Integrate IT & hammer inefficiency
Improving manufacturing efficiency is a top challenge for nearly half of the companies that responded to a Supply Chain Management Survey carried out for Access. Yet the survey also finds that even more admit that their supporting IT isn’t up to the task. Access has launched a new white paper on the issue, titled: ‘Integrate IT & hammer inefficiency’.
While 44% of companies ranked achieving manufacturing efficiency among their most critical challenges, 52% believed themselves to be lagging in this area of IT infrastructure.
The survey also revealed that 48% of companies use nothing more sophisticated than Excel spread sheets for Supply Chain Management (SCM) while only a third use ERP or SCM systems. 23% don’t record cycle time data, and a very large proportion of what is recorded is done manually.
Firms in the survey express a desire for integration with warehousing and financial systems, adaptability to last minute changes, and up to date shop floor data: multiple site operation and ‘what-if’ simulation. The ability to cost new jobs on the basis of past jobs is also important to significant numbers of companies.
