The manufacturing industry is faced with a constant need to manage a lot of challenges. Some of the most prominent ones include changing regulations, difficulties in production environment and complex equipment that are difficult to maintain. Any unscheduled manufacturing downtime can affect production and result in losses, it can even affect the quality of the product being produced and dent the image of the company.
It is highly important for manufacturers to have fully functional equipment so their operations can go on normally without any obstructions. Scheduled downtime is important as it gives opportunity for changeovers, cleaning and changing tools and equipment, personal breaks, early shutdowns, or any un-planned events that can occur like repairs or breakdowns that can affect important business.
Equipment reliability has to do with the health of the equipment and how it performs a task optimally. Other attributes are also considered like performance and quality of the equipment. Equipment availability on the other hand is the actual time a system or machine is available for production as a percent of total planned production time. Other common challenges that plague the industry include:
With an ERP system, more and more manufacturing organizations can control their machinery and reduce time-to-insight. This technology helps businesses control their data and offer integrated analytic and workflows. Microsoft dynamics allows businesses hasten the movement of goods, remove waste caused by costly shelf-life expirations and returns, and also improve the production efficiency of the organization. Some of the advantages of using an ERP system like Dynamics 365 to minimize unscheduled manufacturing downtime. include:
This helps manufacturers hasten and simplify compliance with regulatory agencies such as the FDA. With this, organizations can use integrated quality controls and lot traceability to link raw materials through each operation of the production process.
ERP systems help pull inventory in sequence and enables customer service to ship lots that arrive with the correct amount of shelf-life remaining. It also performs calculations for inventory reservations, picking, reducing inventory, and eliminating waste.
It offers complete visibility into audit trails and batch production. Incorporate electronic signature functionality into an existing business process.
ERP accurately models the process of costly ingredients in order to minimize under-runs and over-runs. Shelf-life planning will help account for expiration dates during the production and distribution.
Dynamics 365 helps organizations document many ingredients, manufacturing processes, storage requirements, etc. and you can review this information at any time. This technology enables you to set security restrictions to make sure that only users you approve can make changes thereby protecting your critical assets.
As the manufacturing sector continues to grow and evolve, they need to understand the importance of intelligent technologies like dynamics 365 and embrace them. This is the best way for manufacturers to maximize their assets availability and track the reliability of their machines. It allows them drive towards increased productivity, enhanced safety assurance, and higher quality products.