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IMPROVE YOUR OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Value of data in material flow management

Value of data in material flow management

Are you stocking goods or materials that are not tracked in any system? Some materials cannot be counted as single objects, or it is not feasible to do so, and therefore there is no hard data on how much is left. Traditionally these goods are manually monitored, which is a risk to operations. Those materials that are manually tracked are for example indirect materials that are not part of the final product but are part of the overall manufacturing process. Such materials are typically packaging materials, washing liquids, paints, hinges etc., which are essentially the production line.

Having data on all materials including indirect materials reduces the risks of disruptions in the production and other points of the supply chain. Unplanned shutdown can be costly and have an impact on KPIs such as productivity and production costs.

Automating replenishments based on real-time consumption

The struggle to forecast based on data of manual inspections is real, and forecasting is difficult to automate compared to the scenario where there is real-time digital data that enables even automatic replenishments. Not having data and placing last minute replenishment orders creates strain on logistics and supply chain. Availability of alternative products plays a key role in those scenarios but can lead to increased production costs if originally planned materials are replaced with more expensive materials.

Data creates added value by improving operational excellence

The value of data in material flow management can be easily measured with several KPIs such as availability, inventory rotation or downtime. Having visibility to all materials online enables using the time for productive work instead of manual inventory related work.

FORCIOT has a solution to track materials based on the load. FORCIOT® SKID is an easy-to-use IoT solution that does not necessarily require ERP integration. Intelligent measurement plates, pallet weight indicators, are placed under the pallets and send real-time data of the consumption to the cloud. Data can be tracked in an easy-to-use web application and alert rules are created on different thresholds.

Interested to hear more how FORCIOT® SKID could improve your operational excellence? Please contact us.