Questions and answers

For years, manufacturers have searched for ways to boost ailing production performance.HP0-M38From the promise of ERP, to Lean initiatives, Six Sigma and a plethora of other tips and techniques, manufacturers have become the experts at sizing up what works and, just as importantly, what doesnt.

A couple of months ago, Invistics circulated a survey to some 1,500 pharmaceutical manufacturers about production performance and the techniques and technologies theyve used to break down barriers and achieve sustained results. Some of their responses were predictable; others surprising.

For instance, youd be hard-pressed to find a pharmaceutical manufacturer who doesnt have an ERP system with millions sunk into license fees, implementation and maintenance, yet just a little over a third of these manufacturers feel their ERPs have produced the ROI they expected. There are a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that most of these systems are trapped in silos with little or no integration among them and no real-time visibility into plant floor dynamics. If you cant see whats happening on a minute-by-minute basis on the floor, youre already behind the performance eight-ball.

ERP systems are also designed for perfect world scenarios and static parameters, while pharmaceutical manufacturers are awash in variability and constantly changing dynamics. Survey respondents said variability in products, processes and customer demand is a huge performance challenge and that a lack of tools to manage variability is a major impediment to success.

Variability Kills Manufacturing Performance

Variability is directly responsible for creating customer service issues and over 70% said it makes scheduling difficult. HP HP0-310 dumps learning SKU volatility and shared equipment add to the complexity that ERP systems cant account for - these systems simply expect you to have the answers. Consequently, your performance is only as good as the estimates you input, which in reality are not based on whats actually happening on the plant floor. Add-on products can help, but many require you to break out your PhDs to operate them and take months to compile adequate data.

While ERP has its problems, inventory optimization, advanced planning and scheduling (APS) solutions, and manufacturing execution systems (MES) were rated even lower.