2011 Mid-Year Report: Question 4
Manufacturing leaders discuss the characteristics that successful manufacturing operations have in common.
Question 4: You talk with successful manufacturing operations all the time. What characteristics do they have in common?
Mohamed AbuAli, University of Cincinnati
Based on our 10 years of industry-driven research at the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems, we view “successful” manufacturing operations as sharing specific characteristics that drive that success. I have gained significant expertise working with the center for the past five years in researching and implementing a systematic methodology and technologies for prognostics and health management (PHM) of industrial assets.
Successful manufacturing operations are able to realize an IT-enabled value shift; a shift from collecting manufacturing data to transforming and utilizing actionable information, a shift from physical static machining assets to functional dynamic assets, a shift from traditional machine maintenance to predictive and proactive maintenance activities, and a shift from product-centric operations to a customer-centric manufacturing system.
Such a value shift in manufacturing operations today is brought by predictive analytics for smarter manufacturing.
William Gaskin, PMA
An unrelenting focus on improving productivity through lean operations and upgrading employee skills, along with strategic capital investments, is a critical success factor for manufacturing companies today. Also critical is a need to diversify markets and adjust their technology to accommodate shorter production runs. This allows these companies to have the flexibility to meet the ever-changing needs of their customers.
Dave Tilstone, NTMA
Our most successful members continue to evolve and change by adding more value-added processes and/or capabilities to their operations. In this way they can provide a more comprehensive product and service offering to their customers. It generates them more profit and helps streamline the customer’s supply chain.
Report to 2011 Mid-Year Report: Grading on the curve.
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2012 Salary Survey
In a year when manufacturing continued to lead the economic rebound, it makes sense that plant manager bonuses rebounded. Plant Engineering’s annual Salary Survey shows both wages and bonuses rose in 2012 after a retreat the year before.
Average salary across all job titles for plant floor management rose 3.5% to $95,446, and bonus compensation jumped to $15,162, a 4.2% increase from the 2010 level and double the 2011 total, which showed a sharp drop in bonus.