Implementing a production control and manufacturing execution system requires a great deal of planning, alignment and balancing of demands of muliple stakeholders, which can feel like a challenge. We’ve been working with customers to implement and successfully adopt our solutions for nearly 30 years. No matter what stage in their growth lifecycle or industry sector, there are a few lessons we’ve learned in this time and would offer as tips and best practice advice.
Tips and advice for implementing a manufacturing execution system
- Build your data collection solution progressively. Collect the key KPVs and act upon the larger production losses first for bigger wins. Over time as you bank the gains and advantages, then collect more granular machine data for those smaller margins of improvement. If you embark and try to collect everything you will drown in data.
- It is key to properly engage with and gain the buy-in of shopfloor users. This will build acceptance of the system and ensure the data you collect is accurate.
- Having a dedicated System Owner and appropriate processes in place to maximise the benefits the system can offer are fundamental pre-requisites. Business Improvement, Continuous Improvement and Six Sigma initiatives are typical of such processes.
- Allow System Owners and Key Stakeholders time to understand and analyse the data and insights gained to be able to identify problems and recommend solutions or improvement initiatives
- Delivering an early success story and “quick win” by implementing a process change or small investment identified by using the KPI data reported can be very helpful, albeit may not be possible in every case.
- Involve your IT department or third-party IT support agency to ensure your infrastructure meets the requirements and that plans are in place make sure it is ready for the installation.
Our experienced team can help you take those critical steps towards a more efficient, flexible and connected factory. We fully support the implementation process, starting with a project kick off meeting with your Seiki account manager and lead engineer. The resulting Statement of Work/Project Plan will provide full visibility of critical milestones for all parties. The team will then support through the installation, training, user acceptance and Go Live.