5 Problems Smart Manufacturing can solve for any Industry - Bevywise

by Hema | Jul 14, 2020 | Industry4.0 | 0 comments


problems manufacutring solves

Manufacturing is an ever-evolving industry with daily challenges. Manufacturers encounter unexpected production issues, often at inconvenient times. These issues significantly impact the manufacturing industry. Industrial production managers sometimes face a shortage of solutions when dealing with complex operations. They might spend sleepless nights trying to solve these typical production problems. The significant challenges in manufacturing will make them reconsider potent strategies. Hence the new landscape of digital transformation demands rapid change from manufacturers. Their responsibility of monitoring & overseeing production increases to solve the existing & emerging production problems. This article outlines manufacturers' key concerns and offers solutions for operational excellence.

Poor Inventory Management

Be it any manufacturing industry, handling & managing inventory is immensely critical for industrial growth & creates various production problems. Inventory management forms the foundation of the supply chain. It involves supervising and inspecting purchases from suppliers and customers. It entails managing & safeguarding stock storage & controlling the available product quantity for sale. Lastly, it encompasses fulfilling orders. Managing inventory effectively is crucial, regardless of its location—whether it's in a warehouse, multiple sites, or consigned and drop-shipped from suppliers. Improved inventory management directly impacts cash flow positively and reduces expenses significantly. Understanding the recurring challenges in inventory management has become crucial. Industry leaders are actively seeking solutions to address these issues & enhance customer satisfaction.


Several typical challenges encountered by the manufacturing industry regarding inventory management include :


  • Inaptly located material
  • Out-of-date material
  • Excessive stock
  • Stock theft

Inaptly located material – This will eat up a great deal of time of manpower and it is tough to identify a product among stocked.

Out-of-date material – Failing to recognize and utilize obsolete materials will lead to an increase in expenses and waste of the material.

Excessive stock – Poor stock control & management by the managers.

Stock Theft – Shortage or theft of inventory material lead to production downtime or delay.


A one-stop solution to tackle all these challenges is automating inventory management. The real-time  inventory tracking system enables industries to forecast stock levels & streamline work operations. Getting accurate information on the indoor positions of each asset enhances inventory visibility. The inventory tracking system can account for any inconsistency in the stock levels & alerts in real time. With an accurate inventory management system, it is easy to trace the point where the inventory went missin g or got stolen.

Communication Barriers in production line

Manufacturers rely on global suppliers for their need of raw materials to complete the manufacture of their products successfully. Counting further parties such as contractors, vendors, or other parties, to their supply chain will substantially shoot up the prospects of miscommunication & blunder. Managing various parts of a product happens across different global locations. The production itself extends to multiple locations, either nationally or internationally. The thing is manufacturers must make sure that their supply chain is functioning properly.


The stumbling block is that the diverse manufacturing teams that may be operating throughout the territory or the globe don’t recognize where they are in the process. Manual updating will not be the correct solution. This is because they may miss out on things & also it will be more time-consuming. Lacking an effective means of communication hinders teams from understanding real-time production updates. This lack of clarity makes it impossible for all teams to promptly react to changes in the production schedule.


The potential solution to tackle these production problems & improve communication between supply chains is the use of real-time production monitoring systems. Such a good initiative will let supply chains make use of data generated by the system to give real-time insights into how they are working. Access to this real-time data also helps improve performance and operational efficiency.

Risk of poor product quality

Quality is an essential factor for any manufacturing industry. The top-quality outcome generates unwavering customer loyalty. It drives a requisite & crucial contribution to ROI and profitability. Keeping an eye on the equipment/products around the clock is immensely paramount to carrying on a healthy inventory. The faults or imperfections in products will fail to meet customer expectations. This can harm a business's reputation. Hence, finding defective material is essential for fixing the production problems or replacing it with another. Today, manufacturing industries perform this task manually every day & this consumes a lot of time. Hence, the precision real-time data on bad quantity in the production line only will help in avoiding the production of rejects.


A production monitoring system allows production managers/operators to record the number of bad items produced. Analyzing production data and reject counts improves quality by identifying flaws. Moreover, the reduction in rejects will help in improving product quality & customer reputations.

Lacking Machine Maintenance

Managing manufacturing downtime poses a major challenge for all production managers. Most manufacturers lack focus on understanding the true cost of machine downtime. This oversight contributes to industry-wide costs remaining in the billions of dollars. Not keeping track of your repaired equipment can lead to significant losses. For instance, if a crucial part of your manufacturing equipment breaks down or fails at a key moment in the production process, you will lose substantial costs with an extensive impact on your industry’s bottom line.


Then, how to overcome the unplanned downtime? The only solution to overcome the downtime is to prevent it from occurring. Hence, regular predictive/preventive maintenance is essential in a manufacturing facility. It’s not just a matter of keeping the lights on and it is much more than using log sheets to record the event manually. It is key to making sure that the product makes it to market on time. Production monitoring systems will track how, when, and where the downtime occurs. This will help in preventing & managing excessive loss. Recording the downtime & identifying the reason for downtime will significantly reduce the production issues & increase the production rate.

Shop floor Performance

A minor alteration in the shop floor's production line can impact production performance. It can lead to serious production problems. An optimal shop floor operation strengthens performance. This ensures sustainable efficiency in the production process. And this seals the commitment to a robust shop floor performance.


To ensure production efficiency, it's crucial to measure the essential shop floor metrics. Every product manager aiming to enhance production must gather & analyze relevant data or metrics. Perfect metrics offer operators vital insights into their production floor, highlighting weak spots. Manufacturers rely on this information to continuously revamp and enhance production. One such important metric is the OEE. It has become an important measure for many manufacturing facilities as a way to examine shop floor productivity. It is a combination of 3 commonly used measures such as availability, performance, & quality. Availability is the detection of the number of times industrial assets are functioning to provide added value to the production process against being down. Performance is how optimal the assets are operating at their maximum speed of production. Quality is a measure that reflects the rejects as a percentage of production. Without OEE measurement, manufacturers encounter challenges like misunderstandings on the shop floor. This ultimately leads to poor production efficiency.


Implementing an OEE measuring system on the shop floor enables real-time access to machine productivity, availability, and operator performance. It also facilitates new capabilities like predictive maintenance. The enhanced prognostic precision leads to an improvement in condition monitoring processes. Manufacturers gain full visibility into their production line as a result. Implementing this drives greater efficiencies and productivity across shop floor operations. It results in higher-quality outputs and increased profitability.


An exhaustive production monitoring system offers a comprehensive view of the shop floor, spanning from the production line to the supply chain. It serves as a one-stop solution for the diverse needs of the production and manufacturing industry. Pace DPR, an IoT-powered production monitoring system, is a digital transformation initiative. Manufacturers benefit from shortened go-to-market timeframes, concurrently improving product quality. This, in turn, amplifies revenue output. Industries utilize it to extract data from machines via digital signals on machine panels and Microcontrollers. This involves protocols like Modbus, Profinet, MTConnect, and OPC UA, among others. This manufacturing tracking system will increase production efficiency by many folds.


Talk to our experts to enhance your shop floor and boost manufacturing productivity.


Submit a Comment

Please take a moment to fill this form