The global manufacturing landscape was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With unprecedented supply chain disruptions and dramatic shifts in consumer demands, manufacturers face the challenge of maintaining production levels while adjusting to fluctuating capacity requirements. 

This article delves into how smart factory software emerges as a game-changer, helping manufacturers navigate through turbulent times.

Challenges Amidst the Pandemic

The pandemic brought about a myriad of challenges for manufacturers – stringent social distancing norms, increased safety regulations, and unpredictable changes in demand patterns. These factors have created an environment where maintaining operational efficiency is more challenging than ever before. Here’s where smart factory software steps in, providing real-time tracking of production processes to pinpoint bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

5 Benefits of Smart Factory Software

Increase Production Visibility to Adapt to Capacity Changes

In  unprecedented times, flexibility in operations is a must to adapt to capacity changes and to avoid unexpected disruptions. Even essential industries such as Food and Beverage (F&B) and medical supplies are at risk. They face high demand and the risk of underproduction, and must  plan for eventual slowdowns to avoid excess capacity. Having remote and in-house access to real-time data around material consumption, labor, quality, and energy usage is crucial to controlling downtime reasons such as line starvation. 

Ideally, manufacturers aim to achieve optimum capacity, characterized by meeting order deadlines and producing minimal waste. They strive to avoid constrained capacity, which involves bottlenecks and running out of material, as well as excess capacity, which leads to the wasting of money and resources. Smart factory software connects to the pulse of your machines and production data, providing real-time information that enables smarter  decisions regarding capacity management. 

• Track top losses by the hour to identify bottlenecks, delays, and micro stoppages. For example, during this time, social distancing and newly added safety requirements are to be implemented on shop floors. This means taking extra time and effort to disinfect machines and wash hands which can add to changeover times, OEE, downtimes that need to be taken into account.
• Stay ahead of preventative maintenance by analyzing labor and scheduling data to identify ideal times to conduct maintenance work on machines without disrupting or slowing down production. 
• ERP and MES integration – True smart factory software  integrates with  systems such as ERPs and MES, allowing for bidirectional information exchange accessible remotely when needed. Inventory information such as available materials and work orders can help make smart decisions on the amount of achievable output or capacity for a given timeframe. 

Integrate and Automate Alerts

Smart factory software contributes significantly to the manufacturing sector by offering robust integration capabilities with existing systems. These include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES), among others. This integration enables a two-way information exchange, creating a cohesive ecosystem where data flows seamlessly between different systems.

One of the key benefits of this integration is the provision of real-time access to vital inventory data. In today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape, having up-to-date information at your fingertips is crucial for making timely, informed decisions. Be it adjusting the production output to meet fluctuating demand or managing capacity to ensure optimal utilization, real-time inventory data plays an indispensable role.

Another noteworthy feature of smart factory software is its ability to send automated alerts when components are nearing depletion. This predictive approach allows manufacturers to stay ahead of potential disruptions. By receiving timely notifications, they can initiate replenishment strategies proactively, negating the possibility of production halts due to lack of components.

Safeguard Business Continuity

In the era of COVID-19, smart factory software had evolved to play a crucial role in ensuring employee safety. It not only streamlined operations and increased efficiency but also enforced social distancing rules and hygiene practices in the factory premises through mandatory checks and reminders. This significantly reduced the risk of virus transmission among employees. Furthermore, integrated messaging systems in the software allowed for company-wide announcements and updates, eliminating the need for physical gatherings, which posed a high risk for disease spread.

Promote Remote Collaboration

Smart factory software is a crucial tool for remote teamwork in today’s distributed workforces. It includes features for creating action plans, updating tasks, and adding comments virtually. These tools are key for coordinating work and managing tasks across geographically dispersed teams.

The ability to update task statuses significantly boosts remote collaboration. Team members can mark their progress, providing real-time visibility into individual tasks and projects. The feature for adding comments virtually supports seamless communication, fostering a team spirit even without physical co-location. By providing a unified platform for planning, tracking, and discussion, smart factory software ensures effective teamwork across dispersed teams.

Facilitate Business Continuity

Typical contingency plans focus on managing operational effectiveness during natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and power outages, however, they don’t have steps in place to deal with quarantines and the restrictions that come with such emergencies. Having the right smart factory technology in place allows for remote access to production data and offers additional benefits. 

These include: 

• Protect your employees – mandatory checks and reminders can be created in the system to ensure workers are following social distancing rules and are washing hands, disinfecting machines, and generally following the precaution sanitization efforts implemented.
• Messaging systems in smart factory software can send  color-coded advanced notices and set up pre-operations checks before shift start-ups. Company wide-messaging can be created from the system to increase engagement and boost morale during this difficult time or to update employees on company news. These digital announcements connected to workstation displays allow for workers to receive important information without having to gather in large groups contributing to social distancing measures.  
• Create action plans remotely – Shoplogix action plan allows workers to create action plans, update statuses of tasks and add comments and notes virtually. These action plans can be shared and reviewed in a team setting over the phone or virtually.
• Changes to labor – For manufacturers that are scaling down, this may mean layoffs and higher turnover while those ramping up production may need to add additional labor. Smart factory software tracks, organizes and reports on labor activity to easily understand optimal labor levels, labor variance and the impact to OEE efficiency to make the right decisions around hiring or reducing the number of employees during this time. If adding labor, it’s important to have technology that is user-friendly and easily adoptable to speed up the onboarding process. For example, the Shoplogix smart factory platform’s intuitive design comes with built-in user guides that can be accessed directly from any screen to reduce the learning curve. 

Shoplogix’s Smart Factory IIoT Platform With Remote Monitoring

Shoplogix is re-defining the manufacturing industry by making the Smart Factory platform the cornerstone of digital production performance transformation. With plug and play implementation that captures machine data instantly, Shoplogix offers remote access to real-time operation data for advanced monitoring. By empowering manufacturers to visualize, integrate, and act on production performance, Shoplogix helps to adapt to changing demand, uncover hidden shop floor potential and drive rapid time to value.