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Vol 30 - No 05 - July 2004 Branch news: South west - Manufacturing Performance Dashboard Two thoughts remain with me as a result of the March’s event held on Wednesday 24th March at British Aerospace in Bristol. I had arrived it must be said with more than a little baggage, having already made my mind up that the evening would be nothing more than a demonstration of just another suite of software. It did not take long for my views to change. Just consider the disproportionate amount of time spent flagging up problems compared with the time lost as a result of those problems or time taken to solve them. As someone with more than a passing interest in continuous improvement the benefits of a low cost, quick to implement analyser such as the Manufacturing Performance Dashboard are manifold. So lesson number one - and its not rocket science – always keep an open mind, listen to new ideas and more importantly take some time to look beyond your own comfort zone. As with most of our events there is much valuable information to be gathered through active participation, as much as through the presentation itself. I am sure that many of the organisations within which our members work fail to make the best use of IT skills. Too often I have encountered keen individuals who have improved their own particular areas but those skills fail to migrate into other departments. In many cases shop floor data capture remains a paper hungry process and there’s always a fear that to transfer that same process to an automated system must be complex. As a result companies shy away from such decisions. Manufacturing Performance Dashboard (MPD) focuses on break-down analysis, maintenance and planning. It does not require specialised IT skills and it’s modular system enables it to be tailored to small or large business requirements alike. Lesson number two then: simplify before automation and where possible make use of IT and software such as MPD as a vehicle for that simplification. As with all software, it cannot supply the answers. It is very powerful at highlighting the problems and as we know, vast amounts of management time is lost in trying to tackle and prioritise numerous problems. Elimination of waste therefore is a practice that should not be confined to direct manufacturing alone. The presentation highlighted the enabling properties of the package in identifying key areas of focus. For instance, scrap rates or changeover time. Mean time between failure and mean time between run data assist in giving indicators of reliability and down time and helping in planned maintenance schedules. Thanks to David Schofield of Presence Systems Limited and Myrddin Hughes of AD Consultancy and to co-hosts of the event South West Manufacturing Advisory Service. Related Topics:
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