In traditional manufacturing operations, production visibility was limited by manual processes for tracking data. Operators, technicians, and managers relied upon a sea of charts, graphs, forms, and hand-written notes to understand where production processes were at for the shift, day, or week. This information was often outdated by the time it reached those who needed it.

Evolution of Real-Time Visibility

Today, real-time visibility in manufacturing businesses is possible because of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology, advanced monitoring, and analytics platforms. Real-time data visibility increases production efficiency by allowing companies to track actual production rates, machine conditions, labor utilization, raw materials flow, and more... in real-time. By using connected factory assets and IIoT devices, manufacturers have deep insight into product performance and can even receive actionable insights to solve problems before they happen. Managers can zoom into the factory floor, machine level, operator level, or even individual spindle performance to manage production.

Cost of Poor Visibility

With ever-increasing material and operational costs, many manufacturers are choosing production monitoring systems to reduce costs and enable collaborative manufacturing. This cutting-edge technology can monitor supply chain movement, inventory, and operational data like cycle time, downtime, and Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) to help companies uncover opportunities that poor visibility inhibits.

Human Error

Human error is a pervasive problem in manually tracking production. Everyone makes mistakes, from forgetting to log information, transposing number orders, and incorrectly labeling or identifying downtime causes. People are also subject to bias, such as not logging a piece of information the same way another employee would, or simply rounding numbers.
When the opportunity for human error is multiplied by many employees in a complex manufacturing environment, visibility is unreliable. This tends to result in poor decision-making, inaccurate benchmarks, and reduced efficiency. For example, many manufacturers are quite surprised to learn that average utilization rates stand at just 36%.

Redundant Data Entry

Manual data tracking often includes sending data to downstream or ancillary departments. In these cases, there's a risk data will be entered a second time. This mistake may be due to oversight or interoperability issues between software in departments (such as quality or maintenance) that don't work well with manufacturing software.
Each department entering the data multiple times costs the company in labor. Redundant data may also increase other costs if decisions are based on averages or duplicated information.

Production Inefficiencies

Poor production visibility means higher operational costs because managers may miss the "why" of a problem. When delayed data is combined with human error, it's often too late to fix the problem, and waste or downtime has already happened. Because data is inaccurate, root cause analysis isn't possible for any recurring issues contributing to operational efficiency. This reduces the effectiveness of current manufacturing process improvement initiatives and means that critical contributors to inefficiency aren't included as improvement opportunities.

Poor Decision Making

Manually tracking data means that critical information is delayed from reaching the hands of decision-makers. And when it does arrive, it's filled with errors, redundancies, and missing information. These gaps mean that decisions are made based on insufficient data. Even in the best manually kept systems, information will contain errors. But there's also a low absolute limit to how much information can be recorded by hand. Because the volume of data is smaller and the analysis is human-based, deeper insights and lower costs aren't possible.

How to Enable Real-Time Production Visibility

Gaining visibility is critical in modern manufacturing to lower costs and increase operational inefficiency. To realize those benefits, data must be real-time, accurate, and available to those who need it. Here are a few ways to enable real-time production visibility:

Collect Production Data

The first step to real-time production visibility is collecting data. Advanced IIoT devices, sensors, and edge devices allow companies to capture data at the source and transmit it to a cloud-based analytics platform. Manual data collection simply doesn't cut it. Many of today's equipment OEMs embed IIoT capability in their machines. There are also out-of-the-box machine connectivity solutions, like NERP, that ensure connectivity to both modern and legacy equipment. Data from sensors and edge devices eliminate the bias, inaccuracies, and costs associated with manual data collection strategies.

Identify Core KPIs and Develop Benchmarks

Identifying core KPIs - and others that are made possible with automated data collection - help establish a true picture of where production is and what's happening. KPIs can be used to benchmark production so that progress can be quickly measured. Benchmarking also helps companies understand where they are in terms of cost savings and in comparison to their competition. As mentioned before, the average manufacturer has a 28% rate of utilization. In many cases, NERP users are greatly surprised by this as they had assumed their utilization rates were higher. It's not until you have accurate production data that you will have a clear gauge of performance.

Root Out Data Silos

Real-time data must be organized and structured for analysis. So, all relevant areas where data is generated or used for decision-making must be connected to the data stream. Advanced production monitoring solutions like NERP can collect, contextualize, and standardize production data for immediate visibility and actionability. These platforms can also integrate with existing software to unsilo data and provide a single source of the truth for more accurate decision-making. For example, you can ensure accurate production data (such as cycle times and part counts) are updated in an MES, or you could push machine condition data into a CMMS for automating maintenance activities.

Develop Visuals Such as Dashboards and Reports

The right platform returns structured and analyzed data to the production floor or relevant department in real-time. To make the best use of these insights and increase productivity, you can create customized reports that provide users with information that is relevant to their machine, task, or department.

• Operators can use screens and dashboards near their machines to see how they are performing against part goals for the day.
• Continuous Improvement Managers and Manufacturing Engineers can analyze historical data to identify bottlenecks and waste.
• Maintenance Managers can view downtime reports and build automation to increase response rates (or prevent the downtime altogether).

Intuitive and highly visual dashboards with Pareto charts, performance graphics, and current and historical query capability will help users turn insights into action. They can also add data to contextualize the insights, then add to the subsequent analysis to hone the system further.

How NERP Drives Production Visibility

With the advent of advanced technologies, achieving real-time production visibility has become easier than ever. One such platform that excels in providing comprehensive solutions is the NERP production monitoring platform. By seamlessly connecting to both digital and legacy analog equipment, NERP enables manufacturers to access accurate production data in real-time.

Real-Time Production Visibility

NERP production monitoring platform provides organizations with effective solutions to achieve real-time production visibility. By effortlessly connecting to both digital and legacy analog equipment, NERP ensures that organizations have access to real-time and accurate production data.

Visualize Data through Out-of-the-Box Reporting and Dashboards

To facilitate easy understanding and analysis of production data, NERP offers out-of-the-box reporting and dashboards. These tools allow organizations to visualize data and gain valuable insights in the format that best suits their specific production processes. The user-friendly interface of NERP's intuitive, interactive dashboards empowers operators, technicians, and managers with relevant data, thus increasing production visibility.

Empowering Decision-Making with Timely Notifications and Alerts

In addition to providing real-time production data, NERP also offers the ability to configure notifications and alerts. These timely notifications play a crucial role in driving efficiency improvements by automating communication across the production floor. With these alerts, organizations can ensure faster response times, improve maintenance strategies, and enhance decision-making capabilities.

Seamless Integration and Enhanced Data Accuracy

One of the key advantages of using NERP is its integrated platform that caters to all the functionalities required by a manufacturing organization. By offering provisions for integrating with other management systems, NERP ensures that all stakeholders within a production environment can base their decisions on the most accurate and up-to-date data available.

Ensuring Optimum Performance and Increased Efficiency

With NERP driving production visibility, organizations can optimize their performance by monitoring real-time data and making data-driven decisions. By identifying bottlenecks, identifying areas of improvement, and reacting promptly to issues, organizations can enhance overall efficiency and productivity.

Streamlined Processes with Enhanced Production Visibility

NERP empowers organizations to streamline their processes and identify areas where improvements can be made. With real-time production visibility, organizations can proactively address challenges, reduce downtime, and achieve operational excellence. This improved transparency and visibility pave the way for more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing practices.

NERP, with its robust capabilities, serves as a catalyst for increasing data visibility. By providing real-time production data, intuitive dashboards, and automated notifications, NERP empowers manufacturing organizations with the tools they need to optimize their processes and drive efficiency. Furthermore, the platform's seamless integration with other management systems ensures that all stakeholders have access to accurate data, enabling them to make informed decisions that positively impact the entire production environment. By leveraging IIoT technology and implementing advanced monitoring and analytics platforms, businesses can now have unparalleled access to real-time data that empowers them to optimize processes and drive continuous improvement.

If you're looking to reduce production costs, do robust capacity planning and improve operational efficiency, NERP is the solution you need. Our platform offers a best-in-breed solution that empowers businesses to capture shop floor data directly from equipment, eliminating the need for operator input. With out-of-the-box reports and dashboards, users can quickly identify waste and take strategic action to lower costs. Contact us today to learn more about how NERP can help your organization thrive in a competitive market.