From our Accelerating Operational Excellence 2015 Report: Operational excellence teams are increasingly looking to work with their information technology teams to mobilize data with the purpose of alleviating data access, consumption and management challenges. The desire to deliver real-time data for better decision-making was listed as the most impactful application for mobility in a manufacturing organization. Over 80 percent of respondents believe that mobile apps for manufacturing could provide productivity gains of at least 6 percent in their operations. The majority of (55 percent) respondents are planning to increase their usage of mobile technology in 2015.

1. Accelerating Operational Excellence
in 2015: Trends and Technology

2. Introduction
• Catavolt launched a survey titled “How Leading Manufacturers
are Accelerating Operational Excellence” in September 2014, to
gain insight on how manufacturing organizations are working to
continuously improve their operations, workflows and business
processes
• We collected 111 responses from manufacturing professionals in
various disciplines on trends and technology that are driving
operational excellence.

3. Survey Respondents
Of the 111 survey respondents, 81% identified themselves
as executive management or plant, engineering or quality
managers in a manufacturing organization:

4. Survey Respondents
Employees at firms with
greater than 10,000 full-time
employees were the largest
group of respondents in
terms of company size, at
36%.
Nearly two thirds (64%) of
respondents come from
companies with greater than
1,000 full-time employees.
A wide variety of manufacturing industries
were represented in the survey responses.
Healthcare, transportation, aerospace and
energy were the most prominent.

5. Top Operational Excellence
Challenges
Three primary challenges for manufacturing organizations
when executing operational excellence initiatives:
① Doing more with current tools, people, and processes
② Increasing revenue and cash flow
③ Lowering the cost of production

6. Definition of Success
By understanding customer expectations, organizations can determine what service
levels are expected to keep them happy and enable their teams to focus on fulfilling
those expectations.

7. Putting Data to Work
Top Three Forces Impacting Operational Excellence:
① Organizations are not using data effectively
② Accuracy and completeness of data is not reliable
③ Data is kept in information “siloes”

8. All-In On Operational Excellence
85% of survey respondents say their organization will
increase investment of time and resources into operational
excellence initiatives.
Each initiative requires optimization of key resources
internally, including people, processes, space, time, energy,
and technology to achieve success.
The use of mobile devices and apps to drive operational
excellence in manufacturing facilities and supply chain
operations is a notable, recent development.

9. Mobility: Advanced Manufacturing
Technology
While respondents indicate
that many manufacturing
organizations are utilizing
mobility (45%), over 55%
are still not using mobility
for these purposes

10. Manufacturers Going Mobile in 2015
Many are planning on increasing usage of
mobility in 2015

11. Mobility Impactful on Manufacturing
Applications
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Allow for better collaboration among your
team and suppliers
Allow for better real-time data for
decision making
Easily manage inventory levels, production
Streamline inspection process and
design standards
Ensure maximum quality, reliability and
business management visibility
Create lean and secure operations
Replace manual, paper-based processes
Which of the following areas do you believe would be most
impactful for your organization when implementing
mobile technology projects?
Survey results indicated
that respondents from a
variety of disciplines are
able to articulate specific
manufacturing
applications where
mobility would add value.

12. Mobility and the Added-Value of
Productivity
Respondents overwhelmingly believe mobility can help drive
productivity, but there’s no consensus yet on how much.
0 10 20 30 40 50
Percentage (%) of respondents that selected
productivity gain option
(Sums to 100)
How much do you believe your productivity levels would
increase if your organization implemented mobility projects?
0%
Between 1-5%
Between 6-10%
Between 11-15%
More than 16%

13. In Conclusion
Manufacturing organizations cannot operate to their maximum potential
without being aware of the latest market trends in production, customer
service, sales, and resource optimization.
Responsive manufacturing organizations are always anticipating changes in
the workplace and the market, and they are rapidly adapting their
operations to satisfy them based on current trends and new, advanced
technologies.
Manufacturers realize that technology is providing organizations with the
opportunity to easily modernize existing business processes, while at the
same time making them more efficient and enjoyable to employees.

14. Ready to learn more?
Click here to visit Catavolt’s Manufacturing
Resource Center to learn more and turn
learning in to action