Manufacturing Operations Management – A Guide for Better Shop Floor Control

April 21, 2020 · 7 minutes
manufacturing operations management in a manufacturing plant
By Ali Hasan Raza
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What is Manufacturing Operations Management?

Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) is a long-term holistic solution that gives complete visibility into plant floor operations to help consistently improve manufacturing operations performance. A good MOM is one that combines all essential production processes to enhance quality management, boost operational excellence, and help in advanced planning and scheduling activities. 

What is Manufacturing Operations Management Software?

A Manufacturing Operations Management Software helps optimize operations by connecting, aggregating, and scheduling shop-floor automation activities, along with the larger set of production workflows and supporting activities to the overall reporting software of the enterprise. A reliable MOM Software can provide valuable visibility and insights for plant managers, operators, and supervisors to help take necessary actions for sustained operational excellence. 

The market size was valued at $7.21 billion in 2018 and this is expected to reach $15.21billion by 2026.

How can Manufacturing Operations Management Software help?

The manufacturing industry has witnessed a rapid flux in the past few years, influenced by several digitized processes. Due to this, the industry has to be further prepared for instant demand/ supply market changes and disruptive innovation.

This has created the need to evolve just in time manufacturing processes to adopt MOM functionalities and it is important to further integrate it into various operational domains through business process automation. 

MOM Software helps in facilitating this. The software operates on a collection of systems that are used to manage end-to-end manufacturing operations processes with the basic objective to optimize the supply chain efficiency of complex manufacturing operations. 

The software involves a definite set of processes that constantly improve the core operational activities on the shop floor. This is done to meet the strategic objectives of enabling product innovation, operations cost reduction, regulatory compliance, inventory management, and quality maintenance. 

Here is how MOM software helps manufacturers: 

COMPLETE SHOP FLOOR VISIBILITY AND CONTROL

MOM Software can provide essential information to manufacturers to help continuous improvement over weaker processes. This is possible through lean manufacturing principles and operational quality compliance.

SINGLE-SOURCE OF UP-TO-DATE PROCESSING DATA

MOM Software can help plant managers maintain a single unique source of critical engineering data. This would be the ready reference for important information such as part specifications, important plant assembly instructions, equipment maintenance records, etc.

REDUCTION OF WASTAGE

A good MOM Software can help trigger those manufacturing systems that can help in waste reduction. Most often this is related to the inventory management function which directly helps monitor inventory levels and therefore controls potential stock out issues.

MANUFACTURING AGILITY

With a sound MOM Software, manufacturers are able to control shop floor performance despite fluctuating demand cycles, while managing product/ service costs and quality effectively. This gives the necessary agility to quickly adapt to changes proactively while saving time, resources and efforts.

OPTIMIZING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY AND PROFITABILITY

Better management of industrial operations can have significant business benefits. MOM Software aims at eliminating manual approaches to operational efficiencies by automating processes and this helps improve the bottom line and profitability for manufacturers.

REAL TIME QUALITY DATA AND APPLICATION

Today’s MOM software application solutions help manufacturers collect accurate real-time data related to products, operations steps, inventory, labor, etc.  This information can then be processed with relevant insights and reports made available through enterprise-level Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS) quality information systems.

Types of Manufacturing Operations Management Software

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Production Management Software helps with real-time data about operating jobs, orders, labour status, materials, machine status, product shipments, and delivery schedules. It helps prioritize the exact order in which materials are consumed and can overlook various batch execution procedures. This can help optimize order fulfilment by leveraging the detailed material and equipment tracking information.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

Performance Analysis Software provides accurate metrics at the machine, operations line, plant floor, and factory levels for specific situational or historical analysis. Distinct features like personalization can enable this type of MOM Software to provide different reports to managers and operators. These can be used to accelerate factory operations.

QUALITY AND COMPLIANCE SOFTWARE

Quality and Compliance Software is helpful to promote operations compliance against the set standards and specifications for operational processes and procedures. It is beneficial to help track deviations and measure the extent of deviation to, therefore, take corrective measures on time by plant managers.

Manufacturers use this software to ensure regulatory compliance and promote strict adherence to quality standards from certified bodies like the International Standards Organization (ISO).

HUMAN MACHINE INTERFACE (HMI) SOFTWARE

HMI Software enables plant operators and managers to effectively coordinate industrial processes and interact with specific process control machinery using a computer-based interface.

This interaction is through a graphical user interface that can facilitate information exchange and communication between two types of HMIs-  the supervisory level and the machine level.

MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEM (MES)

The software helps enhance manufacturing productivity, quality, and flexibility by providing plant operators, production engineers, and plant managers the necessary insights to act and optimize.

They are able to work toward higher plant efficiency, enhanced productivity, and greater flexibility throughout the production processes.

MOM SOFTWARE FOR PROCESS AND PRODUCTION INTELLIGENCE

This software provides the necessary manufacturing intelligence needed to analyze operations trends and help inaccurate reporting. It helps in process improvements, quality control, and adequate asset management.

What are the Benefits of Manufacturing Operations Management?

With an effective MOM strategy, both operations workers and plant managers benefit equally.

Benefits for Plant Engineers, Operations Workers, and Factory Floor Personnel:

Reduces manual grunt work: With an automated system in place, workers can quickly complete their day-to-day tasks without any bottlenecks. This eliminates dependency on manual repetitive work and makes way for large-scale automation.

Faster, leaner operations: Workers are able to easily manage work order execution by using electronic work directions to operators and also monitor the process and product quality improvement in manufacturing without too much back and forth.

This ensures uninterrupted production with minimal decision points.

Increases quality of output: With defined production processes in place, plant engineers are more aware of which materials need to be used to get the desired output. This boosts the overall quality and minimizes process variances.

Benefits for Operations Managers and Plant Supervisors:

Access to accurate plant information: With necessary operational data at their fingertips, managers are able to make quick decisions on important aspects. This reduces the time taken to complete the total production cycle loop.

Compliance with documentation: Managers can reduce the risk of recalls by ensuring products meet the necessary specifications. Accurate documentation of manufacturing operations  processes also helps with instant traceability.

Operational excellence: A good MOM system can impact the ability of managers to achieve overall operational excellence for the entire plant. The manager now has end-to-end supply chain forecasting which makes it easier to meet operations targets.

Tight-knit business integration: Managers can now easily integrate manufacturing operations to other strategic business functions and take advantage of relevant opportunities that can optimize plant capacity planning

Manufacturing Operations Management powered by AI 

According to IDC, by 2021, 20% of leading manufacturers will rely on embedded intelligence, using AI and IoT to automate processes and boost execution times by up to 25%.

Artificial intelligence can prove to be a game-changer for the manufacturing industry. It has the potential to transform the way manufacturing operations are done by delivering key benefits through demand planning, production, quality control, inventory management, product development, and maintenance.

Embedding AI in Manufacturing Operations Management system can help integrate user-defined rules and algorithms into the system to make it much smarter.

Manufacturers can therefore rapidly analyze large volumes of smart supply chain management data in real-time and make routine decisions without the need for human intervention. Similarly, an AI-enabled supply chain and a real-time MOM system make it more user-friendly for better results.

This happens in multiple ways:

  • Reducing the total data capture time to only focus on the essential data points needed and not any additional data units.
  • Preventing errors by adhering to specific rules and algorithms which can alert the user about potential mistakes.
  • A real-time tracker for plant managers, supervisors and customer support teams which reduces the time spent on tracking order status and delivery schedules.
  • Automatic and accurate job scheduling using a production schedule, pre-determined by rules and parameters set by the production manager.
  • Real-time prediction of inventory shortage which helps managers plan for materials in advance.

One such critical application of AI in MOM is the real-time elimination of bottlenecks along the supply value chain. With accurate data-driven manufacturing visibility, manufacturers can transform their operations and work toward predictable outcomes.

ThroughPut’s ELI is an AI-powered bottleneck elimination engine that analyzes existing industrial data in real-time. ELI continuously detects, identifies, prescribes & prevents your shifting bottleneck operation to save millions in delays, inefficiencies & lost revenue. ELI takes away the pain of slow manual operations using AI-enabled supply chain and AI-powered automated analytics. This results in manufacturing operational excellence through automated, sustainable and efficient operations across output KPIs.

If you wish to know more about how supply chain optimization software – ELI can help you with your MOM journey, click here for a demo.

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