Manufacturers are gathering more data than ever before. But when it comes to utilization and visualization of data, many manufacturers fall short- storing data in numerous spreadsheets and separate repositories that are difficult to access and understand.
Dashboards try to solve this problem by transforming data into an understandable and accessible format. Manufacturing dashboards are used to aggregate and gather many data sources into a specific location, displaying information in an easy-to-understand manner.
Top Reasons to Create a Manufacturing Dashboard
Get Better Insights than Ever Before
One of the key benefits of having a dashboard is that it provides you access to data that you wouldn’t obtain otherwise, such as insights about your business and industry trends.
You can set up notifications to be sent out when specific criteria are satisfied, such as when inventory levels reach an excessive level or when customer satisfaction falls below a certain level. Once you know the problem, you can quickly solve the issue.
A dashboard can also save your staff’s energy and time by gathering all of this information in one location and then presenting the appropriate next steps to take depending on alerts. Your staff will spend less time chasing data down and more time taking action on it.
Gain complete visibility of production lines
For effective operation, real-time production line visibility is essential. The manufacturing dashboard software allows you to observe exactly what is happening with the production lines at any given time. You can observe where the bottlenecks are, what’s working and what’s not, and much more.
They enable manufacturers to combine data from numerous sources (including Excel files, MES, ERP, automation systems, and so on) into a cloud repository. This helps you not only analyze the performance of a single element but to compare many elements and track how their interactions affect each other.
Also, you can generate trend analysis that gives you the ability to monitor the flow-on effects between different manufacturing departments and significantly reduces the time spent compiling and aggregating different data sources.
Engage staff and improve productivity
Employees are much more engaged when they can compare data, such as scheduled processing times and quality metrics, against defined targets. With a dashboard, managers and operators can quickly understand what’s going on in each production line.
Operators will exert more effort to prevent their line from falling behind the quality and production goals, and supervisors can use the dashboard to fix problems or opportunities for better resourcing. Additionally, workers will share data and are more likely to recommend improvements proactively to enhance performance.
Unique Dashboards for Every Role
A truly helpful visual factory dashboard is adapted to the user’s requirements, giving them the specific information they need at the exact time. Every employee in a factory can operate more efficiently with the help of customizable dashboards.
Here’s what this looks like in practice for some common factory roles:
For Planners
Production planning is mostly future-focused, but, like any factory job, it is also impacted by immediate issues. When planners have equal access to historical and real-time data, they can perform at their best. Their dashboards should give them the analytics tools they need to guide data-driven decision-making and identify long-term trends.
Real-time data feeds from numerous devices and systems can provide planning feedback and highlight weak operational points in the factory’s current production.
For Managers
Managers require a steady flow of high-level production data, much like planners do. But the work of a manager is far more immediate and responsive.
To streamline production, managers require a dashboard that helps them understand the implications of the arriving production data and easily devise a plan of strategy around those insights. Without the proper information at the appropriate time, they cannot make well-informed decisions to guide production.
For Operators
For operators, nothing happening on the floor is more important than the task at hand. For this reason, their dashboards should be as concise and clear as possible. To help operators process information without being diverted from their current activity, they should prioritize visual display.
Production reporting can offer relevant and clear feedback on the operator’s performance with the help of the following metrics:
- Units produced
- Production plan status
- Cycle time
- Machine uptime
Operators can assess their performance by comparing this data to the standard parameters shown on the screen to understand how well they are performing.
For Quality Control
For the best results, quality control managers must use both historical and real-time data. Their dashoards must offer quick, in-depth feedback on typical QC measurements like:
- Scrap rate
- Supplier defect rate
- First-pass yield
QC dashboards should also offer alerts to inform users of data deviations that can be the first indications of a developing issue. With the help of this data, they can enforce and monitor operational effectiveness, eliminate waste, and enhance the overall performance of production.
For Technicians
Technicians should pay close attention to a specific range of metrics to work optimally in their roles. For this reason, they require accessibility to reports on machine performance and involve contextually important data about work stoppage events and machine disruptions.
Technicians are aware that some machines may require attention when performance starts to decline or a significant amount of poor items emerge from a specific production line.
Their real-time manufacturing dashboard should alert them of these incidents and provide them with the resources they need to analyze the root causes of the issue and prevent similar future consequences. The plant’s operators should have a means of communication since they frequently experience work interruptions and disruptions first-hand.
Almost all businesses can benefit from having a dashboard that is in line with their goals. Operating without them increases the difficulty of conceptualizing large numbers and increases the chances of missing patterns that would be easier to identify If visualized. They are a crucial tool for every decision-maker and assist in guiding and driving the firm in the correct direction.
FactoryWorx Dashboards is a cutting-edge manufacturing and business visualization tool that gathers data from all business systems automatically. It offers immediate, real-time visibility of KPIs, activity status, or measurements for critical or strategic decisions pertaining to certain objectives or company goals. And they are accessible from any location, any time.
