Inefficiency on the shop floor: how does it affect the profitability of your business?

Digitizing and automating processes with tools like Mapex can help you boost efficiency and, as a result, the profitability of your business. Here’s how an MES system is a must-have platform if you want to leave inefficiency on your shop floor behind.

A fundamental factor that has a direct impact on the profitability of organizations is business inefficiency.

By inefficiency we mean, for example, working with obsolete documentation, spending hours searching for information, overlooking the importance of standardizing processes or failing to establish real-time communication between departments.

All these situations have a significant impact on operational efficiency and, ultimately, on an organization’s ability to grow and be sufficiently competitive in its industry.

Examples of inefficiencies in a factory and Mapex solutions for each of them

Time wasted searching for information

An organization’s employees often waste a significant portion of their time searching for information in the company’s various repositories and servers.

In the vast majority of occasions, these documents are essential for the realization of new projects or to provide answers to operators, customers or suppliers during the production process.

In an industrial company, where efficiency and productivity are very important, every minute counts. The lack of a single system to manage all the information undoubtedly implies delays in decision making, task execution and identification of operational problems.

In this sense, an MES system such as Mapex presents itself as an integral solution to overcome this great challenge. We are talking about a platform that centralizes and organizes information in a 100% paperless environment, providing employees with quick access to the most relevant data.

Working with obsolete documentation

Working with outdated documents can lead to misunderstandings and errors in production processes, as employees may base their decisions on incorrect or outdated data. This, in turn, leads to defects, nonconformities and rework.

In addition, inconsistency between documentation and current practices can lead to confusion and make it difficult to train new employees.

The implementation of an MES presents itself as an effective solution to avoid the problems associated with obsolete documentation. This Industry 4.0 tool integrates information into a single platform and updates it in real time so that the entire workforce has access to accurate data on processes, requirements and other critical specifications.

By keeping documentation up to date, a solution like Mapex improves internal communication, facilitates informed decision-making and enables rapid response to changes in demand.

Lack of coordination and communication between departments

When the different areas of the company operate in isolation, information does not arrive in real time and can be lost or distorted, resulting in misunderstandings, delays and errors in the execution of tasks.

In addition, the lack of strategic alignment between departments can lead to duplication of efforts, misuse of resources and a lack of global vision of business objectives. This not only affects productivity, but can also have a very negative impact on product quality, customer satisfaction and, as a consequence, on the company’s profitability.

An MES system can become your best ally to improve coordination and communication between departments.

Not only is it a platform that centralizes all relevant information on a single platform, but it is also a very powerful tool to promote real-time collaboration between all members of the company: notify failures in the most critical equipment, activate quality alerts and/or warn of important changes in production processes.

Time spent on manual data entry

To drive continuous improvement in an industrial company, it is essential to have data. However, when it comes to analyzing this information, we must be 100% sure that the data collected is reliable.

One of the main functions of an MES system is precisely to automate the capture of data directly from production equipment in real time. In addition, platforms such as Mapex incorporate very interesting tools for processing this information, as well as for identifying and monitoring the most relevant KPIs for each business.

Thanks to this, we leave behind the manual collection of information, a task with no added value that, in addition, usually brings with it many errors and slows down the ability of organizations to be more flexible and adapt quickly to the demands of their customers.

If you liked this article and want to know how we can help you to reduce inefficiencies in your production plant, do not hesitate to contact us through this form.

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