In the past, manufacturing cycles used to be long, and for manufacturers, business was primarily an exercise in gradual evolution.
Time held importance, but it wasn’t critical. It was acceptable to operate the business based on monthly averages, such as average labor costs, average materials cost per unit sold, and average waste. Strategy formulated around these averages sufficed.
Digital manufacturing has changed the game. Consistency in execution and iterative process refinement has given way to flexibility and agility. Machines have become adaptable, work roles more fluid, and marketing departments ever more demanding in their desire for brand differentiation.
Within the factory machine digitalization now extends from printers in their numerous forms to lasers, cutters to routers, embroidery heads to CNC machines. The factory floor has been transformed and digital manufacturing is now a $122 billion a year industry and growing fast.
But flexibility has exponentially increased the complexity of production. What used to be tens of production jobs per day has grown into hundreds or thousands per site. The number of product combinations has multiplied from tens to tens of thousands. Once simple and logical manufacturing lines have transformed into convoluted mazes of machinery, and the standard 20-year machine depreciation cycles have shortened to just seven years.
Everything has accelerated, and everything has changed—except for the methods used to manage production.
Product flexibility may have created a new breed of manufacturers, but complexity has hindered understanding, and for the most part, businesses still rely on operations that are operated on simple averages.
This means, many secrets remain hidden within the day-to-day production cycle: secrets of waste and duplication, inefficiency and rework, pockets of great performance alongside areas of sluggishness, and unknown details of margin and pricing.
The numerous product lines, seasonal fluctuations, diverse production devices, multiple teams, and shifts, and bill of materials that can vary by 50x means that most businesses lack the ability to:
- Maintain precise control over their manufacturing processes.
- Comprehend the true cost and actual margin associated with each product, brand, substrate, shift, team, season, and geographic location.
Our view is that you cannot run a print on demand business on averages and range and manufacturing complexity is 100% manageable.
You solve the problem through creating “unit of one” accountability – every unit, every person and every machine is a unit to be directed and monitored; and activity is data – data that feeds insight and the ability to continuously improve.
Done well – the net result is increased efficiency, greater agility and significant money on your bottom line.
