5 Essentials of a Smart Factory Series - Essential Principle #1: Visibility

Visibility is really the first and most important principle of your smart factory. I mean, if you’re going to spend money to collect this data, shouldn’t it be easy to see, easy to read and easy to display?
For years we have been teaching the lean principle of the Visual Factory. Like everything else in business, the visual factory has evolved and your company must evolve with it or be left behind.
This is why Visibility is such an important part of your Smart Factory. I am not talking about digitized boards spitting out numbers or Powerpoint slides rotating on a tv monitor. I am talking about real live metrics, updating in real-time, based solely on what is happening on your floor right now. Metrics that mean something to the worker on the shop floor.
Your data should be visible and meaningful to all levels of the organization. Operators and maintenance mechanics should see machine data that will help them adjust as the day goes on. Supervisors and Managers should be able to see rolled up data to the production line level. Plant managers should be able to see this same data rolled up from all departments. And finally, VP’s and C level executives should be able to see top level data as it rolls in from multiple plants throughout the enterprise.
With new technologies such as smart tv’s, cloud-based software, mobile devices and hi speed internet throughout the factory, visibility of your data has become a simple concept to achieve. Manufacturing is truly coming into the age of the connected worker, and to keep that worker connected and involved, we have to evolve our visual factory to meet the changing times.
Want to learn more, check out our other videos on the Five Essentials of the Smart Factory or go to L2L.Com and download our free ebook on Smart Factory.

Other Videos from the '5 Essentials to a Smart Factory'