Consumers increasingly demand new product variations. To meet this demand, machine builders and high-tech suppliers must dramatically accelerate innovation and production. Designing, building and testing new machines – or modifying existing ones – can happen much faster when all company departments interlink data. Or better yet – centralise all data. Does your firm have a shared data repository?
It will come as no surprise that consumer demand directly impacts suppliers. The growing consumer demand for new product variations results in shorter product life cycles. This means that new products, and consequently machines, need to come to market faster. To stay ahead of the competition, manufacturing companies must be able to cope with this increasing pressure on time-to-market.
And that’s not all. Customers not only expect faster delivery of new machines, but also demand simultaneous improvements in quality and reductions in cost compared to previous versions. This pressures machine builders to enhance flexibility and efficiency across design, testing, and production. Only by optimising these critical processes can they stay competitive.
Data in silos
Digitisation is key here. The presence of a 360° view throughout the entire product lifecycle – from design to production and after-sales service – ensures optimal collaboration across all departments for effective product development. The end goal is staying ahead of the competition.
Now, let's shift to the practical scenario. Business departments still often operate in silos, each equipped with its own systems and data. Once the product design is completed, engineering colleagues metaphorically toss the design over the dividing wall to the production department, which operates with its unique set of systems or, at times, relies on traditional tools like Excel, pen, and paper.
There is no automatic flow of data between the departments. Drawing from personal experience, I've observed that engineering is frequently advanced in terms of digitalisation. However, a brief visit to the production department reveals a different story: paper-based work instructions, scattered emails, and Excel sheets dominate the landscape. The considerable investment in engineering digitisation doesn't reach its full potential unless production similarly embraces digital integration.
Brakes on efficiency
The lack of digital alignment between engineering and production can significantly impede the efficiency and flexibility that the company so desperately needs. Non-integrated, paper-based workflows make it challenging to provide feedback from production to engineering. Connecting with ERP systems proves difficult, requiring manual transcriptions of paper slips and bringing the risk of errors. Plus, there's no clear view of the production run status, delivered quality, errors, interruptions, and the like.
Without exaggeration, engineers in such environments can dedicate up to 50% of their time to data collection and validation. When production alterations are required, the disjointed data systems often lead to unnecessary hours spent syncing updates. The lack of digital data flow also limits visual operations in production due to the absence of a link with engineering's 3D data. All these factors contribute to extended lead times.
Shared data platform
A company aiming to streamline engineering and production can achieve this by initially establishing a shared data platform. Goodbye to silos! Once the data is centrally available, the departments can collaborate more seamlessly. This leads to a quicker time-to-market, fewer issues related to production quality, and reduced recalls.
In my opinion, digitalisation in this context begins with a unified repository for documents and bill of materials, alongside all mechanical, electronic, software, and simulation data. This single source of truth provides a solid foundation to optimise collaboration between departments, addressing the efficiency and flexibility of your Product Lifecycle Management strategically.
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