Industry — Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing performance depends on production, maintenance, inventory, quality and finance working together. When these areas rely on different systems and spreadsheets, the business loses visibility and improvement opportunities are missed.
In Ricky's Words
Why I enjoy working in manufacturing
Manufacturing gives you a rhythm you can measure. Every shift produces a result, every changeover has a cost and every quality issue has a cause somewhere upstream. I like that you can improve a process in the morning and see it in the run rate by the end of the week. Plant teams also tend to know exactly where the waste is; they just need the numbers to back them up.
Common Challenges
What we see most often
- Downtime visibility issues
- Poor OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) reporting
- Manual production reports
- Inventory issues
- Siloed maintenance and production teams
- Poor cost visibility
- Spreadsheet reporting
- Disconnected systems
Capability 01
Business Intelligence and Reporting
Manufacturing depends on balancing output, quality, cost, and reliability.
Examples
- OEE by line and shift, split into availability, performance and quality
- Loss analysis costed out, ranked by dollars rather than minutes
- Cost per unit and contribution margin by product and line
- Schedule adherence and changeover performance reporting
- One production pack, automatically refreshed, used at the daily meeting
KPIs that matter
KPI reference for manufacturing
The measures we most often build for this industry, why each one matters, how it is calculated and the bands we benchmark against.
| KPI | Why it matters | How to measure | World class | Benchmark | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OEE % (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) | Overall line effectiveness. | Availability × performance × quality. | ≥85% | 65–80% | 45–65% |
| Schedule adherence % | Are we making what was planned? | Units made to plan ÷ units planned. | ≥95% | 85–92% | 70–85% |
| First pass yield % | Are we making it right first time? | Good units first pass ÷ units started. | ≥99% | 95–98% | 88–95% |
| Cost per unit | Is efficiency improving? | Total conversion cost ÷ good units. | Falling | Flat | Rising |
| Changeover time | How fast can we switch? | Median minutes last good part to next good part. | <10 min | 20–40 min | 60+ min |
Capability 02
Data Engineering, Fabric and AI Readiness
Line data, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and quality records rarely agree. We build the model that makes a unit produced mean one thing across the plant.
Examples
- Bring MES (Manufacturing Execution System), SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), ERP and quality data into one governed model
- Standardise product, line and downtime reason structures
- Automate downtime capture rather than reconstructing it from notes
- Data quality checks on scrap, yield and production counts
- Complete history to support forecasting and demand planning
Capability 03
Power Platform and Business Applications
Replace manual, paper-based processes with simple digital workflows that improve data quality, reduce administration, and provide real-time visibility.
Examples
- Shift log and production capture at the line
- Quality checks and non-conformance capture with photo evidence
- Changeover and setup tracking with reason codes
- Maintenance request raising from the operator panel
- Automated escalation when a line stops beyond threshold
Capability 04
Continuous Improvement and Business Process Improvement
OEE improves through routine, not reports. We rebuild the daily and weekly cadence and standardise the way losses are handled.
Examples
- Map the line process and quantify every loss in the cycle
- Standard work and SOPs written to match how the job is actually done
- Changeover reduction using recorded, comparable data
- Daily tiered meeting structure built around one set of numbers
- Improvement register tied to a measured OEE or cost change
What we work on here
- Downtime visibility issues
- Poor OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) reporting
- Manual production reports
- Inventory issues
- Siloed maintenance and production teams
- Poor cost visibility
What changes for you
- Improved production visibility
- Reduced downtime
- Better inventory confidence
- Stronger maintenance and production alignment
- Better operational decisions