optimizationOptimization is the goal of automation: The ability to maximize manufacturing efficiency, throughput, utilization, yield, and quality. By monitoring, analyzing, and iteratively tuning manufacturing processes. Optimized resources and processes are applicable and scalable throughout the enterprise – across sites, geographies, and business functions.

Achieve manufacturing efficiency

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) enable improved control of manufacturing processes through planning, control and visibility across all aspects of production and operations. MES provide detailed as-built product traceability, reduced production and product variability, increased utilization rates, and improved shop-floor operations. Results include increased market share, productivity, profitability and global competitiveness.

Increase production yield

Through use of key performance indicators (KPIs), such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), production performance is continuously monitored and reported. Production issues are identified earlier and response times are improved, resulting in increased yield and production ramps.

The Goal – Identify and manage your constraints

The theory of constraints, coupled with rapidly changing market and customer requirements, drives manufacturers to constantly expand their product offerings, focus on individualization and “mass customization with a lot size of one,” and excel at just-in-time delivery:

  • Bottlenecks
  • Maintenance
  • Experiments
  • Low-mix, high-volume
  • High-mix, high-volume
  • Build to order, Build to stock, JIT

Through improved planning and execution processes and IT system integration, manufacturers achieve optimal production capacity. Solutions to production constraints are prioritized based on data-driven return-on-investment (ROI) assessments.

Exceed nominal capacity

The demand to increase production rates grows relentlessly. Factories originally focused on single products and mass production (high-volume, low-mix) are now producing many small batches in a highly flexible manner (high-volume, high-mix). Having reached their nominal capacity limit, factory owners are driven to further increase production volumes. However, brown-field expansion is difficult to achieve. Not only is there rarely enough space for new equipment, integrating into existing operations may negatively impact current operations and production quality. Rules-based activities and business-process workflows can be leveraged to adjust metrology sampling rates -- before and after targeted equipment-maintenance events or statistical-process-control (SPC) excursions – thereby reducing sampling rates during normal production runs and increasing capacity of existing metrology equipment.

Production Planning & Execution

Because of the non-deterministic nature of manufacturing events and their impact upon manufacturing performance, effective production planning and execution tools are crucial for production optimizations such as improved yield, throughput, cycle time, and equipment utilization.

Production control tools are primarily developed around production planning, production order execution, monitoring, and tracking of manufacturing execution processes. The objective of these efforts is optimizing, to the extent possible, all operations and activities within the production environment in order to achieve production goals and commitments. Production planning, scheduling, and event-driven dispatching tools ensure optimal manufacturing control.