by I2DS | Feb 2, 2022 | Blogs
There 2 basic categories of innovation, one aims at sustaining the current process and product through incremental improvements, or through developing new products from the existing ones, the other type of innovation is disruptive in nature where the products or services being offered start a new trend, by satisfying needs of a needy yet neglected segment of the market and aim at disrupting the flow of innovation through by altering the path used by sustainable innovation. Irrespective of its nature innovation is what keeps the economy expanding, and satisfies the new and ever-evolving needs of the modern customers. Global economic landscape is getting more and more diverse every-day, the buying power of Asian and other third world countries is growing and organizations are contemplating a combination of sustainable and disruptive innovation to make most of the new and emerging global economic trends.
Manufacturing organizations truly have their work cut out for them, the metrics which used to guide strategy and performance have changed and new metrics for both economic performance and process performance have replaced them. Metrics like multi factor productivity, delivery time and R&D efficiency are becoming more important than old metrics like labor costs, process efficiency and other such single dimensional metrics. The infrastructure required to be a market leader in the modern high-tech market has become very complex and depends heavily on innovation and the speed with which innovative solution can be tested and commercialized. The emphasis has shifted from product life cycle measures to total technology growth cycle. To achieve a better position in the modern market, organizations are pursuing innovation through a systems integration perspective.
Today collaborative R&D programs run by the private and government sector has become common and this further substantiates a need for internal and external integration for a better and more productive collaboration. MES technologies will play a crucial role in reducing the over-all R&D cycles and proliferating innovation through comprehensive integration through integration across the entire manufacturing domain. This integration is a vital parameter for successful innovation as each and every activity performed for achieving it needs to be linked to other activities of the process and the process owners need to control the flow and expedite of the entire endeavor. This can be achieved when an MES solution is being employed and it is capable of adapting the process as is, with the ability of making it more flexible and fast, by ensuring decisions are made on hard facts and are made as an event unfolds. Only when the manufacturing of an organization is truly integrated it can achieve the level and speed of innovation it aspires. MES solutions have become pivotal in the pursuit of innovation and will continue to impact the way an Organization approaches and executes innovative endeavors.
by I2DS | Jan 31, 2022 | Blogs
It is often a matter of debate whether or not the pursuit of excellence is feasible economically? Organizations around the world have a divided opinion about the pursuit of excellence in operations and production process, this is because of the fact that the technology is changing at a very brisk pace in most of the prominent industries. The top management of such organizations is always in a dilemma that the pursuit of excellence would prove to be very costly and become redundant if there is a dramatic change in the technology of the industry. Also another impediment in the pursuit of process excellence would be the effort required towards the achievement of overall process excellence.
I believe that there is a basic flaw in the above perspective which is the way the top management of organizations associate process excellence with costs. I believe excellence should be pursued in every aspect that the customers associate with the end product’s end. A process being the set of activities and tasks which add value to a product, excellence is desired in all facets of the process which correspond to the customer’s perspective of value. Only when excellence is pursued in terms of the resultant value it can provide, it starts to seem economically feasible. Also, the application of flexible IT systems in manufacturing operations, make the achievement of process excellence easier. Modern IT applications such as the MES, Manufacturing Excellence, Data Analytics and Manufacturing Intelligence packages are able to incorporate and adapt to any technology changes that might occur in the future, without having to change the basic design and operation of the application. Such IT applications enable operations personnel to view the process as a set of value adding activities and pursue excellence in those activities that have a major impact on the customer value.
IT applications allow economic and systematic improvements to be made. An Organization may follow any of the excellence techniques from TQM to BPR, if it has the right IT infrastructure to support their efforts it would be able to succeed in a way that will reflect actual enhancement in the customer’s value. So the real question that arises here is, whether or not my IT infrastructure can support the pursuit of process excellence? If the answer to this question is No, then I am afraid the economic outcome of excellence efforts might not be very pleasing to the management, if the answer is Yes, then the organization is capable of achieving excellence if it sticks with the value perspective explained above. So if you are a customer centric organization and you lay emphasis on the value your process can add, the pursuit of excellence will be economically feasible if you have the IT infrastructure to support it.
by I2DS | Jan 28, 2022 | Blogs
What is a Manufacturing Excellence Application? Does it really work? Does my factory need such an application? I encounter these questions frequently. So, what is a Manufacturing Excellence solution? A manufacturing excellence solution, as the name clearly suggests is an IT application that helps you achieve excellence in manufacturing. No don’t worry; I do not intend to go around in circles. What I mean is that a manufacturing excellence application allows you to monitor, control and improve the performance of all the vital parameters and issues you consider critical for your Organization and your plant’s operation. Let us say that you find Safety, Quality, Communication and Equipment the top four areas of concern for your factory, a Manufacturing Excellence solution provides you an integrated platform to analyze the information pertaining to these key areas and enables you to make real time decisions.
It does work, especially for Organizations that have a culture that relies on setting high standards for themselves and achieving them at any cost. For Organizations that rely heavily on manufacturing, discreet or process, achieving manufacturing excellence is the only way to be more competitive and gain a larger market share. A Manufacturing Excellence solution helps you maintain the high standards you believe in.
Excellence can be achieved when simplicity in decision making and the subsequent action, results from monitoring and control of complex processes. Integration of the entire plant, process and personnel is vital for achieving manufacturing excellence. This integration can result only with the help of an information system that provides a seamless and holistic view of the vital process and personnel related parameters. This system should allow effective monitoring and efficient control for the entire process and aid real time decision making and action. There are many packages available in the market for Manufacturing Excellence, but is just any package the right package?
I believe every manufacturing process is unique; this is because of the fact that each organization has an inherent set of resources and unique environmental conditions. Thus a Manufacturing Excellence application should be process specific and not general. Every Operations manager gives importance to certain parameters, for the sake of this discussion lets say Quality, Safety, Equipment and Factory Communication. If the package available cannot capture the details of the parameters above mentioned, it is rendered useless for this particular Organization.
I2DS has devised a Manufacturing Excellence solution that can fit to your process and give you the power of monitoring and controlling the process parameters you consider vital. So if you believe that Safety, Quality, Factory Communication and Equipment issues are important cost centers and need to be monitored and controlled effectively, I2DS’ Manufacturing Excellence allows you to do exactly that. You have the capability to assign priorities and owners to each issue, see the real time actions and judge the performance of the entire process or the performance of individual parameters. With I2DS as your Excellence partner, you will never miss a vital issue and will be able to reduce the operating costs drastically, thereby achieving better profitability. With I2DS you can gain process excellence and this would help you become the Best-In-Class Operation. So open your doors to Manufacturing Excellence and I2DS, write into us at info@i2ds.com, and give us the opportunity to help you achieve excellence in all your competitive priorities.
by I2DS | Jan 27, 2022 | Blogs
Moving Data from Shop Floor to Top floor, is it important for you? Any Value chain is incomplete without proper flow of information; no strategic, tactical or operations planning are possible in the absence of information. Top management is responsible for Strategy Formulation/Updating and disseminating it in the entire Organization; to achieve this they require information form external and internal sources. While it may seem easier to access internal information it is hardly ever the case. Due to the vast size and hierarchical tall structures of Organizations, internal information is very hard to obtain and analyze. Organizations often forget the importance of this internal data, especially from the factory floors of their operation. This negligence can cause severe repercussions, improper or insufficient data from the shop floor can lead to a fall in market share, customer satisfaction levels and loss of alignment between market objectives and operation’s resources. Top management needs better tools to access and assess the shop floor data than presently available in today’s standard, off the shelf IT Packages. To provide a solution for this very need I2DS has devised it MES application, which can not only help in achieving effective process control and performance, but also allow information to flow from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor. Our solutions are web-based open platform solutions which make them accessible from virtually any where in the world; this means you don’t need to be in-house to see what is happening in the house. For Top Executives who are always on the move this solution is like a dream come true. Our MES solution can help Top guns of the organization analyze and assess the performance of all their factories on a single integrated system, this will help them exercise real time control and achieve the strategic alignment they desire. Since our solution has the ability to shake hands with your present ERP and other such applications, it becomes easier to integrate and access real time shop floor data. So if you are responsible to ensure that your organization makes money and keeps making it, I2DS is the right strategic partner for you. We understand the importance of data in decision making and have made it our mission to make data management and dissemination easier and faster for you. If you are interested in moving your shop floor data to top floor get in touch with us right away, e-mail us at info@i2ds.com or just hit the Request Live Demo tab on this page.
by I2DS | Jan 25, 2022 | Blogs
FIS stands for Factory Information System; it is an application which is considered crucial by automation experts. There are many versions and variants in which an FIS can be applied in a factory but we will look into that part a bit later in the article. Right now let’s focus on what an FIS really is and what makes it so necessary for modern factories. To begin with let us focus on the value of information, and the need to have real time info about the factory floor. Every manager irrespective of position or function will agree with me when I say that the correct information obtained at the right time is considered priceless. The reason behind this statement is that information that is gained a little too late has already caused some amount of damage, even though it might not be palpable at that point of time.
There is an ever present need to obtain information at the right time and for that information to reach the right person. Let us imagine a scenario where an engineer notes a leakage from a very expensive piece of machinery, he changes the seal which was causing the leakage and notes it in his journal. This particular episode is not noted any where else and the maintenance manager remains completely unaware of the event. Now, the leak still persists and is noted by another engineer, he too does what the first engineer had done. This way the root cause of the problem remains undetected, till it is brought to the manager’s notice and by the time an important part of the machinery has already failed. This causes losses that are multifaceted in nature; there is loss of money, machine up-time, labor, spare parts etc.
Such events and losses become hard to miss when an FIS system is in place. The FIS system is designed to record every event on the factory floor and can be viewed by the entire factory team. This application can also be used to provide training, inspiration and motivation to the workforce. However like I had mentioned earlier the functionality of the application can be defined by the management committee in-charge of deciding the extent and features of the application. The key thing is to realize the importance of the application to begin with and then comes the features and functionality of the application.
I2DS has developed a unique FIS solution. Our FIS system is truly at the forefront of technological advancements in the manufacturing space. It enables rapid data communication from the production floor and provides the organization with a real-time status on equipment status, WIP profile, and other factory metrics. We at I2DS realize the importance of process related information and how the flow of this information can affect the bottom line of your organization. Our FIS gives management a complete picture of what is happening on their Factory Floor, this helps better and faster decision making, that in turn increases organizational flexibility and aids continuous improvement. Factory Information Systems help you better utilize your equipment, make better tactical plans, improve cycle time, locate and relieve bottlenecks and achieve your true capacity. FIS system can provide above mentioned functionalities because it makes all the important metrics available for analysis and subsequent decision making in real-time. FIS Technology if used effectively can change the way your factory operates, let I2DS be your automation partner and reach the pinnacle of efficiency and profit optimization. To get an experience of our amazing FIS solution and other Factory Automation Solutions e-mail us right away at info@i2ds.com
by I2DS | Jan 24, 2022 | Blogs
The process of automating a manufacturing plant in terms of equipment and information systems is a complex, time consuming and costly process. The risks hurrying the process of automation can be improper automation, the use of obsolete technology in automation and a chance of overspending on automation technology. Managers feel the constant urge to upgrade their automation to keep abreast with their competitors or for other reasons that have different motivations like being the technology leader or becoming best-in-class. But they often fail to understand the need of their process and the trade off between cost of upgrading automation and boost in process capability.
The cost of upgrading the present automation can be extremely expensive and disrupt the process, plus there will be a higher opposition to the resultant change by the present work force, as it will lead to a greater degree of adaptation and implementation. Managers need to consider the option of optimizing their present automation rather than replacing it. The cost-capability trade-off is vital in this regard. If the entire system that exists has become obsolete and there would be a great loss of capacity in maintaining it, then replacing it or upgrading it seems the ideal solution. If the present system can be optimized to perform better at a lower cost with a clear increase in process capacity or capability, optimizing the system is the best move.
But to evaluate the present system and enhance it, you require experts in the field of automation and process integration to work closely with your operations team. This practice will help you get a better picture of present and future process requirements and will also help make the cost-capability trade-off. At I2DS we have the most respected and capable experts in the field of Process Automation, Integration and PLC. We specialize in optimizing the process automation whilst keeping the costs at bay. Our experts understand the importance of automation and help you in understanding the set of choices you have. Our team puts your requirements on top of the analysis pyramid and proceeds to fulfill these requirements by trying to optimize the present automation at your facility.
So if you are willing to upgrade your present system and want to spend millions of dollars doing it, please don’t. Let the I2DS team work with you and achieve the same results that you desire at a fraction of the cost you are presently willing to incur. We believe in customer satisfaction through relentless customer service. Let our experts optimize your present systems, e-mail us at info@i2ds.com or just hit the Request Live Demo tab and we will take care of the rest.
