How To Reduce Downtime - Manufacturers can identify savings in downtime.

1. SARAH FISHWICK
W
ith increasing demand and pressure
to deliver on time, no manufacturer
wants to hear the words delayed, lost
or product defects. Which gets us asking, how
do you reduce downtime?
A logistical nightmare
Manufacturing is an increasingly global industry.
Parts, components, machinery and equipment
are sourced via a mix of local, national and
international suppliers. When a business is
global, it is essential to have a well-oiled logistics
capability to ensure everything is in the right
place at the right time.
The alternative can lead to difficult decisions.
Do you delay production and increase the
backlog of work? Do you make do with what’s
available to get the product out the door? Do you
source more expensive materials or equipment?
Do you fast-track orders when materials come
in and invite other complications through work
around and juggling priorities?
Such problems can lead to shipping
substandard product, incomplete orders leading to
dissatisfied customers, and a stressed workforce.
Your logistics team is there to help you avoid
supply chain surprises by providing instant
visibility of your materials and equipment at all
times. A good logistics team is best supported
by systems that share information easily across
divisions and different parties, no matter what
system they use or whether your goods are with
your supplier, in transit, in the warehouse or on
their way to the customer.
Dominate downtime
While you cannot completely eradicate
downtime, you can put measures in place to
stop it eating into your schedule so heavily.
Streamlining your technology and processes
are important to creating a much more efficient
supply chain. For example, you can investigate:
1. Improving your ability to predict orders and
improving the downstream communications; or
2. Measuring and tracking the time it takes from
order and receipt of the goods through the
supply chain
Good record-keeping
A proportion of downtime lies within ineffective
data entry from manual paper work to systems
that are not up to the task. Valuable time is often
lost with systems and processes that under-utilise
staff and are unable to accurately pinpoint and
update the necessary parties when issues arise.
For example, many manufacturers now use
automatic identification to record and track
the whereabouts of your goods. According
to the University of Wollongong, automatic
identification, also known as AutoID, devices
now enable voice or image recognition, GPS
tracking or RFID for user friendly and rapid data
entry. However, if data is entered incorrectly or
not at all, then it can result in delays.
Inaccuracies create issues with freight, too.
For example, if a carrier has been given a load
other than originally expected, this would slow the
shipment process down either within the factory
while new barcodes/paperwork is generated, or
whilst in transit, because goods can’t be tracked.
Ensuring you have well-trained staff and
providing incentives to keep systems up-to-
date reduce downtime significantly, too. For
example, one company improved its inventory
data when it started using it to track weekly
warehouse staff performance.
Visibility and predictability
Having visibility of your supply chain is one
thing. You can take your business to the next
level by linking your sales to your orders to your
manufacturing processes to your end-customer
via sales and operational planning (S&OP)
tools. These tools allow businesses to couple
accurate sales predictions with your inventory
and manufacturing times to increase the speed
with which you get orders to customers. Such
tools also help to reduce overstocking, thereby
reducing your operating costs, too.
Leading businesses in manufacturing have an
established S&OP process in place and rely on
it to perform well.
However, the S&OP process has to allow for
collaboration across multiple business areas
by having a view of the expected number of
orders coming in, the parts, components,
materials that will be required to service the
orders, keeping data updated across the
manufacturing lifecycle.
Often there is a disconnect between planning
and execution. There are tools available
that translate plans into action, allowing
manufacturers to save time by the execution.
From planning to execution in days
For example, FreightExchange’s S&OP tool uses
optimisations and modelling to rapidly analyse
supply chain costs and identify tests to reduce
their costs by double digits in days, instead of
weeks or even months.
In fact, it helped a leading services company
analyse its supply chain costs and identify simple
strategies to reduce costs by 18% in days.
For example, the business impacts of
changing to a different supplier in a different
geography for parts, or even relocating a DC,
can be rapidly projected. If the company finds
it a viable option to test, FreightDesk can help
execute the test automatically. Of course,
technology is only one aspect of organisational
change. Implementing highly flexible systems
can significantly increase the speed with which
you can affect change.
Very few initiatives match the economic return
of a mature sales and operations execution
capability, and this proves that downtime can be
significantly reduced, freeing up your schedule
for the bigger things.
For more information call (+61 2) 8007
4378, email sales@freightexchange.com.au or
visit www.freightexchange.com.au.
“Valuable time is often lost with systems and
processes that under-utilise staff and are unable
to accurately pinpoint and update the necessary
parties when issues arise.”
HOW TO REDUCE DOWNTIME
MANUFACTURERS CAN IDENTIFY SAVINGS IN DOWNTIME
MHD SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS — JULY / AUGUST 2017
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