by I2DS | Jan 30, 2019 | Blogs
Operations Management is often the most neglected area in all Organizations, it is considered to be a firefighting tool only to be called upon in the event of any problem or mishap. I believe Operations Management should be considered a vital part of management and should be used to attain competitive advantage for the Organization. Operations Management affects all five competitive priorities, namely, Quality, Speed, Dependability, Flexibility and Cost. Rather than trying to manipulate the external environment to gain a competitive edge, organizations can gain a lot by concentrating on setting their house in order by laying stress on Operations Management Excellence.
Most modern theories of management lay stress on the importance of Operations Management and how crucial it can prove to be in the success or failure of an Organization. There are many books which describe the importance of operations management at a strategic level and how an operations strategy can achieve higher throughput, lower costs and profit maximization. The crux of these writings however is a very simple fact, which is, if you lay stress on doing things right the first time and try to improve your operations continually, you can improve your profitability and become the best-in-class organization.
For manufacturing Organizations, Operations Management is extremely important, its so because it deals with the most important activity of the organization, the production of the goods, that are sold in the market, under a brand name. Thus in manufacturing organizations excellence in operations management is highly desirable. Most successful companies have realized this need and are employing the most modern information solutions along with various management theories to achieve manufacturing excellence. Information systems are making Operation management highly sophisticated and pushing operations towards a six sigma level of efficiency.
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 30, 2019 | Blogs
Information Technology is one of the most important areas of strategic planning and decision making for modern day organizations. IT decisions become even more critical because the top management of most organizations have limited knowledge of IT applications and relevant costs. All organizations feel the need to implement better IT infrastructure, but how to go about it, remains a crucial question. In most organizations IT services are outsourced, this makes sense considering the need to concentrate on core competencies. But while outsourcing IT services and applications it is important to understand the implications involved and take a decision after weighing the pros and cons of the situation.
It is indeed necessary to implement better IT infrastructure and have the operation of the organization automated. However, one should remember that once a mistake is made in choosing the right application or the right technology partner, it would be very difficult to deal with repercussions if the project does not work as desired. Even when purchasing a simple inventory or accounting software, it is important to understand the functionality that is desired and the functionality being offered by the selected product. As IT products become more advanced, the process of choosing the right application becomes more and more complex.
For companies that manufacture products, irrespective of their process, an MES application is highly desired to achieve a high level of automation and integration. There are many players in the MES market and all of them claim to have the best product. But what you need to look out for is whether that MES application suits your operations or not. Buying an Off The Shelf MES application has many implications, such as, there would be a need to change your process to suit the application, due to the changes made in the process the level of resistance received from the work force will be a lot higher and there are many other problems that may arise depending on the application selected and the degree of change to be made in the production process. I am strictly against the philosophy of ‘One size fits all’, especially in the case of MES applications.
I think it is easier to design an application that can automate and integrate the present process, as is, without making substantial changes in the process. Tailor made MES applications have proven to perform better and face lesser resistance from the work force. While making the decision of acquiring an MES application for your Factory, please remember that you should work with a company that understands operations in your industry and is willing to design a product to improve and integrate your current operations rather than change it completely. I2DS is one such company, we believe that every production process is unique and has different internal and external environments. We believe that a thorough study of a production process and an in depth research of the entire operation is required before designing and implementing an MES application.
I2DS has the most revered team of professionals both from IT and Ops Management background and our team of experts design our MES applications to better suit your process. If you need an MES application, get in touch with us and we will guide you towards a better more efficient solution, which will truly fulfill your needs of automaton and integration. We will visit your plant, analyze your process and then guide you towards an MES solution that will deliver the desired functionality. So what are you waiting for, e-mail us at info@i2ds.com or just hit the Request Live Demo, Tab and we will surely get back to you.
by I2DS | Jan 29, 2019 | Blogs
TQM, Lean, Lean-Six-Sigma and Six Sigma are various theories of Operations Management or management on the whole that are helping organizations become more efficient and profitable around the world. I believe that these theories or management philosophies have a lot in common and should be pursued in spirit. We should try and understand the end goal of these theories rather than trying to implement them blindly without proper consideration. These theories should be treated more like guidelines rather than a set of rules or do’s and don’ts. What all these theories tend to stress on is the reduction of operational costs, increase of throughput, attention to Quality, better relationships and involvement of customers, employees and suppliers and above all the pursuit of sustainable profitability.
These theories lay emphasis on understanding the external environment and internal capabilities and achieving a dynamic equilibrium between the two. The approach to achieving this end goal is different in different theories, but the goal is the same. One major pointer that is emphasized in all modern management theories is that management should be fact based, that management decisions must be based on hard evidence and not managerial whims and fancies. The fact based approach brings me to the topic of my blog, which is implementation of management practices through IT applications.
IT applications can prove to be an effective way to apply and practice management theories. The beauty of such IT applications is that they can be tailor made for your process, which makes it easier for the staff to implement and can help improve the operations in the future. Depending upon the industry, IT applications can be programmed to monitor all vital process metrics, analyze the process performance, impart training, aid communication, facilitate supply chain integration, control production, improve safety, achieve quality excellence and the list can practically go on for ever. We need to understand that IT applications are not and elixir to our problems but are tools that can help us better resolve existing problems that we face on a day-to-day basis.
The idea is to implement IT applications in such a way that they facilitate real-time, fact based and potent decision making at all three levels of decision making i.e. at the Strategic level, Tactical level and at the Operational level. The design of the IT application should be such that it can suffice the decision making needs at all three levels and yet be comprehensive in its reach throughout the Organization. IT can help any organization and at any desired level of management, the need and scope of IT applications remain debatable and are best analyzed when considered for a particular process. My agenda here is to highlight that IT is a great tool because of its speed, agility and accuracy and should be given a consideration by all Organizations who are in pursuit of Operational Excellence and Profitability. I do not believe in following any management theory blindly without understanding its possible outcomes and neither do I promote blind faith in IT as an ultimate cure for all management problems.
I believe it is important to understand what your business needs to achieve the goal it has set for itself, besides the obvious goal of profit maximization. I strongly advocate fact based management and believe the IT applications can help achieve better results in a faster more organized manner. However, it is very important that before jumping to a so called IT solution we analyze our needs both external and internal, we understand the problem areas or pain points and then decide how and to what extent an IT platform can help appease our needs. I would like to conclude by reemphasizing a few pointers that I believe should be a part of any endeavor made towards improving management and improving profitability, they are, never choose a management practice blindly, use management practices as guidelines, try and improve profitability and quality and above all consider IT as a vital tool available to achieve your goals.
by I2DS | Jan 29, 2019 | Blogs
Every Top Boss of every Organization of the world strives to make his/her organization the best in its class. If you read the Vision or Mission statement of any organization in the world this desire to be the best and even better, will become very evident. Irrespective of the line of business every company strives to be labeled the best in business, today we will talk about achieving this dream and making it a reality for manufacturing organizations, for whom their factories/plants are the main source of revenue.
To become the Best-In-Class operation, you need to realize that there is much more to the endeavor, than benchmarking the present best in the industry or otherwise. Benchmarking is very helpful but the main reasons for the success of the best organizations around the world can be attributed many factors, such as, strong leadership, clear vision, pro technology outlook, innovation, process control, quality ownership, zero error philosophy and above all 100% customer satisfaction. When the above mentioned features are embraced by the entire organization and these beliefs and practices enter the value system of each and every employee in the organization, becoming best-in-class is just a matter of time.
To develop such value system, integration of the entire process and involvement of employees along with ownership of process in critical. Information Solution like MES are providing process integration and automation for Organizations globally, which is helping them develop a more efficient, coherent and profitable operation. So what is an MES solution? Well, an MES application, as the name suggests helps better and more reliable execution of a manufacturing process, it gives higher degree of control over the process and facilitates real-time decision making. MES applications integrate every aspect of a production process and ascertain that no vital information is ever missed. Real-Time decision making happens when the MES keeps the process owners informed of every value adding activity at every step and ensures that tasks are performed as scheduled and are conforming to the perquisite standards. Such applications have proven to be extremely successful in controlling costs and increasing throughput.
There are many players in the MES space, that provide MES solutions, but who is the right partner for you? I2DS has the most revered automation and MES implementation team in the industry. Our experts specialize in MES, Factory Automation, PLC, APC, SPC, Data Tapping, Database Management and RFID Implementation. Our approach to automation is highly professional and customer centric. We believe that every process is unique and the level of automation required varies for each organization. Our experts provide automation solution that is not only leading edge but also highly efficient, there by assisting your team to make your process the Best-In-Class process in your industry. I2DS’ customers have experienced a higher throughput, better flexibility and greater profitability ever since they chose I2DS as their automation partner. Our goal is to provide process specific automation and manage the resultant change; this makes us a preferred partner in the industry today. So if you are in need of Leading Edge automation for your production plant, look no further, I2DS is here to assist you in this endeavor. For getting a better idea of how automation can improve your process and achieve a greater profitability, e-mail us right away at info@i2ds.com or just drop your inquiry in the comment box and we will get back to you
by I2DS | Jan 29, 2019 | Blogs
Almost every Doctor I have ever met has told me a cliché “Prevention is better than cure”. I believe that this statement although it might be a cliché holds true for every man made process as well. All Operations professionals know this and would agree that the sooner an excursion is detected the easier and cheaper it is to deal with. Theories like Total Productive Maintenance or TPM greatly emphasize the need for excursion prevention rather than the standard practice of excursion detection and subsequent corrective action.
Most manufacturing processes in the world have become highly complex, to make it difficult for competition to imitate them, also almost every production process is unique in some way even though the equipment used might be similar to others. Information Technology and process automation and integration applications are helping organizations around the world exercise better control and achieve higher excursion prevention. But just any ‘off the shelf’ application will not help you improve your unique process and changing the entire process to better suit the soft ware application does not make sense. A tailor made solution is required that has been designed to suit your process and then achieve the required functionality of excursion prevention.
I2DS has been able to devise such solution which are helping its customers increase the effectiveness of their prevention efforts and thereby increasing their profitability as well. Most systems lack the capability of tracking material through the production line; this may lead to a major loss in material and production time. There is an evident need for a solution that can help track material throughout the production line and I2DS has just the solution for this problem. We have developed a unique Inventory Management Solution, which allows you to track your material even after it leaves the Ware-house. Our system gives you the ability to track the exact location of material, anywhere and everywhere in the production line, right up to the finished goods stage.
Our system is capable of collaborating with your existing ERP system to give you better control and complete traceability for your material. Our system is in-line with JIT theory and helps you monitor the inventory at each and every step of production and insures you not only detect but prevent any excursion that might happen. Our system allows you to detect excursions faster and thereby helps you to prevent losses which might have otherwise occurred. So if you are interested in cutting your losses and improve traceability of your material, contact us right now and get a free demo of our path breaking solutions, e-mail us at info@i2ds.com.
