From metal-fitting factories that keep machinery calibrated manually to high-tech companies whose production systems use self-diagnosing analytics, every manufacturer is continually working to improve shop-floor performance using analytics.

The best manufacturers I’ve worked with continually build out their system of record for plant-floor performance. Creating a system of record like this can save thousands of hours (and dollars) each year, based on the intelligence it can provide.

Extending shop-floor analytics to determine how plant, manufacturing, financial, and enterprisewide performance can be improved is key to making analytics pay. From measuring production throughput and plant schedule planning to support for demand management and forecasting, linking shop-floor improvement to financial results is possible today.

Galvanizing the shop floor to the top floor with analytics has the potential to unify diverse manufacturing lines and programs with a common strategic direction. Analytics becomes the fuel that moves entire companies to synchronize their efforts and quickly maneuver the learning curve of new-product development and new production techniques.

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