Closing the Manufacturing Gap: How CP companies can use MES to improve performance
Day 2 of the GMA Manufacturing Excellence Conference, sponsored by Siemens. The opening keynote addressed Food Safety including pending senate legislation. Now on to Manufacturing Operations Management, moderated by Michael DuVall and Tom Mayer of the operations practice at Booz & Co.
44% of consumers have switched to less expensive food/consumable products brands in the past 12 months of economic downturn. The same survey says 10% will revert back to their pre-recession buying habits brands/price as the economy recovers. Consumer behavior has changed. What does this mean for F&B CPG maufacturers?
Productivity must improve. Booz gave examples from the auto and high-tech industries and their productivity improvements over the last 20 years. Before any technology decision, the business must be clear on:
- strategy, the mfr strategy must be appropriate and understood
- people and organization, development of leaders
- operations excellence, standardized processes and practices
- measurement and accountability, how to measure and compare plants, performance incentives tied to the right metrics
Fit for purpose tools support once the above bullet points are in place are extremely valueable in increasing this productivity. MES real-time data, Andon boards, lot-tracking, a single source of data are all considerations.
