Internal communication in the production hall — how to improve it?

High production costs, exceeding delivery schedules or lowering customer satisfaction are the biggest problems of improper communication, which are indicated by middle-level managers in the report prepared by Forrester Consulting. How to effectively improve it and take advantage of its implementation? You will find out in the article below.

Getting information on the basis of which people responsible for maintenance are able to take specific actions, largely affects the profitability of production plants. Unfortunately, it is not obvious, and many companies do not deal with the flow of key messages between departments and their employees.

Access to information is key to optimizing production

People employed in production plants often face communication barriers. This happens when information is communicated directly between employees. It is even more difficult when information has to be shared by people working in different departments. In such a situation, the physical transfer of data or analysis will never be effective enough. This is how the information silo develops, preventing critical knowledge from being passed on to people from other departments, even if it is of key importance to other employees of the same organization and has a real impact on production optimization. How can this problem be solved, especially now, in an age of a pandemic, when direct contact is even more limited? Bet on internal communication in digital form.

Software dedicated to servicing production halls

The digitization of internal communication in a production plant primarily increases the speed of information flow and enables decisions to be made in real time and based on current data. By selecting software that is optimized for factory needs, all production communication can run smoothly.

In the production hall, communication between machines and people is just as important as communication between people. The factory control software not only allows you to maintain constant contact between all employees during their shifts, but also allows you to receive feedback from all monitored machines and production lines.

The benefits of transparent communication

Digital communication allows you to receive information about failures, poor results of specific machines or assemblies, as well as upcoming material shortages in advance. All this information also goes directly to employees, who therefore know well what is expected of them. In turn, managers will be informed about potential production problems before they turn into critical downtime. This gives well-informed employees the opportunity to take the initiative and proactively, rather than waiting for production to stop and irreversible losses.

This high level of transparency allows for greater individual responsibility and targeted, effective factory management techniques. Obtaining constant feedback allows you to improve key performance indicators (KPIs) and the overall productivity of the shop floor, resulting in a quick response and improvement of weakest areas.

What else can your company gain thanks to this approach? According to the “Unified Communication-as-a-service in the Manufacturing Market — Growth, Trends, and Forecast” study by Research and Markets, the implementation of UCaaS, or Unified Communication as a Service in the manufacturing industry, brings benefits such as improved scalability, reliability or better cooperation between different working groups. According to this report, this trend will gain in importance and in the years 2019–2024 its average annual growth rate (CAGR) will amount to 14.7%.

Digital communication as an opportunity to use the potential of employees

The digital communication system facilitates the use of employee knowledge, which is an unused asset in many production organizations. These people are often the first to know when any disturbance is occurring, and may be the only witness to what is happening at any given moment. Production management software allows them to share their insights with other employees and supervisors in real time, in a documented and archived manner for future reference. The knowledge of one person or team then becomes common knowledge for the entire production plant, on the basis of which a long-term strategy is created for the following years.

Efficient communication within one team and between different teams means that the company has a much greater chance of delivering a high-quality product on time already at the first attempt, and as a result, achieving the efficiency that everyone strives for.

One tool, many possibilities

All these functions are fulfilled by the FitMech system created by a team of engineers, which allows you to control the amount of machine working time, determine the number of cycles and their length, analyze the quality of work performed by specific machines, as well as the efficiency of employees on a specific shift. All this data is provided in real time.

At the same time, automatic registration of machine working time allows to reduce the amount of paperwork and the time spent on manual filling in shift reports.

FitMech also provides information describing the performance of employees and the way they use the machines. Thanks to this, it is possible to reduce or completely eliminate irregularities, extend the life of machines, and increase the efficiency of the production process.