Have you recently evaluated how you can improve productivity in your factory? Listed below are some simple suggestions of how using Visual Factory LED Displays (often called Andon Displays) can improve factory productivity.
To get started take a look at the definition of Visual Factory:
Visual factory describes how data and information are conveyed in a lean manufacturing environment. In a lean manufacturing environment, time and resources are dedicated to conveying information in real time to all levels of your organization—allowing everyone to obtain a quick sense and health of the business.
It’s important to consider your audience when choosing the data and information to display on your LED displays. Employees, guests, suppliers, or visitors should all be able to comprehend your LED Display. The proactive nature of LED Displays allows for continuous reporting. Listed below are some messaging, design, and sign tips to consider when using factory LED displays to improve productivity in your factory.
Quick Snapshot of Factory Production
The use of LED Displays in the factory are part of the Human/Machine Interface that make your factory to become as efficient and as safe as possible. In fully automated environments, sensors, PLCs, and operators are sending traceable data to LED Displays for real time efficiency measures.
Use Simple and Consistent Messaging
The old adage in advertising “simple is best” applies to manufacturing factories as well. Information should be taken from the Visual LED Sign at a glance and be understood at all levels of your organization. It’s just as important for the operator to know what is being relayed as it is for upper management. Consistency and communication help achieve these goals within your manufacturing plant.
Use Color Indicators
Modern LED Displays are capable of showing trillions of shades of color. Commonly seen in the factory setting, the use of red, green, and amber are best. Colors can easily ID if production is on pace, ahead, or behind target. Colors can also be helpful and quickly recognizable for safety calls.
LED Displays Answers "What?" "When?" "How?"
These questions are critical to have answers to in a factory setting. With just a glance at your LED Sign, you learn pertinent details of specific work areas as well as overall health of your business.
Use Common Metrics on LED Displays
Variations occur between industries, but the best way to track your factory’s production is to measure Productivity with Goal vs. Actual Results. If there’s a large discrepancy between the two, figure out what the issue is—if it’s due to the machinery, call in maintenance before complete shutdowns occur. Sensors also allow you to ID location and nature of a problem that may allow you to slow production while issues are addressed. Safety alerts help prevent injuries that lead to lost time, and avoid absenteeism.
Don’t Let (Lack of) Inventory Waste Your Time
Material shortages are one of the biggest time wasters in manufacturing plants around the world. LED Displays easily integrate with push buttons that can be used as call boxes. This allows the operator to call for more material before completely running out of the necessary materials to continue production.
Improving Efficiency by Tracking Production Uptime and Downtime
LED displays can show running clocks both counting up and down—learn more about process timers. Simple triggers set clocks in motion tracking time on a particular item or tracking machine downtime. This information allows for easy communication to anyone on the factory floor allowing instant understanding and analysis of how much work is being completed.
Manufacturing Quality Alerts
To quickly identify faults of manufactured goods (prior to being shipped out) there may be no bigger indicator than quality alerts. An operator, scanning device, or other machine vision tools could direct these, but overall, they all contribute to quickly identifying faults before goods are packaged and shipped out. With the use of LED displays, scraps and touch-ups are quickly referenced and understood, leading to a higher quality of finished products.
The development and implementation of Industrial LED Displays are ultimately deemed successful when production teams use them as vehicles to quickly understand gaps in performance. Which in turn, proper actions are taken to correct production problems, and meeting targeted goals on regular basis can become a reality. Over the years, Electro-Matic has noticed how entire teams in the factory environment come dependent on the information shown on our Factory Vision Displays.
Electro-Matic Visual offers a full range of LED Display sizes. They are compatible in varying applications across many industries, including stand-alone Andon Systems or displays to be fully integrated into automated workplaces. Contact us if you have questions on how Visual Factory LED Displays could improve productivity in your factory.
