The methods of improving the economic-financial efficiency of manufacturing plants

As a manufacturer, all certainly want to be able to increase productivity, reduce costs, and maximize profits. Those goals can be achieved if they are able to increase efficiency at their manufacturing plant. Many manufacturers think that increasing efficiency means cutting costs as much as possible that contributes to the decrease in product quality. But, there are actually some easy and harmless ways you can implement to improve efficiency on your manufacturing floor without sacrificing the quality of your products. In the following there are ways to improve efficiency.

Evaluation of Current Workflow

Industrial factories will have difficulty identifying areas for improvement in manufacturing process without examining your current workflow . A few things factories need to figure out regarding your current employee performance are the right skills to perform, the achievement of determined objectives, the timeline, the matters of acceleration. They need to find out whether the stages in production are going as planned. More importantly, discovering where the pain points and bottlenecks are is also vital. Before making any changes to workflow, factories should first develop a hypothesis, then compare the results to assumptions and previous conditions. This will give a clear perspective on what changes should be made.

Figure 1: the systematic structure of creating efficiency

Reviewing all the equipment and technology that factories are currently using is also essential. They consider whether all the equipment work properly, the technology that they rely on are optimal for current business needs.

Invest in Employee Training

Employee training is an ongoing process. In some industries, especially manufacturing, certain types of training are mandatory, such as daily safety training for all personnel using safety equipment. Factories need to train employees on new equipment and technology to get the most value out of them. Employee training is also an excellent retention tactic, because every employee wants to have the opportunity to develop their abilities. Limitation of training and education to equipment and technology is hardly recommended. Manufacturing business process will run more smoothly if everyone can understand the company’s policies and the right way to communicate with each other.

Updating Equipment

No matter how great employees are, if the equipment provided at manufacturing plant is outdated or even no longer works properly, then efficiency will be difficult to improve. Therefore, factories are willing to invest in modern equipment so that the production process can run better. Advanced equipment also helps to reduce costs for repairing damage and increasing the productivity of your employees.

Conduct Preventive Maintenance

Even though manufacturing companies have decided to buy the latest tools, that doesn’t mean they have to throw away your old ones. Some equipment may still be used for a longer period of time if treated properly. New equipment also needs to be maintained so that it can be used to the fullest.

And as you already know, maintaining equipment is far cheaper than replacing one. Factories should not wait until they see that their equipments are failing to function properly. Conduct preventive maintenance regularly according to the type of the equipment.

Using asset management software to help to record the condition of equipment and automate the maintenance scheduling is also good way to boom efficiency.

Keep Manufacturing Plant Organized

Organization is the key to an efficient workspace. Factories should pay attention to their manufacturing plant; the layout, the spaces for workers and heavy equipment to get in and out, and how each area is used.

There are few things need to check: Are all the hand tools easy to find? Are staff able to easily pick up all the raw materials or finished goods? Is the packing and shipping area close to where the finished goods are placed? Are the forklifts able to easily move around your manufacturing plant?

Reduce Material Waste

One of the biggest and most expensive wastes in manufacturing plants is material waste. Here are some ways to reduce it:

Using less material while packing your products, recycling, utilizing all available materials for creating new products.

Automating Supply Chain Management

There is no easier way to improve efficiency than automating business processes. Supply chain management is one of the most important segments in the manufacturing business. However, if the process is still run manually, then optimized efficiency will be difficult to achieve.

With sophisticated supply chain management software, factories can automate various processes; from tracking inventory across multiple manufacturing plants, setting up inventory levels, ordering raw materials to suppliers, to shipping orders to customers.