You just cannot hire. Time to do more with less? Automation is the answer! For the last few years, this option has looked beautiful with low-interest rates. However, Jerome Powell at the Fed has raised interest rates, and now the $3M loan for an automatic line is going to cost you around $300k annually in payments, no way out. To many, that will seem like an indigestible amount of risk, so how do you automate in this environment?
Information Automation in Process Manufacturing
The answer is to look at information automation. Automating information has enormous potential to save time on communication, freeing your workers to do value-added services. Steelhead has analyzed over 150 job shops across the United State of America and discovered massive areas of improvement for time savings with information automation. Typical time savings include:
- 14 hours per day in finding parts
- 3 hours daily in getting the right instructions for processing the part
- 8 hours daily for invoicing data entry
- 4 hours daily for generating shipping documents
- 3 hours daily generating proposals and deriving pricing
...and much more that can be automated to unlock tremendous savings. Read this article for more about time savings in job shop manufacturing.
Often, time savings occurs on your higher-paid office workers instead of saving time of often lower-paid line workers. The office workers are often the most experienced and knowledgeable employees a company has and freeing their time could allow them to pursue new, higher margin work that previously they simply did not have time for because they were doing the blocking and tackling of running the business.
The Best Cost Structure of an MES
An ideal information automation system would have a zero-down, month-to-month contract with white glove deployment experience. This eliminates the risk and capital tie-up that getting a new automatic line is going to incur right now. By deploying a plant operating system right now and getting a strong culture in place around using it, when interest rates inevitably swing back down, you can be in a great position to know exactly what you need for automation, and the data to build a strong business case for getting into an automated line.
Mechanical automation is very stiff financially, driven by the high upfront capital costs. It truly shines with a dependable flow of work that can keep the line working a couple of shifts a day. Automation in the form of information automation has little of the risk typically associated with automation. There is no risk you are going to be stuck with a bank payment that you cannot make because the economy has some headwinds.
Information automation is a different form of automation, which is also highly valuable in a shop that has existing automation because it adds the automation of information movement in addition to automated manufacturing. A modern, purpose-built information automation system like Steelhead will deliver the right information to a line worker in a minimal, one touch interface at the point of operation. If an operator always has the right instruction to work on the right part without asking anyone, the line can cook along at top rates.
To survive in today’s business environment, you need to automate. The right automation is a function of each business' individual customer, capital, and worker situation. Doing more with less, faster is the iron demand of the future of American industry.
Why Steelhead is the Best Software for Job Shops
To find the right solution for you, research robust MES or ERP systems. Make sure whichever option you go with, make sure you evaluate the best cost-benefits for getting started. For example, SaaS with revenue-based or seat-based pricing and no startup cost helps to avoid going into the red. This allows you to avoid large upfront costs that can risk bankruptcy if your company is left with a large loan payment that you cannot sustain, especially in today’s high-interest economy. SaaS providers that secure startup capital can absorb financial startup risk instead of passing it along to customers. We take the risk so you don’t have to. Steelhead’s offer – let us deliver info automation to you, at minimal risk.
About the Author
Brent Halonen is the Director of AI and a Co-Founder of Steelhead Technologies. Brent has a background in mathematics, industrial controls, and materials research, and takes an analytical approach to solve the industrial challenges that Steelhead’s customers face. Connect with Brent on LinkedIn.
Information Bottleneck Without Automation
