If you need to target the downtime within your operations, and make significant changes to your manufacturing workflows, here are 5 ways manufacturing communication systems can help you.
Rapid Communication
We have rapid methods of communication, rather than waiting for messages to be received and seen. We have advanced software that will escalate unanswered calls and can provide a visual way of communicating the help that is needed.
A lack of communication, especially in manufacturing, leads to increased downtime periods, and a diminished rate of output.
A communication system is a great way to implement an increased sense of urgency and efficiency within your company. Seeing as manufacturing communication systems allow you to communicate more quickly and efficiently with all departments, appropriate personnel can address issues faster, minimizing downtime. You can send rapid notifications to ensure the issues are attended to and the production line is moving as quickly as possible.
Real-Time Data
A manufacturing communication system can lead to both real time and in-depth data for your company to use toward process improvements. These analytics allow you to look at how long your production line is taking to manufacture a certain project, and whether this is cost effective for your company.
Real-time data allows you to focus on current issues within the process, mitigate future drawbacks, and improve the overall efficiency of your facility. Rather than working retrospectively, when the option of immediate correction has passed, you’ll have a real-time system to both monitor and adjust accordingly.
Manufacturing communication systems also connect employees, project managers, and other necessary parties so everyone is involved and getting real-time data to work towards continuous improvement goals.
More Accurate and Regular Maintenance
Accurate and regular maintenance is essential to optimizing your production line, and that’s why communication is so important when it comes to the chain of leadership and issuing commands.
Your total downtime is impacted by workers waiting for assistance, which shows that listening to your workforce when they offer preventative maintenance measures is also important, in addition to improving your communication systems.
High level reports from communications systems allow you to better predict maintenance needs and reduce potential causes of downtime. If you know where and how often outages have occurred historically, and you are able to schedule maintenance personnel to these areas on a regular basis, you’ll be better able to contain unplanned downtime.
Schedule Upgrades with Ease
Any downtime that interrupts your most profitable processes is costly. Scheduling upgrades into a regular maintenance routine allows you to take additional advantage of planned downtime and avoid additional downtime costs. Communicating these needs, as well as receiving real-time information from your personnel, is a great way to get a picture of how your production line moves in general.
You can use communication solutions to track when work is naturally slow, and your workers have the time to both commute to the maintenance issue and stand by for instructions. A communication system also offers data that can help you better schedule upgrades, so you can avoid equipment failing and causing downtime when you least expected and/or need it.
Track Causes of Downtime
A manufacturing communication system allows you to track the cause of downtime and figure out where issues are coming from. With downtime being the number one cost in manufacturing, it is important to target it with extreme precision, and a communication system can help you not only target, but also track.
Per year, downtime can cost industrial manufacturers nearly $50 billion. An effective communication system helps mitigate the cost of downtime as problems are recognized and addressed much sooner. When using a communication system, both planned and unplanned downtime can be monitored and reported, with information including the number of delays, and causes.
In all, communication systems are a great way to keep an eye on how your factory floor is operating, and to receive real time, in-depth reports. These systems also evaluate what specifically is causing downtime so you can determine what needs to be changed to reduce both the cost and increase efficiency of your facility.