Why Manufacturers Are Pushing To Improve Performance

The drivers behind manufacturing improvements

Lifecycle Insights’ Flexible Manufacturing Survey sought to determine the specific reasons companies feel the need to improve their manufacturing processes. Chief among these is the desire to manage time, cost, and product pressure, thereby improving their position in an increasingly competitive environment. Manufacturers are striving to reduce time to market, lower product cost, and create innovative, disruptive products all while adhering to their production requirements. These production requirements are the secondary driver for manufacturers to improve their processes, and include:

• cost constraints,

• contractual obligations,

• specific customer specifications, and

• seasonal or specific customer schedules.

Companies also cited the need to maintain regulatory compliance (for instance, ESG certifications, safety standards, security protocols, and ISO process requirements) as an essential reason to improve manufacturing processes.

Once manufacturers identify the reasons they need to improve their processes, the next question is how to best implement changes to achieve these improvements. Traditional tools like basic programs and software, such as spreadsheets, documents, and shared drives are limited in their effectiveness. Companies using these tools report problems such as data loss, difficult intra-office and intra-department communication, which ultimately reduce productivity and hinder the manufacturing process improvements necessary for optimal business operations. Perhaps the largest drawback to these more traditional tools is that they make automation difficult. Since automation is one of the chief ways to improve efficiency, developing more efficient manufacturing processes is challenging without more sophisticated digital solutions.

The importance of automation

Indeed, manufacturers cite manufacturing automation as their top goal. Respondents to Lifecycle Insights’ Flexible Manufacturing Survey see automation as the best way to increase their manufacturing output and improve product quality. Automation will also assist companies with their efficiency, not only in the production of their products but through interdepartmental time spent on project and production planning.

Survey respondents also cited the need to ensure their equipment’s effectiveness, which would also benefit from automation. Machine downtime due to unscheduled maintenance negatively affects a company’s bottom line by reducing production. Automated monitoring can reduce or eliminate these shut-downs, which ultimately helps companies meet their production goals.

In fact, the more automation a company uses in their manufacturing processes, the less downtime they have, the more projects they deliver on time, and the better they stay within their budgets. Using digital tools such as computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), manufacturing execution systems (MES), quality management systems (QMS), and the industrial internet of things (IIoT) all help eliminate the reliance on manual coding and the potential errors it invites. All of these smart, digital solutions improve tool design and tooling performance, lead to higher quality products, reduce waste, and result in minimal production downtime.

Clear benefits, growing gaps

Small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies must consider a range of pressures as they seek advantages over their competitors in an increasingly complex landscape. Companies that implement smart digital solutions in the manufacturing process can mitigate these challenges by improving product quality, maintaining factory equipment effectiveness, and increasing manufacturing output.

The results from the Flexible Manufacturing Survey clearly show that the more automated, smart digital processes a manufacturing company has, the better its outcomes in budget use, product delivery, and functional operational time. The survey also demonstrated that companies that use smarter, newer digital manufacturing solutions leverage them to improve manufacturing tooling performance and toolpaths. As manufacturing companies implement new designs and encourage crosstalk among all machines in running new programs or simulations, the greater the likelihood for innovation and new product development. The ability of digital tools to improve a company’s development potential means that the implementation of these tools is becoming more and more important as companies race to keep up with their competitors.

If you are interested in learning more about the Flexible Manufacturing Survey, please contact us.

Lifecycle Insights is a trusted research, advisory, and publishing firm providing data-driven insights. We publish research, educational, and advisory insights on technology-led engineering initiatives, enabling better investment and adoption decisions. In addition, we work with companies to provide services for initiative decision-making, campaign content, go-to-market strategy, and product strategy.