A paperless factory is more efficient, productive and sustainable than a production plant that chooses to print and store all the documentation it generates. In this article, it examines the benefits of document digitization for an industrial company on its journey towards becoming a smart factory.
One of the main features of a smart factory is eliminating printed records. Digitizing documentation provides greater flexibility, reduces errors associated with manual data handling, and allows organizations to save time, effort and money.
Despite the fact that the idea and benefits of the paperless factory are now widely known in industrial settings, only a few companies have taken the plunge into digitizing their documentation. Mainly, fear of change and uncertainty in choosing the right software delay the transition from printed records to electronic ones.
However, industrial companies must clearly understand that to stay in the game that their manufacturing must go digital. The coronavirus pandemic and the entry of digital natives into the labor market have accelerated this trend: by 2024, half of all factory work is forecasted to be done remotely..
Six advantages of digital documentation in a smart factory
One of the challenges for organizations to successfully undertake their digital transformation lies in completely eliminating paper record keeping from the production plant. Below, it highlights the main advantages of implementing a paperless strategy in the manufacturing industry.
1. Improved productivity and operational efficiency
Paper-based factory management prevents companies from focusing their time and resources on value-added tasks. Conversely, opting for a paperless approach triples an organization’s data processing capacity, increases productivity by up to 50% and reduces information storage costs by more than 80%.
In addition, the digitization of documents allows companies to increase their operational efficiency with a reduction in overtime and labor costs per worker.
2. Automation of industrial processes
Paperless factories that manage their documentation with the help of platforms such as an MES system are able to speed up all their approval processes and detect errors immediately. For example, if a quality issue arises, the software quickly identifies the glitch and alerts operators in real time to minimize the impact.
Manufacturers that go paperless not only streamline production operations and deliver their orders on time, but also minimize non-conformities, scrap, and rework. This enhances the company’s reputation and ensures customer satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Total control and visibility of the factory
Paperless factories have the advantage that they can consult all kinds of information related to the production plant at any time and place. Moreover, since data is updated in real time and fully reliable, decisions can be made much more quickly, with informed choices and putting aside personal guesswork.
Thanks to the increasingly widespread use of mobile devices and tablets in industrial environments, in a paperless factory, operators can also consult current documentation, record data or report an incident whenever they want, even if they move from one side of the production area to the other.
It is also much easier to analyze information stored on platforms such as Mapex than to dig through stacks of documents. These solutions offer a major advantage by enabling you to view data through historical data, reports and graphs to detect trends and/or analyze specific periods of time.
Lastly, paperless factories encourage collaboration within the organization. Sharing a digitized document among several people is not the same as having to work with paper copies.
4. Automated data capture and elimination of human error
A paperless factory incorporates the use of digital tools such as sensors to capture specific data sets and automatically transmit them to a storage unit. This process eliminates human error, achieving a 99.99% accuracy rate, and dramatically reduces data processing time.
Collecting reliable information is especially important for industrial companies that are subject to very strict regulatory compliance. Quick and accurate access to documentation is key when responding to a quality audit or customer complaint.
5. More sustainable factories
Profitability, Industry 4.0 and sustainability can go hand in hand and paperless factories are the best example of this concept. Apart from the multiple economic benefits it delivers to companies, eliminating paper in the production plant also opens the door to an eco-friendlier way of working.
Thanks to digital documentation, companies can dispense with a material that negatively impacts the planet: paper manufacturing consumes large amounts of water and energy and is one of the industrial activities that emits the most carbon dioxide (3.3 kg of CO2 for every kilogram of paper produced).
6. Safety assured
Factories can be quite dangerous settings when it comes to paper, which is why many industrial companies choose to digitize their documentation. Protecting documents and preventing them from being destroyed or damaged is one of the main reasons why companies prefer to store all information in computer systems.
The investment pays off in the long run, as losing documents related to compliance or regulations can have serious consequences for the organization. With this storage strategy, paperless factories also control who can access the information, guaranteeing the confidentiality of operations.
Mapex, the paperless solution for your factory
With the Mapex MES system, our customers have been able to eliminate or minimize paper-based records from their production plants. Thanks to this change, they are able to manage and view all the documentation online to make decisions in real time.
Mapex replaces traditional paper-based systems, increasing the visibility and transparency of processes and eliminating the need to manually record data. In this way, the MES system frees operators from tasks that do not add value and helps to introduce improvements in the operational management of the company.
To learn more about the benefits of the paperless factory and find out how we can help you digitize the information of your industrial company, contact our sales team and request a demo of our MES system.
