It’s hard to know what to improve if you don’t know what’s working properly in the first place. In manufacturing, conducting regular assessments is a critical part of running a successful business. In fact, health and safety depend on it. To get ahead in what is undoubtedly a lucrative, competitive and complex industry, finding new ways to improve processes is a must. It also tends to be a little harder than simply eyeballing the factory floor for surface level issues. If you need a helping hand in your own self-assessment efforts, here are some top tips you may want to consider looking at.
- Utilize the Right Tools
Sometimes, detecting issues can be extremely difficult without the right tools, regardless of how experienced you happen to be. By utilizing a great OEE Overall Equipment Effectiveness tool, you can leverage analytics to get a better understanding of how your equipment is (or isn’t) performing.
Establishing a reliable, scalable metric is a good way to get organized and keep an eye on what needs altering on a daily basis. The right software is a huge help in this department, so don’t underestimate its value. Poorly functioning machinery not only harms your productivity, but it can put your employees in danger.
- Consult Your Cost-Benefit Ratio
A cost-benefit ratio can help you determine the profitability of your processes, and it offers you the opportunity to consult a formula should you need to run a productivity assessment. It can help you make more accurate predictions, enabling you to obtain greater insight when making changes in the future.
Focusing on the nature of your profits can be a good way to measure and improve productivity, but it shouldn’t necessarily be your main concern when it comes to conducting assessments, but rather an aspect of a wider and more intricate process.
- Communicate with Employees
Good productivity is not just the result of fresh machinery and streamlined analytical processes, as the employees have a crucial role to play in the operation. Without their support and their job satisfaction, you may have a hard time getting the most out of your setup. A good way to assess whether or not this is the case is to communicate with them as best you can.
There may be no better insight than the word of those who work on the front lines in the thick of the action, so why not ask your staff for their opinions? What’s working for them? What needs changing, and what do they think they can do to improve? It should be a two-way conversation too, so it’s certainly worth encouraging questions and any criticism they might have.
- Do it Regularly
The findings from even your most thorough investigation into the state of your productivity will not be relevant forever. Regular assessments need to be made if they are to remain effective and applicable to your current situation. The ideal assessment frequency will likely vary based on your specific business, but it’s worth aiming to carry out a check every few months if you hope to introduce new methods of working.
