Efficient Production: The Key to Profitability

Gone are the days when, on a supply-led market, the profits of industrial companies were determined by a (sometimes arbitrary) profit margin added to the cost of production.

In today’s increasingly competitive, demand-driven market, production efficiency is becoming more and more important. Profitability often depends on manufacturing efficiency, more specifically, on minimizing manufacturing losses.

Production line manufacturing is a complex process: several factors (number of units produced, quality of the products produced, availability of machinery, etc.) must be in place at the same time for the production itself to be efficient, both in terms of costs and time. The measurement and recording of data generated in production is still often performed manually (on paper or in Excel) – therefore errors and inaccuracies in data recording can distort the results and lead to an inefficient use of resources.

There are also questions which, in the absence of reliable data, can only be answered by guesswork. For example:

• Why does a particular production line lag behind the others in efficiency?
• Why is the productivity of the night shift much lower?
• Why has downtime increased?
• What is causing the high scrap rate on a particular shift – poor quality raw material, an untrained operator or worn machine parts?
• Who is the “culprit” – production, purchasing or maintenance?

RELIABLE DATA: A PREREQUISITE FOR EFFICIENT PRODUCTION

That’s where DSS EffiSensy, a complex solution developed jointly by Bosch Rexroth and DSS Consulting, comes in, offering three tools in one (hardware, software and consulting) to help make production more efficient.

With DSS EffiSensy, sensors installed on the production line automatically provide production data without interfering with the manufacturing process. From this data, the software generates reports (at shift, machine, and operator level) for a given period of time, which can be used to optimize production with the help of Lean consulting, in order to achieve the best possible OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness).

This can greatly improve production efficiency: Increasing the number of pieces produced with the right quality, reducing scrap rates, reducing downtime, and thus minimizing production losses and increasing profits. In addition, the automated solution eliminates the need for manual data entry, saving time and eliminating inaccuracies and errors caused by manual solutions.

In addition, the system makes it easy to identify issues with the people, machines and materials involved in the production process, and to identify and analyze the causes of these issues. What’s more, communication becomes more effective thanks to reliable data, eliminating guesswork and finger-pointing.

And last but not least, staff performance can also be accurately measured and monitored.

COMPREHENSIVE PRODUCTION MONITORING

Thanks to DSS EffiSensy, truly comprehensive, hands-on production monitoring becomes a reality:

• It collects and delivers production data from up to four levels: factories, plants, production lines, workstations (cells);
• Time-related data can be entered at three levels: calendar (working days, days off and holidays), shifts, events (e.g. shift changes or maintenance);
• Additional production-related data can be entered, such as the operators working a given shift, the products produced at a given workstation, and a cell description recording all other relevant data at cell level;
• Several scrap categories can be defined in the system the automatically entered scrap can be manually recorded and categorized;
• Downtimes can also be freely categorized in EffiSensy.

All the collected data are stored in DSS EffiSensy on the long term, so that key production indicators going back several years can be reviewed, analyzed and used to support investment planning.

Does your company face similar challenges? Why not have a chat about them over a great cup of coffee? 

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