When machines break down in a POD workflow, they trigger cost and a lot of stress. In this two-part post I will explain how automation in POD can help workflow flow.
It’s a fact of life that machine failure derails workflow. With a lot of equipment in POD it’s a case of when not if the next breakdown will occur.
Can automation provide a safety net in these situations? Yes. It can. In 2 ways.
The first way: Maintain control of workflow
Have you heard of workflow dislocation? This happens in less mature workflows when one part of the workflow breaks, and you lose track of where all the individual components are in your process flow. This happens when you lose part of a batch or when there are multiple components in a product and one part makes it through but other components don’t make it.
You then end up in a reconciliation mess and a lot of staff-hours are needed to manually match to recover. And in many sites it’s just easier to re-manufacture everything.
The solution is to have item level control for every single component at every process stage. This is done by uniquely barcoding every component and tracking at every process stage. You then have absolute clarity about component status which means:
- only produce the exact missing components required
- keep batch alignment intact
- making the recovery process smooth and more manageable.
The right automation keeps your workflow flowing.
