28th June 2021

Real-time monitoring: Taking the guesswork out of your manufacturing shop floor

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One of the problems that most manufacturers will face at some point in their business life is the inability to access the right information at exactly the right time. 

Without access to the right information, it makes it incredibly difficult to understand why bottlenecks may be forming in your manufacturing process, or why there may be so many rejects being produced on each of your runs. 

With real-time monitoring, all of this can go away overnight…

In this post we’ll dive into just what real-time monitoring is and how it can be used to improve the production performance of your manufacturing business. 

 

What is real-time monitoring?

Most manufacturing businesses have systems and software in place that provides them with data and information about their manufacturing processes and production output. 

But what most manufacturers don’t have, is a system that can provide them with this information in real-time. 

Real-time monitoring is the ability to see information about what is happening in any process, any cycle, any production line at exactly that moment in time.

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It provides end-to-end visibility across all of the manufacturing operations and it takes the guesswork out of understanding where your shop floor is at. 

Many manufacturing businesses are having meetings to try and find out information about their processes. 

But with real-time monitoring, they’re instead having meetings to make decisions, based on the information they have right in front of them. 

 

What are the benefits of using real-time monitoring in manufacturing?

Real-time monitoring provides a great number of benefits which can help you improve the production performance of your manufacturing business. 

Competitive Advantage

Gaining a competitive advantage is one of the huge benefits that’s offered to manufacturing businesses who use real-time monitoring, as it helps you achieve a positive culture of continuous improvement.

Real-time monitoring helps you to make key decisions faster, which allows you to serve your customers better.

With better customer service, it becomes easier to win more customers which grows your business and allows you to increase your margins, increase your capacity, do more business and to buy more machinery and factories. 

Thus creating a positive cycle as illustrated by the handy graphic below:

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Improved Scheduling Accuracy

The only way to be able to achieve complete scheduling accuracy, is to have the information provided to you in real-time. 

Real-time monitoring takes signals from the machines, it knows exactly what tools are in the machine, exactly how many cavities there are (or how many items it will stamp) and it understands how many of these will be good parts and that then is able to provide you with an accurate schedule for how long a job will take to complete.

Not only this, but it can also take into account any preventative maintenance that you may have scheduled.

This is then shown in the schedule so you can see any planned down-time on any of your equipment, which enables you to provide your customers with much more accurate timeframes. 

Better Levels of Inventory Control

As a result of DELMIA | Works being able to provide improved scheduling accuracy through real-time monitoring, you’re able to see exactly what raw materials you are going to need and when you are going to need them. 

There’s no guesswork required to get your materials in early, as you have a much better understanding of exactly when that job needs to be starting and therefore you know that you’ll need these materials before that date and time. 

The result of this is having less on-hand inventory that you don’t need, but also being able to mark goods as finished inventory in real time.

With this information on hand, you can easily see exactly what materials have been used, and how many products have been produced, at any given point in the process. 

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Better Customer Service

With real-time monitoring, gone are the days of a customer ringing up and asking how many products have been manufactured and you not being able to provide the information until the end of the shift. 

Real-time monitoring gives you the power to know at any given point, how many products have been made, allowing you to accurately inform your customers how many finished products you’ll be able to ship to them at the end of that day if part of an order needs rushing through. 

It’s this level of customer service that not only helps you to win new customers, but helps you to win repeat customers, as they know they can rely on you to provide accurate information and deliver the goods exactly when they need them. 

Reduce the number of rejects

If any issues arise at any point during the manufacturing process, real-time monitoring allows you to identify them and nip them in the bud before they become a real problem. 

Not having to wait until the end of the shift to see where any problems have appeared means you’re able to significantly reduce the number of faulty goods and rejects that are being produced, as you’re able to fix an issue as soon as it arises. 

 

Which manufacturing industries will benefit from real-time monitoring?

Real-time monitoring is one of the core features available within the DELMIA | Works Manufacturing ERP. 

DELMIA | Works is a specialised piece of software that was built from the ground up, by plastics manufacturers for plastics manufacturers. 

This makes DELMIA | Works, and real-time monitoring, incredibly beneficial to manufacturing companies working in the following industries:

  • Plastics Manufacturing
  • Metal Stamping
  • Automotive Manufacturing (Tier 1, 2 & 3)
  • Medical Device Manufacturing
  • Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
  • Industrial & Consumer Electronics
  • Packaging

If your business is within one of these industries then DELMIA | Works and real-time monitoring could be the perfect fit for your operation. 

Get in touch with our team if you’d like to understand the benefits DELMIA | Works Manufacturing ERP can bring to your business. 

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Use real-time monitoring in DELMIA | Works to boost your manufacturing productivity

Real-time monitoring is just one of the features within the DELMIA | Works Manufacturing ERP that’s helping businesses to improve their processes, create better customer service, gain better access to information and generally provide a competitive advantage over manufacturing competitors. 

You can find out more about all the features of DELMIA | Works Manufacturing ERP here

But if real-time monitoring sounds like it could be beneficial to your manufacturing business, then talk to our team today to start improving your production performance.

Improve Production Performance >>

Posted by Rob on 28th June 2021.