*By Fernando Pacheco - COO at PackIOT First of all, I would like to make something clear: I don't wish this article to be another one of those "guru" posts that you read on the internet (10 things to do to keep your operator engaged).To write this text, I tried to compile the years of experience of our team of production specialists (at PackIOT), combined with my background as a manager and researcher. I really hope this can turn into something useful for you and your team. For whom this content is intended: line supervisors, shift coordinators, plant managers, industrial directors, business managers, operators, and future leaders. In a recent survey, TTI Global has released some choking data on engagement and satisfaction in the manufacturing sector. "According to these new insights - which canvassed employees across 11 industry sectors between December 2018 and 31st May 2019 - Manufacturing employees provided the lowest employee satisfaction score (7.4/10) overall".  Based on the data they have collected, they analyzed what Manufacturing employees expect, as well as what they value the most. The highest of these continues to be ‘Understanding what is required from you’ (39%), followed by ‘Support from your line manager’ (30%).…

Written by Leonor Rocha | Customer Success at PackIOT Everything moves so fast that, if we needed to wait for someone to process high amounts of information that are generated every hour, it would take ages to come to a concrete conclusion. Intelligent automation and other technological processes were created with a purpose: simplify processes of data analysis. We live in a fast-paced world, with a natural tendency to become faster and faster as technology evolves. Even though many might still believe it came to replace us, one thing is for sure, technology was certainly designed to simplify our lives and change them for the better. In the industrial sector, it is often regarded as an invention conceived to take over the jobs of people who work in the field. I personally prefer to see it as an assistant tool conceived to work along with humans. It contributes to strengthening our intelligence and helps us to limit our exposure to intensive and monotonous activities that no one enjoys, but which are a necessity to forge ahead. Intelligent automation has as a core benefit, the capacity to improve the efficiency of certain processes, which are often unachievable by…

Every day, plant managers and executives are constantly receiving tons of information about the production of their factories, making it difficult to analyze everything and decide which metrics are the ones that make more sense to be used in their business. Manufacturing metrics and KPIs help you, monitor, analyze, and consequently, optimize your production processes, contributing to an improvement of the quality and quantity of the produced goods. They provide valuable insights that will help you meet your goals. To know which ones are the most useful for your enterprise, take a look at the fifteen metrics we selected. This blog post is part of an Online Free Guide, with more details about all those KPIs. Download now for free.  01. Throughput This metric is the rate of how many units are produced on average, by a machine, cell or line over a certain period. 02. Manufacturing Cycle Time Also known as throughput time, this metric consists of the length of time from the start of the production to the delivery of the final product. 03. Machine Setup Time (Changeover) Time spent on setting up a machine or a production line, with the specifications of the new…