Manufacturing Strategy | What’s In Your Communications Tool Box?
Manufacturing Strategy Infographic Communication is critical in the manufacturing environment. There is an arsenal of communication tools that can be used to dispense pertinent data to the workforce. These include transmitting information through scheduled meetings, cell phones, emails, newsletters, two-way radios, and PA systems. The combination of these methods cause wasted time and allow for delays or miscommunication of information. Since good communication creates a level of accountability, trust and confidence, a good manufacturing strategy is striving to find ways to simplify and streamline the communication channels.

"You can't expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday's tools and expect to be in business tomorrow."

This is where Manufacturing Metric Displays have an advantage. They are digital displays that broadcast or display a wide range of data. Such displays are a hallmark of lean enterprises. Manufacturing Metric Displays can show production control charts and various production metrics, provide team and shift communications and other vital information that must be shared between management and employees, as well as various departments and individuals throughout one or more facilities.

Communicating this way provides employees with a keen awareness of expectations while contrasting this with actual performance, all in real time. This can alert employees as well as management to trends and potential problems sooner than older communication methods that would not be found until days later.

Manufacturing Metric Displays can also be used to communicate schedules, work orders, corporate communications, and much more. By being placed in strategic locations throughout the production floor and other high traffic areas, employees are instantaneously notified of new work orders or tasks and can see immediately what priority these tasks have been assigned. Also, they can see what work assignments are currently being addressed and which ones are finished. It is this kind of communication that eliminates time wasted waiting on verbal orders or getting questions answered by traditional means of communications and it relieves supervisors of unnecessary time finding individuals and verbally dispensing orders.

Can management enjoy benefits from this manufacturing strategy? Management has the luxury of seeing instantaneous production line activity and can disperse emergency alerts on the floor and requests inventory or production line changes without ever leaving their desks. New work orders can be scheduled or inventory requests placed using a mobile phone or tablet from anywhere, thus simplifying communications overall. Gone are the tiring tasks of continually moving back and forth throughout the work day from the line to a desktop computer to interact with personnel.

Benefits of a Manufacturing Strategy With Metric Displays

  • Reduction of operation costs by lowering the number of methods used to relay messages.

  • Increase of productivity through real-time access to pertinent information. This allows employees to spend more time on the task at hand rather than on attempts to locate people in order to obtain needed information.

  • Increase in overall plant productivity by streamlining overall communications.

  • Better decision-making since communications are based on real-time data linked through manufacturing data collection methods and allowing prompt responses to changing conditions in production.

  • Enhanced data security by increased control over the flow of information.

  • Reduction of up-front equipment costs since the types of communications tools are eliminated to one or two communication devices, such as manufacturing digital signage and mobile phones or tablets.

Manufacturing Metric Displays can be used in various areas of a manufacturing facilities. Besides the production floor, displays can be used to display information specific to such departments as quality control, workforce lounge areas, plant operations, logistics, warehousing, purchasing, and inventory.

Manufacturing companies that utilize digital displays gain a significant edge by adopting this technology before their competition. Doing so helps increase productivity within the manufacturing environment and could mean gaining a significant competitive edge. Clearly, it is a vital communication tool for the modern factory and a key instrument in a manufacturing strategy of workplace awareness.

1 Gallup.com, http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/majority-american-workers-not-engaged-jobs.aspx
2 Dalecarnegie.com, http://www.dalecarnegie.com/assets/1/7/driveengagement_101612_wp.pdf

For over 30 years, Noventri has been specializing in communications. That knowledge has been utilized in engineering and developing Manufacturing Metric Displays. If you would like more information or to request a free demo click the button below or browse our library of Manufacturing Articles.

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