Is your Shop Floor operating at peak performance?

You can use the quiet period to identify areas where you’re performing well too – so you can implement best practices in other parts of the business and standardise your processes.

But to truly understand how your shop floor is performing, you need real-time quality data. This can be taken from all areas of your businesses and consolidated in your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which combines it all in a single platform.

Common challenges without an ERP   

Without an ERP many small-scale manufacturers struggle to get helpful insights into performance. Their data is often stored in different places and may be out of date or inaccurate, so it’s not a good basis for decision-making. Those who manage their data effectively, on the other hand, are 19 times more likely to stay profitable because they can use data to optimise their processes and boost growth.

Real-time visibility

Without real-time visibility into your processes, it’s harder to accurately identify areas for improvement. Current data on waste, energy use, downtime or output can be used to make improvements – for example, if output is low, you may need to see what staff need to be more productive.

Downtime and delays

Unplanned downtime can cause unexpected delays to production, leaving customer orders unfulfilled and staff time wasted. The risk of downtime or delays typically increases with manual planning because you don’t have complete visibility and control over your operations.

Inefficient use of resources

If you don’t know exactly what resources you have available and where (such as materials and labour), simple tasks can take significantly longer and you could be losing money as a result. For example, if a skilled technician is carrying out simple tasks, it’s an inefficient use of their time. Similarly, if machines and equipment aren’t being used to their full capacity, you won’t make a good return.

Disconnect between departments

Another challenge is poor collaboration and communication between teams. If the planning team can’t access production schedules, it’ll be harder to respond quickly to changes or allocate resources effectively.

How can an ERP help?

An ERP is designed to improve collaboration between teams and give you greater visibility into processes such as production, so you can get fast insights into performance. ECI’s cloud-based Ridder iQ offers a role-specific dashboard with your KPIs, enabling you to see how you're performing at a glance.   

Live shop-floor data

An ERP helps you track progress and spot bottlenecks as they happen, with live data from your shop floor, such as costs, performance, orders, material status and more. Use this data to make smarter decisions – for example, if your overall costs start escalating you can pinpoint why this is.

Ridder iQ enables you to monitor the progress of a project during production including any delays or any unexpected costs.

Integrated planning and scheduling

A good ERP will have planning and production features. For example, Ridder iQ allows you to create plans for new jobs, and track all aspects of production including past and existing projects.

Multiple users (from planning teams to the shop floor) can access Gantt charts, resources and capacity to carefully plan production and allocate resources. Planning teams will be able to see any bottlenecks and set up alerts for delivery delays or failures.

Production tracking

Check what tasks are done, delayed and or need intervention using your ERP. That way, you’ll be able to get on top of inefficiencies quickly, so they don’t become a bigger issue.

Ridder iQ enables you to track time spent on a project to cost it accurately, and schedule and record maintenance accurately during quieter periods like the summer.

Data-driven insights

With real-time data stored in your ERP,  you’re able to optimise processes and make informed decisions such as areas to cut waste or energy use. You could also analyse sales data from previous years to predict demand and reduce the risk of overstocking. By becoming more data-led, your decision making is more accurate which helps you to make improvements across the board.

Improve your processes with an ERP

Whether you’re planning a factory fortnight or working at a reduced capacity, use the summer period to review and improve your shop floor processes, so you maintain a strategic edge going into the final quarter of the year.

Use Ridder iQ to develop a more efficient shop floor – don’t wait for year-end to make changes.