The single biggest roadblock to both optimisation and collaboration for e-manufacturing is a lack of integration. Most plants still make-to-stock using in-house proprietary systems for plant-floor control, which offer little information visibility.
The survivors will be lowest-cost producers that make precisely what customers want. That means making-to-order, going beyond just-in-time manufacturing, and adopting collaborative e-manufacturing approaches. Collaboration means companies and their supply chain partners must function as a single, highly optimised entity, not a bunch of divisions or departments (ARC, June 2000).
For manufacturers, the advantages of adopting an e-manufacturing strategy are real and timely. But entering the world of e-business for gains in operational efficiencies truly involves a fundamental evolution of a company's strategic direction and operations. Managers must approach e-business with care, yet with speed and decisiveness. This can be a scary proposition for any manufacturer, particularly those that are feeling the pressures to be faster, better, and cheaper. But the ability of manufacturers to proactively consider the benefits of e-manufacturing, and look within for potential starting points, will likely provide a competitive edge as the pressure to implement e-business increases. And, considering the pace of the current economy, no doubt it will.
It would be ideal if a manufacturer could achieve an e-manufacturing environment overnight. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. Today, though, there are hundreds of examples in which manufacturers have started down the road to e-manufacturing by focusing on one competency - either through integrated architecture, shop-floor-to-top-floor information management, asset management, or supply chain efficiencies via e-procurement. A few were profiled in previous parts of this article. These companies carefully evaluated the need, implemented a working solution, measured the effectiveness, and then took on another competency in their enterprises.
Whether you are a plant engineer, manufacturing operations manager, procurement manager, CIO or CFO, there are common guides to follow when considering the potential investments and resulting benefits from an e-manufacturing approach.
1. Embrace the Internet. All parties in the company must recognise the organisational change required to adopt an e-manufacturing strategy - and the greater influence of the Internet and of customer demand.
2. More than ever, engineers have an important place in decision-making process. Plant engineers bring expertise to plant-floor processes, as well as the information available (and required) for seamless integration. Their plant-floor experience and perspective will prove to be invaluable as e-manufacturing efforts proceed.
3. Build an internal team, and draw the company's roadmap for e-manufacturing. Draw from various departments and functions within the organisation, and discuss the common and specialised benefits each would receive from information transparency. Each segment of the organisation should have a vision for success reliant on information transparency.
4. Find a company leader to serve as champion. Whenever possible, secure the CEO as the e-manufacturing mouthpiece for the enterprise. If an e-business strategy is in place for the company, it is especially critical to be sure that e-manufacturing is a key element of that broader strategy. Thus, the e-commerce director or CIO is another good champion to enlist.
5. Take one step at a time on the roadmap. Do not attempt to do everything at once - that is a lesson to be learned from the original ERP implementations. It took many years for plant floor, front office, and supply chain to evolve to where they are today; take a logical path to evolve them via e-manufacturing, and measure successes along the way. Focus on actions that have the highest immediate impact (ie the 80/20 rule).
6. Measure the success and failure of the roadmap. Put metrics in place to determine the real savings and efficiencies from a transparent enterprise.
7. Evaluate your traditional channels - and listen to their needs. Analyse the ways the company works with customers, suppliers, distributors, and others to determine their effectiveness, and find ways to streamline relationships and processes.
8. Build on your existing foundations, and on your incremental successes along the way. An e-manufacturing strategy will help your organisation embrace information transparency that will foster operational excellence, while not creating more work, major overhauls, or enormous investments. It will not happen all at once, but once you begin, your organisation can build upon the successes until the full e-manufacturing approach is realised - and the organisation excels in its own design, operate, maintain, and synchronise competencies.
9. Get help from an expert. For many manufacturers, gone are the days when manufacturers had the luxury of a large engineering staff devoted to programming, implementing, and integrating the control equipment used in the production process. Instead, the trend has been to identify and focus on strategic core competencies, and minimise or outsource activities that fall outside that defined realm (ARC, January 1999). Consider the outsourcing trend in manufacturing. When competition and pressure for bottom-line performance are high, companies outsource basic production, manufacturing engineering, automation engineering and other capabilities to suppliers that specialise in these competencies.
Due to outsourcing, the internal expertise that manufacturers have available to implement an e-manufacturing strategy may be greatly diminished. Summarily, outsourcing to a supplier to provide the planning, technology, services, and support for integrated architecture, manufacturing information management, asset and program management, and supply chain integration will prove to be worthwhile.
Running business to its full potential
Think of all the wonderful things available via the Internet to the average human being in today's world. From on-line shopping and education to brokerage and travel services, consumers can purchase practically anything without leaving their home. All of these models defy 'traditional' limits of business economics. The same is true for manufacturing. True, the simultaneous pressure is for both growth and bottom-line performance. But the e-manufacturing technologies exist today that allow a manufacturer to proactively meet and exceed the sometimes contradictory expectations. e-Manufacturing will one day be manufacturing as usual. Today, though, those who take the time to evolve their enterprises will run business at its fullest much sooner.
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