The Challenge
TRACK VALUE STREAM METRIC DATA ACROSS MANUFACTURING STAGES WITH LESS EFFORT
The client, a global pharmaceutical company invested in continually improving manufacturing processes, was engaged in implementing lean manufacturing improvement initiatives.
To meet the new initiatives, the client needed an automated way to collect real-time manufacturing data, and apply and calculate value stream metrics over time. The client turned to Aspect to extract the needed data and design, develop, and implement dashboard reporting to meet their needs.
The Solution
CUSTOM DASHBOARD REPORT WITH MEANINGFUL METRICS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE GREATER INSIGHT
Aspect Consulting was engaged to design a new series of dashboard reports to track value stream metrics:
Data Centralization: Aspect collaborated with stakeholders to extract the data needed to support the reporting metrics from the company’s ERP system and created a .NET-based user interface to maintain alert thresholds and input data needed that did not exist in the ERP.
Dashboard Design: Next, Aspect collaborated with the client stakeholders to design dashboards that highlight batch yield and cycle time trends, with all metrics and charts arranged to easily traverse each manufacturing stage, and alert when conditions exceed thresholds.
Dashboard Development: Aspect utilized custom .NET charting tools to a landing dashboard combining key first look metrics across business units.
The Advantage
AUTOMATED DASHBOARD REPORTING INFORMS MANUFACTURING IMPROVEMENTS
- Eliminates Manual Effort required to gather and calculate metrics at each manufacteuring stage and produce reports
- Streamlines Analysis: Users can roll back and forward to assess data points over time or drill in with one click to view data figures more granularly, without needing to check and filter multiple spreadsheets and source data
- Provides Greater Insight: All metric data appears in one set of graphical reports accessible via URL, with yield and cycle time metrics shown in combination with quality events for causal relationship assessment. The business can now use that data to more easily identify issues and implement lean practices to correct them.
FEATURES & BENEFITS
- Manual effort eliminated: users no longer need to gather data & produce reports
- Graphical Alerting: bold graphics ensure users can instantly view & act when values fall outside of thresholds.
- Improved Analysis: trend data gives the business the information needed to better employ lean practices
Lean Manufacturing Dashboards
More About Aspect’s Custom Value Stream Management Reporting Solution
GREATER INSIGHT INTO MANUFACTURING CYCLES
With multiple state-of-the-art manufacturing sites, the client is continually engaged in assessing and implementing lean manufacturing improvement initiatives.
The client needed an automated way to collect real-time manufacturing data and apply and calculate and assess value stream metrics over time. The application had to:
- Interface with the client’s existing ERP system AND allow for end user input of non-automated data.
- Visually display each metric’s results over time via a clean, understandable reporting dashboard, easily accessible to a select set of users.
Aspect developers constructed a custom reporting dashboard to provide a real-time presentation of Value Stream Management metrics by appropriate manufacturing stage, including:
- Batch Yield
- Cycle Time
- Asset Utilization
- Inventory Time
The application was built as a stand-alone application accessed by URL from the client’s intranet site. In addition, Aspect built an additional user interface so that an administrator-level user could enter additional data required for some metric calculation that was not available from the ERP system and maintain metric alert thresholds over time.
MEANINGFUL METRICS AND CHARTS
The custom reporting dashboards have the following features:
- At a Glance Insight: Aspect worked interactively with the client to determine the best presentation for each measure. Aspect chose components that provide at-a-glance understanding and arranged chart components in logical order, to ensure users can view and quickly understand key measures at glance.
- Drill in For Analysis: Each chart component provides drill-through capability to the data that makes up the value reported in the chart component, with controls that allow the user to filter, sort, & group, and export to Excel for further analysis or distribution to nonusers
- Threshold Alarms and Alerts: All graphs display target and plan threshold lines, and data points are marked with easy-to-read alert icons when values fall outside of a threshold. An interface allows administrators to update threshold values as they change over time and manufacturing processes improve.
“Aspect’s can-do attitude and ability to show us
the best way forward led us to our ultimate goal.
We now have some spectacular dashboards that
the business values.”– Pharmaceutical Quality Director
P: 610-783-0600
F: 610-783-5155
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