Get visibility into what’s happening at the plant
How to get accurate information about what’s happening, no matter where you are.
The plant can be full of busy people, moving parts, and humming machines. If you’re a manager, you can quickly get bogged down trying to keep track of everything that is happening. While it is impossible to be everywhere at once, fortunately there are platforms like Guidewheel that track and record accurate information so you can see everything at a glance from your phone or computer. Here are some ways to ensure that you have accurate information about what’s happening even when you aren’t physically at the plant.
Recording downtime should be easy.
If recording downtime were easy, people would do it more often. Depending on how your plant tracks downtime, you can try color coding tags for different causes of downtime. For instance, an operator could easily note a green tag for lunch, a blue tag for setup, or a red tag for severe issues like a broken machine. At a meeting later, the whole team can easily glance at the colors for each downtime to quickly find the “top offenders” that are causing the most downtime, and set goals accordingly.
Use the right metrics to measure production
Finding patterns and setting goals starts with using the right metrics to judge how production is going. Here are some metrics to consider:
“Good Parts Per Hour”: counting the number of good parts per hour can effectively sum up all parts of production from downtime to machine efficiency.
Waste and scrap: measuring the amount of waste and scrap can help you find exactly which machines are draining resources or causing employees to work overtime. For example, counting the number of incorrectly labeled items from a labeling machine not only shows how the labeling machine is doing, but it also serves as a quality check to pinpoint if something else is going wrong.
OEE: if your company uses an analysis platform like Guidewheel, a machine’s downtime and uptime are tracked automatically even when you aren’t at the plant, such as during third shifts. For a metric that covers all of the bases, try measuring OEE (overall equipment effectiveness). OEE accounts for a machine’s idling time, performance, and product quality to help you make sure your products are built and delivered on time with as few defects as possible.
By choosing just a few of the right metrics to measure production, the team can get solid results for directing new goals while making sure recordkeeping is manageable.
Get operators engaged in the improvement process.
Downtime can feel like a monster without a name. It can be very difficult and time-consuming to record each downtime incident, much less calculate how many minutes of lost production resulted. Try tackling downtime by empowering the operators on the plant floor. Many operators know the machines like the backs of their hands and can tell you exactly when, where, and why there was downtime. If they feel like their opinions produce meaningful, beneficial changes, they may feel more motivated to accurately track the length and reasons for downtime. If possible, operators can also use tablets or other devices to more easily record downtime while it is occurring, and these real-time updates can help managers see what is happening even if they can’t be on the floor.
How can Guidewheel help me?
When it comes to visibility into production, Guidewheel excels. We offer personalized training so you can tailor your Guidewheel platform to your plant’s needs. No matter where you are, you can be assured that your plant is in order just from looking at your device.
You can empower your team with the information and alerts they need by setting up automatic SMS notifications that will let on-site operators or remote teammates know when something needs fixing. Teammates can also check real-time data and alerts as they come in so the shift handoff is smooth and they can see exactly where things stand from the previous shift.
Whether or not you use Guidewheel, we hope that you will try the tips above to improve visibility and productivity in your plant. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about Guidewheel or future posts that could be helpful, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at info@safi.ai.