Inflation is on everyone’s mind following the COVID pandemic.
Inflation is a result of an oversupply of money chasing too few goods causing excessive demand. This causes prices to rise as competitors race to supply markets with goods to meet this rising demand. This supply effort is heavily dependent on the performance of individual supply chains. They must respond quickly which stresses every phase from raw material supply planning, manufacturing, and the delivery to their customers. The manufacturing link of the chain depends on high machine availability. If the assets that produce needed products are not available because of breakdown, slow performance, and poor productivity the supply chain suffers. A key challenge for manufacturers is where to improve the manufacturing link of the supply chain performance to meet business demands. Investment in capital and resources in the wrong “place” to solve this challenge can be disastrous to the company.
Vysus Group’s Asset Management Consulting personnel are positioned to meet this key challenge for clients. Our services encompass improving aspects of both manufacturing execution and asset performance. However, there is a specific sequence of services that must be applied to determine the “right” solution for the client. If we act prematurely in diagnosing where the issues are in machine availability, we will not solve the problem, waste resources, and wind up with a disappointed client.
The first service we apply to meet this key challenge is analyzing the performance of the manufacturing link of the supply chain. We review the manufacturing process, metrics, operation-maintenance partnership, variance management, flow of information, meeting management, planning process and the application of lean principles that create needed performance in manufacturing execution. This analysis begins with a remote review of requested information followed by teleconferences to go over our preliminary conclusions and clarify any questions. This is followed by a site visit for a week that contains several activities – observations, interviews, meeting attendance, floor presence, data reviews, etc. We also will further investigate any key issues we see developing from our remote review.
Many clients want to jump to a solution during our site visit, but we reserve the opportunity to spend some time afterwards to thoroughly analyze the site visit and provided information. Many times, our clients are unaware of the issues that slow down their manufacturing execution and machine performance in response to increased demands.
The next phase of our services provides flexible solutions for the client from our analysis. The solutions can take different approaches depending on our conclusions and client agreements. Some solutions are more strategic in nature, dealing with manufacturing execution while others are more tactical pertaining to machine care.
Today’s supply chains for some companies are not positioned to handle the increased demand. Vysus Group’s Asset Management Consulting is available to meet these key challenges to improve manufacturing responsiveness
One strategic approach is to install a Manufacturing Operating System (MOC) which standardizes the manufacturing operation so variances become apparent and can be resolved. Every manufacturer knows that each day provides challenges that can impact schedule and product delivery and must be handled. This approach standardizes the manufacturing process from planning to execution, with aligned metrics and coordinated meetings. It ensures information flows accurately from planning to the production floor. The creation of the MOS starts with the staff meeting to both understand its current process and establish a more streamlined targeted version.
Another approach is to tactically improve the care the assets receive to improve availability and reliability. This entails analyzing the current asset care plan approach and refining the assets care strategies and tactical plans executed in the field. This approach both enhances and refines the preventative and predictive tasks for both operations and maintenance. Operations is commonly the cause of many issues reducing machine availability that maintenance gets blamed for upon equipment failure. We include the addition of both maintenance and reliability dashboards to show progress towards improving machine availability.
Finally, for both approaches, we offer implementation support. We are present for on-site training staff, management, operators, and mechanics on how to use the new MOS or how to implement the revised asset care strategies. This support usually last for several weeks. Many clients request this support because they see the value of “hand-holding”, especially while some have untrained personnel using these newly designed activities.
In summary, today’s supply chains for some companies are not positioned to handle the increased demand. Vysus Group’s Asset Management Consulting is available to meet these key challenges to improve manufacturing responsiveness. We have multiple approaches ranging from the strategic approach installing a MOS for manufacturing so variances can be addressed to revising asset care plans to improve machine availability. We help focus the client to analyze their situation and design a solution that meets their needs. Our solution, proposed plan, focused execution, and onsite implementation delivers a long term sustainable approach for our clients that will deliver results no matter the demands from their marketplace.
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