Go Paperless with ShiftWorx™ MES Digital Work Instructions

November 30, 2022/in Machine Monitoring, Manufacturing, Technology

Go Paperless with ShiftWorx™ MES Digital Work Instructions

Integrate ShiftWorx™ MES Digital Work Instructions solution and benefit with the error-free delivery of information for any application.

Whether it’s preventative maintenance, quality control, assembly tasks and more, ShiftWorx™ MES Digital Work Instructions eliminates paper on the shop floor ensuring efficiency, accuracy, and accountability.

Integrate Digital Work Instructions with ShiftWorx™ MES

ShiftWorx™ MES (Manufacturing Execution System) enables manufacturers in the collection, monitoring, and visualization of machine data and manufacturing processes. Factory machines of any age, type or brand can be cloud-connected, putting vital analytics in the hands of management and plant floor workers resulting in improved productivity, quality, and reduced waste; and all-the-while empowering the organization to continuously improve!

ShiftWorx™ MES affords manufacturers of any size a shop floor optimization solution that:

◉ Cloud-connects ANY machine, tool or process

◉ Increases your shop floor productivity by 50%

◉ Is rapidly deployed in <5 Days

◉ Reduces waste, and decreases downtime by 30%

◉ Improves employee engagement 20%

◉ Achieves a fast ROI in 3 months!

ShiftWorx™ MES ultimately enables manufacturers to Make Smarter Decisions, Faster! Contact us to book your industry specific consultation and demo.

#DigitalWorkInstructions #LeanManufacturing #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IndustrialInternetofThings #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE

The Top 10 Wastes of Lean Manufacturing

November 23, 2022/in Articles, Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing is a concept developed during the 1990s, and at the time it was referred to as the Toyota Production System (TPS). It sets out to clarify the processes within the manufacturing timeline that add value and eliminate the processes that inhibit it. TPS identified the seven wastes of lean manufacturing, which we’ll be exploring in this blog; but it doesn’t stop there – we’ll also be examining some additional areas of waste that affect the factory line.

TIM WOOD

The TPS “seven wastes” are easily remembered via the acronym TIM WOOD, i.e., Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-Processing, Overproduction, Defects

What are the Wastes of Lean Manufacturing?

Waste is anything that does not add value. When your production line follows a large number of processes, it’s inevitable that, over time, elements of that process develop that hamper the efficiency of the build. This costs the manufacturer money, which, in turn, gets transferred to the customer.

Eliminating waste is an essential component in a company’s ability to compete, while helping increase profits.

Your customers expect timely delivery, consistent quality and the right price. So, streamlining your processes to remove waste is essential.

1. Transport

Unnecessary transportation of goods within a factory-line is the product of a variety of problems: poor factory-floor layout; complex handling systems; large batch sizes; storage in multiple locations; and over-production. These all result in unnecessary transportation.

The movement of materials from location to location is a waste because it adds no value. You need to pay people to move materials, and the maintenance of vehicles is costly. A poor floor layout can increase the distance between operations, resulting in delays in processing and expensive transportation costs.

2. Inventory

Inventory costs the manufacturer money until it has been sold on to the customer. Every finished product or material component require storage space; waiting on the shelf to be sold.

Large amounts of inventory increase the chance of transit damage and cause delays in transportation and therefore adds to the wastes of lean manufacturing.

3. Motion

Unnecessary motion occurs where movements by either man or machine are not as small or as simple as they could be. It could be that your engineer needs to bend down to pick up heavy objects multiple times throughout a shift – this puts strain on their back and could be eliminated by merely feeding those materials at waist-height, rather than on the floor.

This is all common sense because even robots will wear out eventually.

4. Waiting

A sloppy production timeline results in unsynchronized activity, causing waiting within the production process. Idle time occurs when interdependent procedures are not in synch: operators are kept waiting or work slowly to accommodate slack cogs in the wheel.

5. Overproduction

Overproduction breeds waste! It results from producing more product than your customer requires. This causes storage problems from unnecessarily large batch sizes, and an inability to respond to customer need.

If your customer wants 150 pieces of x and 12 pieces of y, but you already have 700 pieces of y and only 10 pieces of x, then your customer is going to have to wait for you to produce to their requirement. Streamlining your processes to meet customer need means that product is sent directly to the customer, in a timely fashion (and not stored) is a means to reduce the wastes of lean manufacturing.

6. Over-processing

Over-processing occurs where elements of your manufacture don’t add value. Painting of unseen parts of the product, or cleaning or polishing beyond required levels are example manifestations of over-processing.

Manufacturers need to aim to process to the degree that is useful and necessary. Over-processing is generally caused by a lack of standardization, unclear specifications, and inconsistent quality acceptance standards.

7. Defects

Defective goods are the most apparent waste. While faults can never be eliminated entirely, you can reduce them by implementing poka-yoke systems (processes that help equipment operators to avoid mistakes).

This requires thorough documentation of processes and standardized training so that everyone follows a standard set of operations to achieve a uniform result.

8. Wasted Talent

If an employee is simply moving materials or equipment from one place to another (transportation), then that person’s talents are being under-utilized.

Non-utilized talent equally refers to management’s ignorance of continuous improvement feedback that comes from those operating the machines. If management fails to engage with talent, it’s considered to add to the wastes of lean manufacturing in these terms.

9. Ineffective Performance Measures

Machine or process monitoring is a valuable resource for transitioning a process to lean manufacturing. By obtaining an accurate data-reflection of current processes, you can identify waste.

You can also empower the workforce by providing the ability to monitor their own performance and recognize productivity norms, while rewarding uniform, standardized working practices.

10. Poor Supplier Quality

No production process can overcome an unreliable supplier. If you need materials to produce, then you need to be able to rely on your suppliers to make sure your processes are as efficient as they can be.

Of course, there are always extenuating circumstances, but if your suppliers are continuously letting you down, it might be time to look elsewhere.

To Conclude

Your workforce is your business, and making sure that they’re productive is more than continually watching over them. Listen to them, because they will have the first-hand experience of any problems on your production line.

Eliminating waste is about examining your existing processes, and empowering operators to help you streamline the factory floor.

ShiftWorx™ MES software enables manufacturers to measure and record granular production information right off the plant floor, from any machine or process in real-time to help eliminate the wastes of lean manufacturing. Not only does this help eliminate waste, it engages your employees with actionable data!

Achieving lean manufacturing is now easier than ever with ShiftWorx™ MES:

◉ Cloud-connect ANY machine, tool or process

◉ Increase your shop floor productivity by 50%

◉ Rapidly deploy the solution in <5 Days

◉ Reduce waste, and decrease downtime by 30%

◉ Improve employee engagement 20%

◉ Achieve a fast ROI in 3 months!

ShiftWorx™ MES ultimately enables manufacturers to Make Smarter Decisions, Faster – Contact us to book your industry specific consultation and demo.

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#LeanManufacturing #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE

Manufacturing Monitoring and Employee Engagement: How ShiftWorx™ MES Connects the Two

September 28, 2022/in Articles, Machine Monitoring, Manufacturing, Technology

There is very little doubt that manufacturing monitoring software appeals to forward-thinking plant managers, shop supervisors and CEOs for its ability to track production and increase operator efficiency, saving companies thousands of dollars a month.

However, a key benefit (potentially one of the most important features) of manufacturing monitoring that is often overlooked is the impact it has on shop floor operators and employee engagement. When operators are engaged in the task at hand, they are known to work more efficiently and with more focus. Manufacturing monitoring, when set up properly, provides that type of engagement.

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Having a screen at each machine or workstation, and large screens on the shop floor that display and track the employee’s production statistics empowers the workforce in the following ways:
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Accountability

When an employee’s production is being tracked and recorded, there is a clear sense of accountability for their work. Creating accountable employees delivers numerous benefits to the company, including superior execution, lower employee turnover, more creativity and innovation.

Gamification

Gamification is the process of applying and integrating elements of game mechanics in order to motivate participation, engagement, and loyalty. Gamification takes the data-driven techniques that game designers use to engage players and applies them to non-game experiences to motivate actions which add value to your business. ShiftWorx™ MES enables that type of engagement with its ability to keep scores, track progress and display user-statistics.

Consistent Measurement of Performance

Machine Operator Displays his Manufacturing Monitoring Dashboard

In one of our recent blogs, Top 3 Questions Asked About Manufacturing Monitoring, we highlight that one of the questions asked most frequently is, “What do Operators on the Shop Floor Think of Manufacturing Monitoring; is this More of “Big Brother” Watching?” The feedback we received the most is that operators are in favour of having the monitoring implemented as it gives them a consistent measurement of their performance that they are able to see every day. With a manufacturing monitoring system like ShiftWorx™ MES, operators are empowered and engaged when they are able to view and understand their performance metrics in a real-time feed.

FreePoint Technologies is dedicated to helping manufacturing companies improve their bottom line, improve employee engagement, and bring modern technology to the plant floor. Through the power of the internet and our patented technology, we are able to connect to any machine or any process, giving you the tools you need to keep your manufacturing facility going strong, and continuously improving!

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#SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

LEADING FOR SUCCESS: Empowering the Right People to Build Your Business

July 6, 2022/in Articles, Manufacturing, Publication

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More Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the top 10 tips gleaned from successful companies and leaders that I’ve worked with over my 40-year career. Although the two tips shared in this column are very similar and intricately related, they are also critically distinct.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

“If you want something important done, ask a busy person.”

A colleague on a church board once said to me many years ago, when the two of us were assigned a task, “If you want to get something important done, ask a busy person.”

Here’s why that’s a great tip for a manufacturing setting. Truly busy people in manufacturing have a knack for getting things done. They are not looking to put new things on their list but instead are trying to find the quickest way to get an item off their list. Yes, there are people in manufacturing that know how to make themselves busy or keep themselves busy, but successful company leaders innately know the difference between routinely busy people and truly busy people that get things done. How do I know this is true? Easy. A task that is critical and needs to get done seldom gets assigned to a person with a track record of managing never-ending projects that seem to go on. They get assigned to people trusted to deliver an outcome. Without even deliberately knowing they delegate tasks in this way, they do.

Truly busy people know how to delegate, when to stay out of the way and when to roll up their sleeves and just do it themselves. Their focus is on getting the important tasks done and making themselves less busy. Routinely busy people are looking to remain busy, and often without knowing they are doing it, they keep tasks open and keep themselves positioned as a critical communications conduit. They resist closing the task out to get assigned another task, or worse (in their minds), have no important task assigned to them. Truly busy people don’t have this aversion, because as soon as they have any bandwidth at all, other important tasks are assigned (or reassigned) to them. What I’ve observed over the last four decades is that most progressive company and department leaders already instinctively know this. They just aren’t aware of it. The key is to not burn out your truly busy people. Instead, let them graduate up the ranks as they succeed, confident that there is another high-achieving candidate ready to follow their lead and fill their shoes.
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Successful manufacturers build on the people that take them forward. As they empower, enable and grow the people, they build their businesses. The company’s culture encourages its people to imagine, plan and persist on finding ways to move forward.
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“Leaders find a way.”

The second tip comes from someone I was also on a board with. We faced many challenging situations together. His closing mantra was “leaders find a way”. And indeed, they do. The leader is not the person with the position or title, or the education, or the letters behind their name. The leader is simply the person that finds a way when others don’t or can’t. In all of our workplaces, there are many people that can point out the reasons why something can’t get done. In fact, we often admire, empower, and even promote individuals that have great abilities to foresee or articulate problems that others can’t see. But how does that get a company ahead?

At best, it keeps the company from going backwards – It doesn’t pull the company forward. Many managers are to some degree inclined to keep companies from going backwards, but leaders are more often inclined to find a way forward. There are leaders in every organization, in roles up and down the org chart. In the most successful organizations I have come across, the people that find a way (leaders) are supported, encouraged and appreciated. In less successful organizations, the folks that have a knack for finding a way become discouraged and move on. A leader’s true role is to develop new leaders. A successful company’s culture fosters and encourages people to imagine, plan and persist on finding ways to move forward.

This is a key differentiator that I’ve observed that sets successful thriving manufacturers apart. They build on the people that take them forward. As they empower, enable and grow those people, they build their businesses.

Who are those people in your organization – the ones that find a way and get things done? Are you building on them?

Paul Hogendoorn co-founded FreePoint Technologies with the goal of giving manufacturers the benefit of information technologies that inform, empower and motivate their most critical asset – their people.

Access Paul’s full series of Leading For Success: Tips in Manufacturing Automation Magazine here: https://www.automationmag.com/author/paul-hogendoorn/

@AutomationMag #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #IIoT #MESsystem #MachineMonitoringSystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #LeanManufacturing

LEADING FOR SUCCESS: MORE Tips to Help You Make Your Company Great

May 25, 2022/in Articles, Manufacturing, Publication

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More Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the series of sharing tips I’ve learned from manufacturing companies and leaders I had the privilege of working with that were clearly succeeding and thriving, rather than just surviving. The tips are the best things I gleaned from them. The idea behind this series is to share all so everyone can do even better.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

In the first column, the tips were: “Don’t make a big production of it”, and “Your people are the smartest people in the room”. The two tips in the previous column were “What gets measured gets improved” and “You can get a lot more done when you don’t care who gets the credit.” They all seem relatively straightforward, but there’s more to it than just an easy-to-remember slogan.

“Digitize your proven processes first.”

A common and expensive mistake many companies make is that they tamper with proven plant floor processes in order to digitize them to achieve their stated Industry 4.0 goals. The mistaken belief is that it’s okay to change an effective plant floor process to accommodate a new digitized system, and the new process with a digitized system will be inherently better than the current process with an older manual system. This is a mistake on two counts. The first is that you may have reduced the effectiveness of a fairly effective production process, and you make money on the production process, not on the administration process. The second is that you will likely have made gaining buy-in on the implementation of any new digital system even harder to achieve by starting out on the wrong foot.

There’s a natural tendency to leave working processes alone and tackle problem areas first. However, in this case, it’s better to eliminate one major project variable by digitizing a process that you know already works. You are not trying to do two complicated things at the same time by introducing a paradigm-shifting technology and trying to fix a broken process. Fixing a broken process is a major task and objective by itself, as is digitizing a working process. For your whole Industry 4.0 plant floor digitization plan to have the best success, you need an early win. Digitizing a manufacturing administration process that you already know works well (checklists, scheduling, buy-off forms, etc.) can get you that early win. Taking on a broken process and trying to fix it with technology could stall your digitization initiative or send it in the wrong direction.

“Know your internal customer, and what’s in it for them.”

The larger an organization is, the more layers there are, and the more important this tip becomes. Advancing an idea or trying to get something critical done often means moving the conversation up the ladder one rung at a time. Or, it may mean delegating it down, but again, one rung at a time. Each rung on the ladder has a different stakeholder with a different agenda. A few years ago, my company’s marketing department developed a “persona chart” to help our sales team be more successful by aligning their pitch and terminology with the audience they were addressing. Seeing it all laid out on a single chart revealed how complex manufacturing organizations really are, and how important it is to understand “what’s in it” for everyone on the other ladder rungs.

On the far left of the persona chart are the machine operators and “value-adding, hands-on” people in your organization. On the far right is the C-suite, with the CEO on the very far right. In between, you have supervisors, department managers, plant managers, CI, maintenance and other functional managers, and perhaps division managers. The two main things that change as you go from left to right are the metric of concern and the period of interest. On the left, the metric of interest is parts, cycles, and rate, and the period is this hour, this shift, this day. On the far right, the metric is financial and the time view is this quarter, this year, this stage. On the left, the interest is personal financial security and stability. On the right, it’s profitability, sustainability and growth. On the rungs in between, it’s somewhere in the middle. Knowing how to advance your cause up the ladder, or delegate an objective down the ladder, requires a good understanding of what constitutes success for all the folks you are working with. The better you understand their position and what’s in it for them, the better your chance of achieving collective success.

Paul Hogendoorn co-founded FreePoint Technologies with the goal of giving manufacturers the benefit of information technologies that inform, empower and motivate their most critical asset – their people.

Access Paul’s full series of Leading For Success: Tips in Manufacturing Automation Magazine here: https://www.automationmag.com/author/paul-hogendoorn/

#SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

LEADING FOR SUCCESS: Tips to Help You Make Your Company Great

May 18, 2022/in Articles, Manufacturing, Publication

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Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the series of sharing tips I’ve learned from manufacturing companies and leaders I had the privilege of working with that were clearly succeeding and thriving, rather than just surviving. The tips are the best things I gleaned from them. The idea behind this series is to share all so everyone can do even better.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

“What gets measured gets improved.”

You might’ve heard this before, but there’s a catch – two actually. The first is “what” you measure is very important. If you measure the wrong thing, the improvements you make won’t make much difference – if any at all – to your operation. The best example I saw was a large tool and die company undertaking a major project to measure the OEE of their critical machines to improve that number. Several years into the project and their second attempt at doing it, one very astute manager concluded that they were focusing on the wrong thing. He observed that the time “under spindle” was relatively short compared to all the time that the pieces of work sat on skids at the end of aisles waiting for the next process to be run on them. He also found that minimizing the time between machining processes was a more pertinent objective than minimizing time under the spindle. The net result of measuring and improving that more relevant metric was a near 100 percent capacity increase in their facility, eliminating all overtime and outsourced operations as well as winning more business and taking on more work. The second catch is that to engage everyone in the improvement effort, the measurement must be shared in real time and be meaningful for the people actually involved. Sharing reports at the end of a month may be good for plant managers and executives to review in their meetings, but that has little motivational or behavioural change value.

“You can get a lot more done when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

I learned this one early on, from one of my mentors at the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC). He quarterbacked all sorts of small and large initiatives, deferring the credit to others. He was making investments into the people that he knew could leverage the projects’ successes, and if he ended up placing great champions to lead them from that point on, it would become a recurring win with an exponential result. Plus, he’d be free to quarterback another project. One of his most successful endeavours was the formation of the London Region Manufacturing Council. He initiated it and then placed it in the hands of a series of people (myself included) that received a lot of the credit for what the organization accomplished. Twenty years later, his initiative continues to be a strong advocate for manufacturers in the region.

But there is a catch to this tip too. Be careful that the right people get the credit. There are ‘credit takers’ in every organization who will quickly fill every credit void. Even worse, there are ‘credit destroyers’, people sensitive to the perception that when someone else looks good, it’s not good for them. To counter this, praise and credit should be shared publicly and evenly sprinkled over a larger group. The primary praise and credit should be shared more specifically and shared up the ladder a couple of rungs so that the individual may receive more opportunities to do even more great things for your company. Giving credit where it’s due adds to your currency in the organization as well as puts another potentially impactful contributor on the corporate radar. True winning team players are never afraid of having another high performer on the team. ‘Credit’ is an important currency and needs to be invested back into the business wisely.

Paul Hogendoorn co-founded FreePoint Technologies with the goal of giving manufacturers the benefit of information technologies that inform, empower and motivate their most critical asset – their people.

Access Paul’s full series of Leading For Success: Tips in Manufacturing Automation Magazine here: https://www.automationmag.com/author/paul-hogendoorn/

@AutomationMag #AutomationMag #SmartManufacturing #Industry40 #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ContinuousImprovement #ManufacturingAutomation #DowntimeTracking #OEE #LeanManufacturing

LEADING FOR SUCCESS: Best Practices Learned Over a 40-year Career

November 17, 2021/in Articles, Manufacturing, Publication

MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION
Featured Article by Paul Hogendoorn
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“’Training’ is one thing, ‘teaching’ is another, but what you and your people would likely benefit most from is ‘coaching.’ You can train people to follow a process – perhaps a refined process – but it’s a process nonetheless. Teaching is what expands their knowledge.”

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Read Full Article: https://www.automationmag.com/leading-for-success-best-practices-learned-over-a-40-year-career/

#Industry40 #SmartManufacturing #MachineMonitoringSystem #IIoT #ManufacturingExecutionSystem #MESsystem #ManufacturingAutomation #FreePointTechnologies #ManufacturingAutomation

The Manufacturing Trifecta

August 20, 2019/in Manufacturing, Machine Monitoring, Technology

Just in case you don’t know the term, “hitting the Trifecta” is an expression used to describe the ultimate winning bet on a horse race. It refers to picking the top 3 finishers of the race, in the correct order. Since the odds against doing so are extremely low, the winning payouts are often extremely high. If you picked the right horses in the right order, a two-dollar bet could return a 4-digit payout.

Wouldn’t it be great to know which 3 horses to bet on, and in which order?

In many manufacturing companies in North America today, there are many competing ideas and priorities being considered by companies:

What is the most important improvement to make first?
What investment will yield the biggest return?
Which improvements will prove critical, and which ones will result in minimal, if any, gain?

There is an approach that your manufacturing company can follow to “hit the trifecta”. It’s a simple 3 step process. The first step is easy, and relatively low cost. The second step requires a bit more effort but is risk mitigated because it is based on the results delivered in step 1. The third step requires the most investment, but since it is based on the results delivered in the first 2 steps, it is not only risk mitigated, but the cost of the investment may have already been paid for by the results of the first 2 steps. Picking the order is just as important as picking the horses.

I want to show you how you can hit the trifecta in your plant.

Pulling off the Manufacturing Trifecta

Step 1: Establish an empirical baseline to truly understand the critical “value-adding” activities on your plant floor. This is done simply by connecting your machines to FreePoint’s ShiftWorx system. It is remarkably inexpensive and can be typically be done in less than an hour without modifying the machine or your current infrastructure. Within 30 days of placing this small bet, you will not only have established an empirical baseline of your plant, but you will also have given real-time visibility to the plant that puts everyone on the same page, aiming for the same thing you are: productivity and profit improvement.

Step 2: Engage your people in the process of improvement by using FreePoint’s Narrative software. You will now be collecting all the information you need to determine all the reasons your equipment and processes aren’t running as effectively as they should be. And more importantly than that, you will have made your people a part of the solution and improvement process, every hour of every day. They will be engaged. FreePoint’s Narrative software is embraced by workers when they conclude that management is not monitoring them, but rather listening to them. This is a powerful game-changer for many companies, especially those companies where people are their biggest input cost. Those same people can also be their biggest asset.

Step 3: Connect your live, empirical machine data, and your fully engaged people, to your schedule and workflow plan dynamically – in real-time. Most plants use a combination of accounting systems, whiteboards, even excel spreadsheets, to plan and then report on the performance of their productivity. Some may have an ERP system deployed and some may even be considering an MES system. The problem with most ERP and MES system deployments is that it represents a single, very large bet, that will take a very long time to pay out if it pays out at all. FreePoint’s approach is to use what was gained (knowledge, insight, plus early financial payback) from the first 2 stages, tying them together in a process using visualization tools that line up with your plant’s current effective processes. Placing a bet on a system that takes years to fully implement and requires your manufacturing processes to be modified for the system to work is not just a bad bet, it’s often a losing bet.

The Outcome

If you are still reading, you are probably wondering how long it should take to hit this trifecta. The first step should take 30 days and should result in a payback 30 days later. The second step should take 30 days, and it too should result in a payback in 30 days. The third step should take about 120 days, but it can take as long as you like, because at that point, you will already have great empirical data, engaged and motivated people, and your system can be built to match your improved, and continually improving, manufacturing processes.

What is the expected payback on hitting this trifecta? From our experience, our customers typically see a 10% to 15% improvement at step 1, a further 10% to 15% improvement after step 2, and a 20% to 30% improvement after step 3. Doing the math, that would work out to productivity improvement, or capacity increase, of between 45% and 79%.

There it is, now you have the knowledge on which horses to bet on! Our suggestion: bet on achieving empirical data first, engaging your people second, and digitizing your plan third.

Call FreePoint to get started today.

Machine Downtime Narration is About Listening to Operators, Not Watching Them

July 24, 2019/in Manufacturing, Technology

FreePoint’s Narrative – it’s not management watching operators, it’s management listening to operators!

As the Co-Founder and Chairman of FreePoint Technologies, I often find myself speaking with curious prospects who ask a few similar questions:

“how does it work?” (how does it increase productivity)
“how do the operators feel about being monitored?”

The Narrative Application works because it encourages management to listen to their operators, not watch them.

The machine data collected from the ShiftWorx system tells management everything it needs to know about the performance of a machine when it is producing parts. However, the best source of information regarding periods of time when the machine is not producing parts is the operator. Before Narrative was connected to a machine, there were no effective, operator-friendly ways of collecting that valuable operator sourced information.

Narrative Showing Downtime Periods Explained With Reason Codes

Our Narrative solution allows every customer to easily create their own down time categories and conditions unique to their process and company. Many customers often have a list of events they want to track, but since they track them manually, the events are not captured or reported accurately, nor in real-time. Narrative automatically sets the time boundaries of the event and requires only a simple click on the downtime period to associate the condition to the event. Simple. Quick. Accurate. The result is empirical and actionable information on demand, at the click of a mouse or touch of a finger.

Sample Downtime Report Summary Showing Downtime Codes/Events by Minutes and Frequency

The important part: putting these insights into action in a way that ensures management is listening to its operators, and not simply monitoring machines.

Operators will have their own list of things they believe prevent them from doing a good job. “Looking for tools” is an example I hear often from operators and is a great example of an opportunity to put insight into action right away. A small investment in tools, toolboxes, or tool boards will deliver a quick return on investment right away with saved downtime and will demonstrate that you not only value employee input, but listen to it.

Reason codes entered in Narrative provides a real-time explanation for bottlenecks in your process. Quick response changes have a huge impact; you no longer have to wait 2-3 days to discover what is actually happening on your plant floor and more importantly, the changes that need to be made.

Our studies have shown that simply measuring and displaying up-time in a meaningful and relevant way results in immediate productivity improvements of 10% – 15%, and fully engaging your operators can result in an additional 10% – 15% improvement. (not sure how to do that? Just ask us!)

If you are using FreePoint’s ShiftWorx system to monitor machine up-time, take the next step to understand why your machines are down and to shine the light on the bottlenecks preventing improvements to your production.

If you don’t monitor your machines with ShiftWorx, what are you waiting for?

Check out the following videos if you are interested in knowing more about Narrative or the ShiftWorx Platform.

Leveling the Playing Field for the Millennial Generation

April 20, 2017/in Articles, Case Study, Manufacturing

No one likes an unfair game or an unfair system. With access to new technology such as the internet and social platforms, the new generation is keenly aware of and particularly sensitive to the injustices of the past and the present. The challenge with traditional employee measurement and incentive programs on the plant floor is that there is no common denominator. No way to truly compare the drill press operation to the CNC machine to the cutting of steel. FreePoint Technologies patent pending Shiftworx platform is the world’s first true application that completely flattens the factory floor and levels the playing field for everyone – even millennials. By effectively adopting the core concepts of lean manufacturing and applying technology solutions, FreePoint measures actual value added work vs waste in the exact same way in every process.

While powerful, but becoming increasingly common in machine monitoring, this new cloud connecting technology platform enables the development of deep gamification and engagement tools for any process, cell, plant or group of plants that wish to be at the forefront of attracting and retaining the future workforce. There are no barriers due to language or location. All people and all process are measured in the same common sense and fair manner. Easy to understand and universal in its application, FreePoint equips manufacturers today with the tools and technologies to leverage their existing assets into millennial ready and smart manufacturing powerhouses of tomorrow.

For more information on how FreePoint can help level the playing field for your employees, millennial or not, please contact engage@getfreepoint.com.

Tag Archive for: Employee engagement

Go Paperless with ShiftWorx™ MES Digital Work Instructions

Integrate Digital Work Instructions with ShiftWorx™ MES

TIM WOOD

What are the Wastes of Lean Manufacturing?

1. Transport

2. Inventory

3. Motion

4. Waiting

5. Overproduction

6. Over-processing

7. Defects

8. Wasted Talent

9. Ineffective Performance Measures

10. Poor Supplier Quality

To Conclude

There is very little doubt that manufacturing monitoring software appeals to forward-thinking plant managers, shop supervisors and CEOs for its ability to track production and increase operator efficiency, saving companies thousands of dollars a month.

Having a screen at each machine or workstation, and large screens on the shop floor that display and track the employee’s production statistics empowers the workforce in the following ways: .

Accountability

Gamification

Consistent Measurement of Performance

.

More Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“..I’m continuing the top 10 tips gleaned from successful companies and leaders that I’ve worked with over my 40-year career. Although the two tips shared in this column are very similar and intricately related, they are also critically distinct.” ~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

“If you want something important done, ask a busy person.”

. Successful manufacturers build on the people that take them forward. As they empower, enable and grow the people, they build their businesses. The company’s culture encourages its people to imagine, plan and persist on finding ways to move forward. .

. “Leaders find a way.”

.

More Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“Digitize your proven processes first.”

“Know your internal customer, and what’s in it for them.”

.

Manufacturing Industry Insight from Paul Hogendoorn, FreePoint Technologies Founder:

“What gets measured gets improved.”

“You can get a lot more done when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION Featured Article by Paul Hogendoorn .

“’Training’ is one thing, ‘teaching’ is another, but what you and your people would likely benefit most from is ‘coaching.’ You can train people to follow a process – perhaps a refined process – but it’s a process nonetheless. Teaching is what expands their knowledge.”

Pulling off the Manufacturing Trifecta

The Outcome

Having a screen at each machine or workstation, and large screens on the shop floor that display and track the employee’s production statistics empowers the workforce in the following ways:
.

“..I’m continuing the top 10 tips gleaned from successful companies and leaders that I’ve worked with over my 40-year career. Although the two tips shared in this column are very similar and intricately related, they are also critically distinct.”
~Paul Hogendoorn, Founder

.
Successful manufacturers build on the people that take them forward. As they empower, enable and grow the people, they build their businesses. The company’s culture encourages its people to imagine, plan and persist on finding ways to move forward.
.

.
“Leaders find a way.”

MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION
Featured Article by Paul Hogendoorn
.