Reducing manufacturing costs increases profitability by making more with what you have or the same with less. It sounds pretty simple but many companies struggle with this. Of course there are many ways to reduce manufacturing costs. Here are a few methods that have proven to be very effective and relatively easy to implement:

• Reduce Downtime Through Team Awareness
• Reduce Waste by Attacking the Root Causes of Inefficiency
• Increase Productivity with Real-Time Goals
• Reduce Changeover Time Through Training and Awareness

The strategies below depict a few of the many problems our customers ask us to solve and the solutions we provide. Always feel free to call us if you'd like to discuss a specific problem or idea. We encourage you to use our application experience to help you reduce your manufacturing costs.

Strategies to Reduce Manufacturing Costs

Reduce Manufacturing Costs
PROBLEM	Unplanned downtime is making it impossible to meet production goals.
STRATEGY	Reduce downtime through team awareness of downtime events when they occur. Display downtime for both the event and total accumulated downtime. Once the information is available to those responsible, set goals for reducing it.
SOLUTION	Automatically display downtime when the line stops. Use color and context sensitive variable changes to further enhance the awareness. Show a real-time run rate in green and change to the accumulated downtime in red when the line stops. The 87 Series 4" to 12" displays can automatically detect and display accumulated downtime when the line has stopped and the real-time run rate or event when the line is running. XL Series Production Monitor displays can do all of this and more. For example, they can simultaneously display the last event and accumulated downtime or play a “Call for Supervisor” message when the downtime exceeds a programmable amount of time.
Reduce Waste by Attacking the Root Causes of Inefficiency
PROBLEM	Production efficiency is down due to small stops and reduced speed operation.
STRATEGY	Expose inefficiencies caused by small stops and reduced speed operation then attack the root causes. Display key OEE Performance metrics, reduced speed cycles and small stops, so that operators know when events occur.
SOLUTION	It is typically very difficult for operators to detect and log small stops and reduced speed cycles. As a result, these issues often get overlooked. Additionally, small stop downtime is often logged in the wrong category when it is logged. The key is to automatically log small stops and reduced speed cycles then provide real-time display of this information. XL Series Production Monitor displays can automatically log the number of small stops, reduced speed cycles as well as the accumulated time for each. Additionally, the XL Series products can also show OEE Performance, a key metric for benchmarking line performance.
Increase Productivity with Real-Time Goals
PROBLEM	Plant floor employees are informed of production goals when it is too late to act.
STRATEGY	Deliver real-time production goal information to the plant floor. Display a shift or job based goal. Additionally the target can be displayed in real-time as a count based on the product takt time. Actual count can also be shown as well as a calculated production efficiency and much more.
SOLUTION	People respond to information that tells them where they are and where they should be in relation to production goals. Show the goal count, an actual count, a percent efficiency, pieces to goal, the estimated time to goal, a piece or time variance from goal, OEE Performance and more in any combination. Both the 87 Series 4" to 12" displays and XL Series Production Monitor displays are great choices for displaying real-time production goals.
Reduce Changeover Time Through Training and Awareness
PROBLEM	Changeover time is hurting production efficiency.
STRATEGY	Reduce changeover time significantly through training and awareness. Display the changeover time for all to see. Additionally, by showing a pieces to goal or estimated time to job completion variable aids operators in determining when to initiate internal set-up procedures. Internal set-up or those items which can be handled while running is one of the greatest tools for minimizing changeover time.
SOLUTION	Show time to completion by displaying either a pieces to goal count or an estimated time of completion based on the current run speed. Also display the changeover in-process time for all to see. Set goals to reduce the time required and use color-coded data to show the allowed changeover time in green and time overage in red. The 87 Series 4" to 12" large digital displays and XL Series Production Monitor displays are great choices for reducing changeover time.