Production Benchmarking- It’s About Improving Business Performance

Measurement of production performance such as delivery accuracy, asset utilization, waste, spoilage, operator efficiency, and productivity are, at the end of the day, just statistics.  The collection of this data becomes most valuable when it is easily accessible and used to improve business performance. 

Accessibility- Data must be available when and where the user needs it

·    Production metrics must be available based on real-time information so management can make decisions based on what is happening in their shop at any moment in time.  The objective is to prevent issues, not just correct them

·    Important data must be highly visible- Information must be presented in a logical format or reports which clearly explain desired metrics.  Consuming time to interpret data is defeating the intent of benchmarking

·    Information must be stored and shared based on industry standards to allow easy integration with other systems.  We all share our data with other departments, customers, vendors and business owners and should not be consuming overhead to facilitate this information transfer 

·    Effective benchmarking systems must protect the user’s original investment as their processes, equipment and jobs change.  These systems must be open and scalable to remain current and cost effective.

How should performance benchmarking improve business?  

The simple answer is that benchmarking should enable growth and reduce operating costs without adding overhead.  To the level these objectives can be achieved, of course, depends upon many factors unique to the user.  However, production benchmarking should provide one or more of the following:

·    Track equipment and operator utilization to optimize equipment loading, throughput and turnaround times

·    Track operator effectiveness to analyze where overhead can be optimized or reduced

·    Eliminate compliance penalties and late delivery fees

·    Provide open information reporting to enable users to verify and prove clients’ compliance and SLA requirements are met

·    Eliminate manual production tracking and data entry costs

·    Reduce spoilage & waste

·    Compare actual performance data with budgetary estimates to improve estimating accuracy

Pat Hoskins, Ironsides Technology, PH (585) 953-3013, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com

 

Great End Users…

What a great week - There is nothing like being on the shop floor, in the middle of production, watching operators work with your software to produce more efficiently and more effectively. Good operators want to create great work and welcome tools which help them to improve productivity and quality.  Their commitment makes a winning team and delivers client satisfaction. When your own product helps them do that, and you get to see it in action - it is a rewarding experience.

When a production expert, the operator, asks: “how can we use this do produce faster; and, why not do that differently” – and we listen – the end result inevitably is better software.

Too often we get caught up in the process of closing deals and managing business issues.  It always helps and refreshes to be brought back to why we do open software - so we can help with diverse production tracking and integrity challenges.  The business solution you offer is only as good as its’ usefulness.  Actually watching customer operators practice “usefulness” creates a real sense of purpose for our continuous systems development.  Comments and critiques from these hands-on end user experts are paramount in keeping us aware and ahead of the real world technology and “usefulness” curves. 

So – thank you to all of our great end users! Your pride, craftsmanship and drive to be better have motivated us to keep our software easy to use, responsive and leading edge– literally built on your tremendous feedback as users. We try to listen, and promise to work even harder to support you.

For another insightful comment on software in your print/mail operation, take a look at this recent post in Digital Nirvana by Nicole Schappert.

http://thedigitalnirvana.com/2012/09/what-is-one-of-the-most-important-aspects-of-your-mail-campaign/comment-page-1/#comment-47442

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment,

Bill.riley@ironsidestech.com

(508) 962-1649

p.s. COMMERCIAL: If you are curious about more Ironsides’ end user experiences, and if we can provide you with more information about our open systems and open data sharing, please just let us know.

Here is a quick 4 minute audio about Ironsides – it is a commercial! You’ve seen them before, and this one won’t kill you either…

Ironsides APT

http://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/vu?pi=688769288&dm=5&pause=1&appKey=77