Accelerating Operational Excellence in 2015: Trends and Technology

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.

Survey Respondents

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

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.

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

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.

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”

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.

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

Manufacturers Going Mobile in 2015

Many are planning on increasing usage of mobility in 2015

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 ćRRU�PDSV�DQG�ZRUN�VFKHGXOHV

Streamline inspection process and design standards

Ensure maximum quality, reliability and business management visibility

Create lean and secure operations

Replace manual, paper-based processes

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Which of the following areas do you believe would be most impactful for your organization when implementing

mobile technology projects?

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Survey results indicated that respondents from a variety of disciplines are able to articulate specific manufacturing applications where mobility would add value.  

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%

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.

Ready to learn more?

Click here to visit Catavolt’s Manufacturing Resource Center to learn more and turn

learning in to action