What is a manufacturing
dashboard?
A manufacturing dashboard is a real-time
visual representation of a manufacturing process. It displays, typically in
graphical or chart form, the key KPI or metrics that indicate performance. Just
like in cars, dashboards present the key things required to make good
operational decisions. This way, users don’t get overloaded with complex
information.
Manufacturing dashboards present data and
insights from machines, sensors, and systems in a user-friendly way. They help
manufacturers monitor and optimize production quality and efficiency. At the
same time, manufacturers gain insight in specific operations. Through
dashboards, organizations can quickly see their current and historical
performance.
Dashboards are flexible by nature. They can
take most sources of information and transform that data into insights that can
be used to get a better understanding of operational performance. Thus, dashboards
can be highly personalized, delivering the right information to the right
person at the right time. For example, a Vice President might be interested in
KPI’s that affect monthly results, such as cost reductions or risk management.
A plant manager focuses on daily metrics such as production, quality or costs.
A supervisor, on the other hand, would probably want to track information about
machine status, production, yield and scrap levels. And, an operator would
focus on shift, hourly or real-time metrics.
Given the different needs, it is important
to understand and cater to the needs of various users when presenting them
insights. This simplifies greatly the effort in getting everyone to use the
dashboards and to start improving processes, throughout the organization.
A well thought out series of metrics, along
with a program to manage them, help companies achieve organizational agility.
This enables everyone to react faster to changes in the manufacturing or supply
chain environments.
Real-time line visibility is critical for
efficient operation. Manufacturing dashboards enable you to see exactly what’s
going on with production lines at any given time. You can see what’s working,
and what’s not, where the bottlenecks are, and much more.
With tight operational margins,
manufacturing relies on a growing number of factors. To succeed in optimizing
company-wide operations, it is not enough to focus on optimizing individual
machines or lines. Instead, you need to include areas such as scheduling,
budgeting, operational performance, and logistics (to name but a few) to
function as part of a well-oiled machine to remain profitable.
Dashboards help you do precisely that. In
fact, they are able to integrate
the data from various sources (such as ERP, MES,
automation system, and even Excel files) into a cloud repository. This allows
you to not only monitor the performance of a single factor, but to compare
factors and monitor how their relationships 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.
The line dashboard above is a one-stop shop
for production insights. It helps to monitor the most important production KPIs
in one central point of access and to keep the whole team aligned.
At a glance, line managers can see how production is going on a given day and whether or not their team is meeting their goals. The Line Dashboard provides the perfect overview of the progress of the shop floor. It focuses on various manufacturing KPIs: OEE, Yield, Equipment Availability, Performance, FPY and more. Having all the important KPIs related to the production on one dashboard provides a great way to start spotting optimization opportunities. Inefficiency is the nemesis of any manufacturing process, so you must stay alert and track any potential issue, spot any hidden trends that could harm the processes.