Manufacturing Metrics that Drive Action

Introduction: Measuring Manufacturing in a Digitally Connected, Demand-Driven World
As more manufacturers evolve toward a demand-driven (or customer centric) method of manufacturing, the metrics that measure their success change. The focus shifts from improving local, isolated efficiencies to improving global, or the overall production flow.

In a real-time environment, manufacturing leaders don’t have time to manage every individual order – they’ve invested in software to perform that function. Rather, operations managers and supply chain leaders need to focus on the exceptions; the events that disrupt production flow. They need to get closer to their data to understand the root cause of issues and deploy predictive analytics to pre-empt future disruptions.

Factories of the Future are embracing the Industrial Internet of Things to digitally connect all their data sources (machines, software systems). In doing so, they are transforming nearly every aspect of their operations in order to drive innovation and respond to competitive pressures. These smart manufacturers are using Demand-Driven Manufacturing software to drive optimal flow in the factory.

They are using Constraints Management techniques to determine the leverage points that exist within. They are using systems to monitor and track every order—from supplier to production floor to supermarket—and out the door. They are using that same system’s dashboard and alert management tools to notify them of current or potential disruptions to production flow. They are using pull-based replenishment systems to make their vendors and business partners streamline inventory response. Above all, they are accurately measuring the effectiveness of all of these elements to get a real-time grasp of how well their people, Chines, suppliers and processes are keeping up with customer demand.

Demand-Driven Manufacturers who have these connected capabilities are providing significant value to their customers – and to their top and bottom line. In this paper, we will address how metrics shift in a Demand-Driven Manufacturing environment and how technology is freeing data to enable new ways to visualize information and measure for improvement. We will provide guidance on the capabilities you need to have in place and a streamlined set of operations metrics to focus on to drive actionable results.