run. This information will help decision makers find the best potential return on their investment or make the most strategic choice for the business.
Integration Between Programs and Plants
To generate even greater insights, manufacturing businesses should strive to select software and programs that can connect and share data to other platforms. More data – and particularly more non-siloed data – will only give the business more opportunity for optimization and efficiency. Sharing data between programs can help the sites gain a deeper analysis of plant operations, understand the relationships between manufacturing functions, and better communicate important insights between departments.
Over the past 30 years, we’ve used our planning and scheduling tool, VirtECS, to generate optimized results for some of the most complex manufacturers in the world. Many of our client relationships started with just one project at one site, but after seeing how much value VirtECS could generate, they quickly decided to implement the tool at their other plants as well. In the past, we’ve connected VirtECS to many of our clients’ other programs, such as forecasting and ERP systems, to allow for end-to-end data sharing and optimization. To learn about our journey implementing VirtECS into several sites for one of our specialty chemical clients, you can read more in our case study.
