Building A Resilient Manufacturing Operation Is Worth The Effort

John Clemons is a Solution Consultant for Rockwell Automation. He's been working in the field of Manufacturing Technology for over 30 years.

This is the last article in the series on building a resilient manufacturing operation. Briefly defined, resilience is the ability to meet adversity head on, defeat the challenges and come out stronger than ever before. In a post-pandemic world, resiliency is one of the critical success factors for most manufacturing operations.

The characteristics of a resilient manufacturing enterprise are agility, responsiveness, flexibility and predictability. For manufacturing, it means improving first-pass quality, productivity and efficiency. It means reducing costs, improving efficiencies, building new capabilities and delivering results for customers. To build a resilient manufacturing operation, manufacturers need to give people the right tools and technologies to get the job done and be successful.

Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), manufacturing execution systems (MES), manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems, digital twins, digital threads, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), cloud computing, radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions, collaborative robots (cobots) and a whole host of other technologies all provide the people with the tools they need to build a resilient manufacturing operation.

To wrap up the series, let’s look at the specific benefits that are achieved through the ongoing process of continually working to build a resilient manufacturing operation.

Accelerate Business Growth

Resilient manufacturing operations are the key to accelerating business growth. The more resilient a company becomes, the more it can speed up the new product design and introduction process. It can get new products and product variations designed, prototyped and into the customer’s hands faster—all to maintain a competitive edge.

Accelerating business growth also means getting more out of assets to increase productivity while reducing waste, scrap and rework. At the same time, companies can increase overall manufacturing velocity while also increasing flexibility, agility and responsiveness.

Achieve Workforce Excellence

Achieving workforce excellence is all about the people and what the people can accomplish. It’s the idea of creating the connected factory worker where collaboration, innovation and value creation are a daily routine. It’s about making sure people have the technologies they need to do their job.

Technology comes in many forms, but one of its main purposes is to capture, analyze, aggregate and share information across the enterprise. No technology is a silver bullet. It takes people working with the technology and making sure they have the data they need to do their job to get the results.

The data is an organization’s lifeblood and both people and technology need it to perform tasks and run production processes. People turn that data into information and that information into valuable insight. It’s about empowering the people so that when they have those insights, they can make decisions quickly and do what’s needed to make improvements and build a resilient manufacturing operation.

Improve Productivity

Resilient manufacturing operations are in relentless pursuit of productivity. No amount of productivity improvement is enough. Whether it’s doing things faster, reducing costs, reducing waste, reducing downtime or minimizing bottlenecks, it all impacts productivity.

A resilient manufacturing operation is what helps drive, and pay for, all the activities. Continually working to improve productivity is the cornerstone of resilient manufacturing operations.

Drive Sustainability

Sustainability, profitability and social responsibility are the new triple bottom line. Having one without the others, no matter how spectacular the results, just doesn’t work anymore. Consumers expect manufacturing companies to be sustainable and socially responsible, and shareholders expect the company to be profitable.

It’s a difficult mix to achieve, but despite the challenges, truly resilient manufacturing operations are built with this triple bottom line in place and are successful when they can achieve all three.

Manage Risk

Risks abound in manufacturing (product quality, product safety, running manufacturing operations) and can’t be eliminated. There’s no way to get to absolutely zero risk in manufacturing. But world-class manufacturing enterprises learn to successfully manage risk, to keep all risks to a manageable level. They use monitoring, mitigation and contingency techniques because they are always aware of the risks.

The resilient manufacturing operation is built from the ground up with the idea of successfully managing these risks. It’s no easy task, but once again, world-class manufacturing enterprises build resilient manufacturing operations to manage risks to the lowest levels possible.

Achieve Quality And Compliance

Achieving high-quality products and regulatory compliance are absolute minimums for any manufacturing operation. Without high-quality products, manufacturers won’t be in business very long. And without meeting regulatory compliance requirements, the enterprise won’t be in business for very long either.

In resilient manufacturing operations, the highest quality levels are required. These enterprises know that the cost of non-quality operations is very high as seen in waste, scrap, downtime, low productivity, low yields, missed shipments and lost customers. Likewise, resilient manufacturing operations need to achieve regulatory compliance with 100% accuracy and minimal costs.

Resilient manufacturing operations are built with the understanding that high quality and regulatory compliance are an absolute must. Without either one, the manufacturing enterprise simply won’t be in business very long.

Conclusion

All manufacturing enterprises that want to stay competitive are trying to build more resilient manufacturing operations to one degree or another. Resilient manufacturing operations are built from the ground up, specifically to accelerate business growth, achieve workforce excellence, improve productivity, drive sustainability, manage risk, and ensure quality and compliance.

Building a resilient manufacturing operation takes the right people and the right supporting technology. The journey is not an easy one, but in the end, manufacturing enterprises that can maximize the impact of their data and move forward sooner and faster have the best opportunity to reap the highest rewards and stay competitive.

Good luck on your journey to build a more resilient manufacturing operation. It is well worth the effort.

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