Protected Flow Manufacturing Empowers Manufacturers to Do More in a Competitive Market

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released the June employment numbers. Manufacturers should take note.

Manufacturing added 37,000 jobs in July, with most of the gain in the durable goods component. Although the national unemployment rate is 3.9%, in manufacturing the unemployment rate is 3.8%. Both the manufacturing workweek and overtime remain high at 40.9 hours and 3.5 hours, respectively.

The BLS report follows a report from the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) which grew from 51.2 points in May to 53.1 in June. 17 out of 18 manufacturing industries reported growth. Taken together, the two reports suggest that robust manufacturing conditions will persist. It also suggests that manufacturers will continue to find difficulty finding experienced, skilled employees.

More than ever, it’s critical for manufacturers to get the most from their scarce and valuable labor resources. A good place to start is labor and machine resource production scheduling. A better, more focused approach to allocating resources and executing orders in the plant, can leverage significant improvement in factory throughput without additional large resource investments.

Protected Flow Manufacturing (PFM) empowers labor-constrained manufacturers to quickly and easily speed production flow and avoid the common pitfalls that eat away at profits,” said Mark Lilly, Partner at LillyWorks. “PFM simplifies how manufacturers manage their resources and workflow eliminating time-consuming production meetings and spreadsheets. The result is a revolutionary approach to executing work on the shop floor. Simple and powerful, PFM gives your company the visibility of what needs to be done now in any department or work-center to ensure on-time delivery to all your customers. PFM removes the contention and conflict between departments and resources bringing order and harmony out of the chaos.

PFM key features include:

  • A simple, clear Shop Floor Production Execution WorkStation showing color-coded visual priorities of all jobs coming through the plant by specific work center.
  • Future looking availability allowing sales or customer service to provide a realistic date upon which your company can commit to delivery of a given quantity of custom or standard product.
  • PFM is a Cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that can be integrated with your existing ERP system, meaning you can reap the benefits of improved On-time Delivery quickly without a huge upfront investment.
  • PFM highlights specific issues with jobs that may cause them to be late and pinpoints the resources (machines, manpower, materials, tooling, even outside resources) that will likely prevent the smooth execution of your shop orders.
  • PFM gives schedulers and planners reliable predictions of future dangers and suggested actions, allowing you to deliver more orders on-time.

As the BLS and PMI reports make clear, labor is scarce. Manufacturers who want to take advantage of the timely opportunity offered by a growing economy need solutions. PFM offers a breakthrough production scheduling solution for manufacturers who want to maximize their resources by planning and executing shop orders in way that benefits customers and your recognized revenue