It’s not for nothing that futuristic manufacturers deem real-time production visibility as important. After all, performance can change in a blink. Shortage of a material can disrupt an entire schedule or some equipment might abruptly halt working. However, discovering these issues through meetings or reports at the end of shifts is not helpful.
Because by then, you have already missed a target, accumulated scrap, or lost precious production time. With real-time visibility though, there’s no need to bank on retrospective reports. Teams can visualize whatever’s happening on the shop floor without delay and act promptly for the best possible outcome.
When production visibility is real-time, the right people receive the right information on time. Information from various operational sources comes together reliably for a shared view of how your factory’s running. You can spot problems earlier, respond faster, and adopt a culture of continuous improvement.
If smart manufacturing is your objective, explore real-time visibility further.
What Is Real-Time Production Visibility?
It’s the ability of leveraging timely operational data to constantly track current:
- Manufacturing activity
- Equipment conditions
- Performance
- Status of production
Why is it more effective than traditional reporting? That’s because manufacturing environments are fast-changing. If you cannot detect an issue in real time, you cannot prevent it, even if a conventional report describes it precisely at the shift’s end.
However, real-time shop floor visibility collates information from operators, machines, connected devices, quality systems, work orders, etc. It’s then presented via alerts, visual dashboards, and workflows.
Here’s what’s involved:
- Data collection: Direct information capture from sensors, equipment, business systems, and operators.
- Data Contextualization: Linking raw data with products, machines, jobs, shifts, schedules, and targets.
- Actionable Visualization: Presenting information in a way that helps teams to spot anomalies and act on them.
Hence, real-time production monitoring is about achieving complete operational awareness, interpreting information, and making informed decisions.
What Data Should Manufacturers See in Real Time?
Should every bit of manufacturing information be displayed in real time? No. Your focus should be on data that can impact decisions when production is ongoing:
Output
Having your eye on live output is crucial. By comparing actual production against what was planned, you can figure out if a line can accomplish its target.
For instance, say a line was meant to churn out 500 units by a certain point in the shift. However, it has produced only 430. When this variance or shortfall is visible immediately, supervisors can dig into the cause and troubleshoot right away.
Downtime
Monitoring downtime in real time helps you understand when machines are stopping and why. Which relevant live production data points to track?
- Unplanned and planned downtime
- Frequency and duration of stoppages
- Downtime reasons
- Repetitive machine issues
In fact, real-time monitoring, paired with connected equipment, can reveal downtime, equipment conditions, cycle time, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
Cycle Time
It’s a measure of the time taken to complete a specified operation or churn out a unit. And monitoring cycle time constantly helps you spot slowdowns before a stoppage happens. This matters because a machine running at a rate that’s slower than the standard can slash throughput.
OEE
OEE monitoring aids in the visualization of machine availability, quality, and performance. When you do so in real time, you can identify the component that’s causing a decline. Here’s an example for clarification.
An OEE score that’s dipping might be triggered by slower cycles, increase in downtime, or rise in defects. So, when you break up the metric into key components, precise intervention becomes easy.
Quality Data
Real-time manufacturing visibility shouldn’t just revolve around production volume. You must also pay attention to:
- Scrap
- Rework
- Defect counts
- Inspection results
- First-pass yield (FPY)
- Process deviations
By linking production data with quality information, you can figure out where issues are cropping up and when.
Production Schedule
Visualizing scheduled vis-à-vis actual production in real time is essential. This way, you will know when production isn’t meeting the target and if the delay will impact a downstream operation, changeover, or order.
Machine Status
From connected equipment, you can derive status-related information like:
- Idle
- Running
- Faulted
- Stopped
- Waiting for material
Simply put, frontline workers get an idea about the state of production immediately.
Labor Information
You can also track operator assignments, staffing, productivity indicators, and task completion. This can help in identifying if a performance hiccup is connected with workload, training, availability of labor, or process design.
Benefits of Real-Time Production Visibility
Real-time factory visibility offers multiple perks:
Faster Problem-Solving
A minor disruption doesn’t snowball into a massive production loss. For instance, when production slows down or a machine stops working, the relevant team can handle the issue promptly.
Less Downtime
Production tracking in real time not only helps you understand downtime occurrence, but also its pattern. You don’t need to refer to manually recorded events or depend on memory. Rather, it becomes easier to spot recurrent losses and dig deep into the causes.
Better Production Performance
Supervisors use live information to make necessary tweaks during a shift. For example, if one line is not performing well but another has capacity available, they can reallocate resources. Or if production is being impacted by a material delay, it’s possible to intimate supply teams earlier.
Enhanced Quality
Knowing exactly when quality indicators are moving the wrong way can help you intervene early. In other words, real-time production monitoring helps you spot and fix issues before large product quantities are affected.
More Accountability
Everyone on the shop floor is clearer about responsibilities when performance is visible. This means:
- Operators can check if they are meeting targets
- Supervisors can keep a tab on team performance
- Managers can identify areas requiring extra support
Effective Continuous Improvement
As far as improvement initiatives go, there’s no denying that historical data has value. However, information gathered in real time lends vital context. Teams can zero in on repeated bottlenecks and compare performance before an intervention and after. They can also confirm if improvements are being sustained.
Improved Resource Allocation
With real-time information, you can make smarter decisions about production priorities, materials, machines, and labor. Teams will no longer allocate resources only based on assumptions or schedules. They will instead respond to real operating conditions.
How Real-Time Visibility Improves Daily Operations in Practice
Incorporating real-time production visibility into daily management routines is the best way to maximize its value. Here’s why.
Say, 45 seconds is the target cycle time for a production line. But the actual cycle time shoots up to 51 seconds gradually. Without live monitoring, this problem might not be evident until the shift ends. With real-time tracking though, you can spot the change earlier.
For instance, a supervisor might investigate if:
- The machine experienced wear
- The material changed
- An operator was facing difficulty
- Minor stoppages are piling up
- Maintenance is called for
So, here’s looking more closely at how daily operations improve:
Everyday Production Meetings
Shift meetings become more focused with live information. Through a shared performance view, teams discuss:
- What is falling short of target
- Why it is happening
- Who is responsible for response
- What action is necessary
- When to review the result
Shift Handover
Communication across shifts also improves with real-time systems. That’s because incoming teams don’t need to depend on handwritten notes or verbal handovers. They can see open actions, present production status, downtime events, and outstanding issues.
Escalation
Establishing rules for escalation becomes easier with digital real-time visibility. This way, only major deviations are presented to the leadership or appropriate individuals.
Root Cause Analysis
Investigating the root causes behind a problem is easier when you have real-time data as evidence. This means, if something goes south, you don’t need an operator to remember when it happened. Instead, teams can look into machine states, cycle times, production records, and other contextual details.
Performance Reviews
For long-term analysis, you can examine recurring production patterns filtered by:
- Product
- Machine
- Operator
- Shift
- Downtime category
- Production line
This reinforces the connection between everyday management and broader improvement projects.
Technologies That Enable Real-Time Production Visibility
The following technologies go a long way in driving shop floor visibility in real time:
Industrial IoT
It connects factory assets (sensors, machines, etc.) to systems that can capture operational data and transmit the same. Connected equipment, for instance, can supply information on speed, temperature, pressure, cycle time, and so on. You can particularly make the most of industrial IoT by connecting legacy equipment.
Edge Computing
Edge devices are designed for processing data close to the generating equipment. This minimizes latency. Also, certain monitoring functions can run without every data point being sent to a centralized cloud platform.
MES Software
From production tracking and work orders to traceability and quality, MES software offers a whole host of execution capabilities. And by focusing on live performance, production-tracking solutions can strengthen MES platforms.
Sensors and Connectivity Solutions
Whether a machine does or doesn’t supply digital information, sensors can capture the generated data. And connectivity solutions can turn the same into production data you can use.
Manufacturing Dashboards
Transforming raw information into visual indicators of performance – it is what manufacturing dashboards do. Effective ones help you easily identify:
- Actual vs target performance
- Present status
- Trends and exceptions
- Bottlenecks and open actions
Production Analytics
By leveraging production analytics, you can gain clarity on patterns across current and past data. This means shifting from basic visibility to in-depth analysis of trends, bottlenecks, and losses.
Alerts
Employees are alerted when something abnormal happens in terms of operations or a predefined threshold is reached. This way, no one has to stay glued to a screen all the time.
The Role of Dashboards in Production Visibility
Real-time visibility eliminates the gap between what happens on the shop floor and when you discover it. You get to prevent problems by tracking critical performance indicators live. Advanced technologies especially aid with that. However, the derived information must be linked to daily management routines, structured troubleshooting, and constant improvement.
That’s where thoughtfully-designed manufacturing dashboards enter the picture. Fabriq’s digital solutions, for instance, transform visibility into a bigger system for operational management. You can effortlessly visualize KPIs, spot deviations, assign actions, take meaningful decisions, and maintain improvement initiatives.
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