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What is Manufacturing Analytics?
Manufacturing analytics is the process of applying data analysis techniques to manufacturing processes to improve various aspects of production. It involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting data from all stages of the manufacturing process—from raw material intake to final product delivery.
The goal is to uncover hidden patterns, identify potential improvements, and implement solutions that enhance productivity and efficiency. As industries become more data-driven, manufacturing analytics becomes essential for maintaining competitive advantage and responding agilely to market demands.
Core Metrics and KPIs in Manufacturing Analytics
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a gold-standard metric for assessing manufacturing productivity. It measures the ratio of actual output to theoretically possible output. Essentially, does your output match the maximum amount that your facility can produce?
The metric is made up of 3 factors; availability, performance, and quality. You get a percentage score for each one and this is combined to make your overall OEE score. For more info, check out our blog post on how to calculate OEE.
By highlighting areas where performance isn’t quite up to scratch, managers know where to place their focus, and can implement improvements on the most impactful issues. Regularly monitoring OEE can therefore lead to significant enhancements in machine performance and product quality, and can improve your factory’s overall productivity.
Machine Downtime
Machine downtime is one of the biggest contributors to lost productivity in manufacturing. It accounts for any period when a machine is not operational and thus not contributing to production output.
Tracking downtime allows you to identify recurring issues that cause stoppages. With this information, you can put mitigation in place. For example if you find a machine is constantly stopping due to overheating issues, you can put temperature control measures in place.
If it’s more of an ongoing maintenance issue, you can create a schedule where you implement maintenance just before the issue would normally occur, which will significantly reduce downtime and it’s associated costs.
Capacity utilisation
Capacity utilisation measures how close a manufacturing operation is to running at full capacity. A high utilisation rate often suggests good management and process optimisation, whereas low utilisation can indicate inefficiencies or excess capacity.
By tracking this metric, firms can make informed decisions about scaling operations, optimising workflows, or investing in additional resources. Improving capacity utilisation is essential for maximising production output and reducing per-unit costs.
Cycle Time
Cycle time is another crucial performance metric in manufacturing. It measures the time it takes to complete one production cycle, from the initial input of raw materials to the final output of a finished product. In order to get value from this metric, manufacturers need to work out their peak cycle time, and then their actual cycle time. The difference in this will show the efficiency of your production processes, and whether you need to make adjustments to improve speed of your processes.
Tracking and subsequently reducing cycle time not only boosts productivity by enabling more units to be produced in the same timeframe, but it also contributes to lower production costs per unit due to reduced labour, energy, and machinery usage.
Monitoring cycle time is also essential for performance benchmarking and continuous improvement. It allows manufacturers to set realistic production goals based on historical data and track their progress toward these objectives. Additionally, efficient cycle times can improve delivery times, enhancing customer satisfaction and competitive advantage, particularly in markets where speed is crucial.
Quality Control Metrics
Quality control metrics are essential for ensuring products meet both regulatory standards and customer expectations. These metrics typically include defect rates, the percentage of products meeting quality standards, and the frequency of returns or complaints.
Effective quality management can reduce waste and rework, enhance customer satisfaction, and protect brand reputation. Continuously improving quality control processes is vital for long-term business sustainability.
Energy Usage
Energy usage metrics are critical for identifying cost-saving opportunities and promoting sustainable practices within manufacturing operations. Tracking energy consumption by machine, process, or plant provides insights into operational efficiency and helps pinpoint areas where energy use can be minimised. Reducing energy consumption not only cuts costs but also contributes to environmental sustainability goals, which are increasingly important to stakeholders.
How to Track Key Manufacturing Metrics
Manual Tracking
The first way that you can track aforementioned metrics is manually. This involves traditional methods such as logbooks and/or spreadsheets, where operators enter data at regular intervals. While this method can be effective, it is labour-intensive and prone to human error.
Manual tracking might still be appropriate in smaller operations or in instances where automated systems are not feasible. However, the move towards digitalisation in manufacturing makes manual methods increasingly obsolete as they lack the timeliness and precision of automated systems.
Using Manufacturing Analytics Software
Manufacturing analytics software automates the collection and analysis of data, providing more accurate and actionable insights. Such software typically uses IoT devices to integrate with existing hardware and IT systems to pull data continuously and in real time.
This automation reduces the burden of manual data entry and enables the display of metrics in an easily digestible format, such as dashboards that update in real time. Using software allows for the rapid identification of issues and opportunities, dramatically improving response times and operational agility.
Busroot, our manufacturing analytics software, tracks all of the above metrics. It can send you updates whenever machine downtime occurs, or when OEE dips below a certain level. It allows you to put personalised processes in place to speed up the correction of issues, and uses advanced analysis to highlight inefficiencies.
For example, Busroot identified that one of our clients machines was slower to start up than the following machine, causing the process to be much slower than anticipated. By fixing this issue, our client was able to improve availability and increase overall output.
Benefits of Tracking Key Manufacturing Metrics
Cost Reductions
Effective tracking and analysis of key manufacturing metrics leads to direct cost reductions by identifying wasteful practices, reducing downtime, and optimising resource allocation. Downtime for example can be extremely expensive, costing some companies up to $260,000 per hour!
As such, having a system in place to track this minimises unplanned outages and reduces the costs associated with downtime and reduced output. Using your data to highlight recurring issues and implement proactive maintenance can also help extend the life of machinery, further reducing costs.
Increased Revenue
Tracking these key metrics leads to enhanced efficiency and productivity. This directly translates into increased capacity, allowing companies to produce more without having to increase inputs.
Similarly, fast production, improved product quality, and speedy delivery can all lead to higher customer satisfaction, which results in improved customer retention. This can increase the annual recurring revenue of your business, and there’s no better way to improve profits than targeting customers you already have! Analytics can also uncover new revenue opportunities through better understanding of customer needs and market trends.
Enhanced Decision-Making
Manufacturing analytics empower decision-makers with factual, timely, and detailed data. This depth of insight supports more accurate and strategic decision-making across all levels of the organisation. It allows for fine-tuning operations, strategic planning, and long-term investments based on reliable data rather than intuition or imperfect information.
Real-Time Visibility
If you decide to track these metrics using software, you get real-time visibility into your entire production environment, allowing managers to make immediate adjustments that can significantly affect output and quality. This instant access to data helps in quickly identifying and correcting deviations from production standards. Real-time data is crucial during high-stakes production runs where waiting for end-of-shift reports could be costly.
Selecting the Right Tools and Solutions
If you are going to opt for manufacturing analytics software to track your key metrics, then choosing the right solution firstly requires a thorough assessment of your company's specific needs and existing infrastructure. You need to highlight the key areas you’d like to focus on, and find a system that provides this.
You should also look at the solution’s compatibility with current systems, scalability to accommodate growth, and the ability to integrate with other tools. Finally, it’s important to evaluate vendor support and the software's ability to adapt to evolving technologies and business needs. Busroot can easily integrate into whatever ERP and/or MES system you have, and can easily scale with your business due to its cloud based functionality.
If you'd like to find out more about how Busroot can optimise your production output, then do not hesitate to book a demo with us. You could be 1 of 25 companies that can implement this transformative software completely free of charge. Spaces are running out, so get in touch now!
