Research Rap: Enhancing Productivity and Reducing Cost with MPM and the Digital Factory

A quick
peek into some research on … Manufacturing Process
Management in my new Tech-Clarity Insight
Leveraging
the Digital Factory: Enhancing Productivity from Operator to
Enterprise. The paper provides visibility to the way
manufacturers are using Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) to
help reduce cost, get to market faster, and
improve quality. The paper features interviews from companies
that are leveraging MPM to digitally prototype plant layouts,
material flow, production lines, workstations, and work assignments
to perfect plans before committing to physical changes.
MPM, also known as Digital Manufacturing (DM), is an
important element of any PLM strategy, and the research
shows that MPM initiatives are resulting in efficient plants
and processes that work the first time.

The Research
This research set a new record for my research at Tech-Clarity, I
was able to interview eight different people for the paper.
Companies researched included GM, CNH, Android, Electrolux and some
top-notch consultants that have worked on MPM programs with
major manufactures in a variety of manufacturing industries.
What is the reason for so many interviews? Trying to write a paper
about MPM is like trying to write a paper on a piece of complex
machinery. It has many parts, but makes up a whole that is
greater than the sum of those parts. So to do MPM justice,
you have to pick a very small slice of it, write a very shallow
paper on the big picture, or spend the time to go a little bit
deeper across the board. I chose to do the latter. The paper covers
a number of aspects that are important to a manufacturing company,
including: 

• Planning plant layouts
• Balancing production lines
• Optimizing workcells
• Evaluating material flow (at macro and micro
  levels)
• Work instructions 

The paper also discusses the importance of pulling all
of the information and processes from these different areas
together into an integrated view, and provides some
practical advice on how to take on an MPM
initiative. 

My Thoughts
I will not take too much time here to share my thoughts, because
they are all captured in the paper. I encourage you to download it,
it is available for free from my website (and with no strings
attached). My goal, and the goal of the companies that sponsored my
research (thank you Proplanner and Autodesk) is to educate people on the
value that MPM brings to manufacturers.

The key takeaways of the research, among others described in the
report, are:

• Manufacturing processes are the central item of
  interest in the bill of process (BOP)
• A BOP and an engineering BOM are related, but
  serve very different needs
• MPM is providing significant time and cost
  savings (see the report for the details, as Gilles Bouyer
  from CNH says they are “over the top
  outstanding.“ 

Implications for Manufacturers
During one of my interviews, Bill Campbell from GM said that
“MPM is one of the biggest enablers in
reducing structural cost, but also helps to improve both time
to market and drive quality up.” What could be more critical
right now? Manufacturers must be as lean as they can in
manufacturing, but still deliver quality. One other thing that
makes this timely is that many companies are faced with significant
changes in their manufacturing landscape. It’s a fair bet that we
will say an increasing number of plant consolidations,
products moving to new production facilities or production lines,
and significant changes to product mix and production rates.
Manufacturing Process Management can help
significantly. 

Although it is growing, I still believe that MPM should be
seeing even broader adoption. I have seen some companies paralyzed
by the potential breadth of an MPM program. Just like with other
PLM-related initiatives, the key is to take it one step at
a time. Find the biggest hot spots, and start there. But
don’t forget to have a broader vision to what an integrated
MPM vision for your company should be, and even further
into an integrated PLM vision, but then start to attack the problem
on a step-by-step, project-by-project basis consisting of high ROI,
self-funding projects.

So that was a quick peek into some recent research on Manufacturing
Process Management (aka Digital Manufacturing), I hope you found it
interesting. I am sure that some of you will disagree with my
interchangeable use of the MPM and DM terms, please don’t by shy.
Speak your mind in the comments, I would love to hear your
perspective.