The growth and productivity of your manufacturing company depend on a wide array of factors, such as the collaboration and efficiency of your teams, your equipment, and the optimization of your business processes. To increase your manufacturing volume, you need to approach these factors strategically.
Here are a few simple steps to take when wanting to improve your production volume.
Audit your Workflow
You first need to review business processes thoroughly. Include all objectives and risks that correlate with your company’s expenses, quality, customer acquisition, speed, etc. Analyze the employees, processes, and technology needed for production.
Map your key operations and try to identify the major bottlenecks your business faces. Next, have you hired the people with the right skills? Are they in the right positions? How effectively do your teams collaborate? Test the availability of resources and communication tools across the company. What about your equipment? Does it support your business operations? Once you identify your manufacturing company’s major pain points, it will be easier to take actionable steps to minimize them and optimize your production volume strategically.
Automate your Business Processes
The technology you use should always support your business growth and production methods, helping you get the most out of them. Now that you have mapped your business processes and operations, you should identify ones that should be automated.
In manufacturing industries, automation helps businesses enhance efficiency, boost production quality, reduce human error, and minimizes the overall production cost. For example,investing in manufacturing softwarecan help you streamline many aspects of your business, from inventory management to manufacturing and sales. Additionally, you could also start using production automation. It will streamline many manual tasks, reduce the risk of injury, and help you meet deadlines faster.
Invest in Employee Education
The manufacturing sector is changing at an astounding rate. New technologies are constantly emerging, promising to make manufacturing operations highly efficient. Unsurprisingly, new tech advancements require continuous employee training to get the most value. Schedule regular training sessions for all employees when your equipment is updated or new tools are installed. Above all, your company should provide advancement opportunities for all staff members that want to learn new skills or improve existing ones.
While safety training is often mandatory in manufacturing industries, you do not need to limit yourself to them. You could also provide staff members with soft skills training that will help them communicate more effectively and make more informed decisions.
Employee education is an ongoing process that can help your business in multiple ways. First, it keeps employees satisfied and retains them. Second, it lets employees gain advanced skills, helping them perform tasks faster and more efficiently. Finally, employee training enhances the overall workplace productivity and collaboration, helping you minimize a slowdown in manufacturing and reduce expenses.
Manage Inventory Wisely
Both overproduction and underproduction may compromise your business performance. If you have too much inventory, you will need to invest in additional storage space. On the other hand, if you do not produce enough products, your sales and customer experiences will drop. Not to mention that every damaged product, late delivery, or returned product costs you money. And, the only way to prevent that is to start managing your inventory strategically.
For example, you could start using inventory management software to track the movement of your inventory and receive automatic notifications of shortages. When managing inventory, there are many variables to track, including the quality of products over time, late deliveries, rejection rates, low-turn products, etc. These factors may help you understand the changing market needs. Your goal is to start making precise market predictions and keep improving your business processes so you can maintain a competitive advantage.
Maintain Equipment Regularly
Just because you have bought the state-of-the-art tool does not mean you can now kick back and relax. To make sure the tool will work efficiently, it is important to commit to scheduled maintenance. Always remember that maintenance downtime costs less than unplanned downtime due to server or hardware flaws. Research says that, in most cases, unplanned downtime lasts 4 hours and costs approximately $2 million. It also results in poorer brand identity and customer trust, as manufacturing companies are not able to deliver services to customers.
For starters, schedule preventive equipment maintenance regularly. Your employees should also be trained in regular maintenance and troubleshooting processes. An employee should be able to recognize any potential problems and report them properly.
Over to You
To grow your manufacturing volume, you will need to plan every move strategically. From auditing your workflow to managing inventory regularly, every process mentioned above will help you make more informed decisions, identify the major problems your business faces, understand your target market, and stay competitive.