The adage is that you can’t manage or improve what you don’t measure. That is good news for many manufacturing plants that report strong measuring capabilities for a range of fundamental operations performances.
A majority of plants have strong capabilities to monitor and measure location-specific inventory levels (58% of plants rated 4 or 5, where 5=real-time capability); process-specific quality (58%); process-specific safety (56%); and process-specific pace or speed (51%), according to the 2011 MPI Manufacturing Study of 322 plants in the United States and abroad. The bad news is that a surprisingly high percentage of plants have “no capability” to monitor and measure their operations, especially external logistics/distribution performance (18% of plants); in-plant material-handling performance (17%); and process-specific sustainability performance (16% of plants).
Plant’s capability to monitor and measure (% of plants)
|
|
1=No capability |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5=Real-time capability |
|
Location-specific inventory levels |
6.9% |
8.7% |
26.3% |
30.5% |
27.7% |
|
Process-specific quality |
3.8% |
10.7% |
27.6% |
30.7% |
27.2% |
|
Process-specific safety |
7.3% |
10.1% |
26.1% |
35.2% |
21.3% |
|
Process-specific pace or speed |
6.3% |
11.8% |
30.9% |
28.5% |
22.6% |
|
Process-specific productivity (i.e., value vs. waste) |
6.9% |
14.9% |
30.9% |
30.9% |
16.3% |
|
Individual equipment or machine performance |
6.6% |
15.6% |
32.3% |
30.6% |
14.9% |
|
Supplier performance |
6.2% |
17.0% |
38.8% |
29.4% |
8.7% |
|
Process-specific sustainability performance |
15.5% |
16.6% |
35.9% |
24.3% |
7.8% |
|
External logistics/distribution performance |
17.5% |
18.2% |
34.6% |
24.1% |
5.6% |
|
In-plant material-handling performance |
16.6% |
20.7% |
34.5% |
19.0% |
9.3% |
Plants that have achieved or made significant progress toward world-class manufacturing status are more likely to have strong monitoring and measuring capabilities (rated 4 or 5) for all of the operations performances. For example, 59% of plants at or near world-class status have strong monitoring and measuring capabilities for process-specific productivity vs. 39% of plants that have made no progress or only some progress toward world-class status.
What can your company monitor and measure? What can your company improve?
By George Taninecz, VP of Research, The MPI Group
|
|
1=No capability |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5=Real-time capability |
|
Location-specific inventory levels |
6.9% |
8.7% |
26.3% |
30.5% |
27.7% |
|
Process-specific quality |
3.8% |
10.7% |
27.6% |
30.7% |
27.2% |
|
Process-specific safety |
7.3% |
10.1% |
26.1% |
35.2% |
21.3% |
|
Process-specific pace or speed |
6.3% |
11.8% |
30.9% |
28.5% |
22.6% |
|
Process-specific productivity (i.e., value vs. waste) |
6.9% |
14.9% |
30.9% |
30.9% |
16.3% |
|
Individual equipment or machine performance |
6.6% |
15.6% |
32.3% |
30.6% |
14.9% |
|
Supplier performance |
6.2% |
17.0% |
38.8% |
29.4% |
8.7% |
|
Process-specific sustainability performance |
15.5% |
16.6% |
35.9% |
24.3% |
7.8% |
|
External logistics/distribution performance |
17.5% |
18.2% |
34.6% |
24.1% |
5.6% |
|
In-plant material-handling performance |
16.6% |
20.7% |
34.5% |
19.0% |
9.3% |
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