How to improve the industrial performance of your company?

To remain competitive in an increasingly competitive market, meet consumer requirements and guarantee the profitability of your business, it is imperative to ensure the industrial performance of your company on an ongoing basis. To do this, several strategic levers can be activated.

Here is an overview of the actions to be put in place to improve the industrial performance of your company.

 

What is industrial performance? Definition and challenges

A company’s industrial performance refers to its ability to achieve its objectives in terms of quality, deadlines, costs and operational efficiency, among other things.

Ensuring the industrial performance of your company is essential to improve customer satisfaction, increase the company’s competitiveness and profitability, reduce costs and control operational risks.

 

5 tips to improve the industrial performance of your company

Here are our 5 tips to improve your company’s industrial performance:

• Define your industrial performance objectives

First and foremost, it is imperative to have a clear idea of the company’s strategic objectives in terms of industrial performance:

• increase the production rate to meet increasing demand;
• improve product quality;
• strengthen the company’s competitiveness;
• Reduce costs
• improve the operational efficiency of the teams;
• integrate CSR principles at every stage of the supply chain…

This preliminary step is indeed essential to guarantee consistency between the company’s strategic orientations and the management of operations.

• Measuring and monitoring industrial performance

To know the level of industrial performance of the company and its weaknesses in order to take the necessary corrective actions, it is essential to set up various performance indicators (KPIs). The choice of these indicators varies according to the company’s objectives, its sector of activity and its needs.

Here are some of the indicators of industrial performance:

• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• Manufacturing costs per unit
• The customer satisfaction index
• The rate of customer returns or complaints
• Delivery times
• The scrap rate
• Product compliance rate
• Inventory turnover rate
• The number of occupational accidents
• The number of technical flaws
• …

After identifying and implementing these indicators, they will need to be monitored on a daily basis and targeted and rapid corrective actions taken each time a flaw is identified, such as a lack of inventory, a quality defect, a suddenly high scrap rate, etc.

• Optimizing industrial processes

To optimize processes throughout the supply chain, several actions can be implemented:

• • Apply the principles of lean manufacturing, which aims to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction by improving efficiency, reducing lead times, costs and optimizing inventory.
  • Ensure equipment maintenance: in order to reduce breakdowns and technical flaws impacting the fluidity of the production line as well as the quality of products, it is imperative to ensure rigorous preventive maintenance, by implementing regular maintenance actions aimed at avoiding unforeseen breakdowns and extending the life of the equipment.
    
  • Continuously train operational teams and managers to ensure their skills development and acculturation during the implementation of new production management systems, tools and new technologies.
    
  • Optimize inventory management with accurate demand estimation to reduce waste and ensure customer satisfaction.
    
  • Collect customer feedback through surveys and questionnaires to identify corrective actions and improve product quality.
  • Improve communication between the various stakeholders (managers, field teams, suppliers, management, etc.) and break the silo effect.
  • Implement a new quality management system and obtain ISO 9001 certification to meet demanding and recognized quality standards.
    

• Investing in new technologies

Many digital tools and new technologies are now at the service of industry players to enable them to maximize their industrial performance.

Depending on your needs and your management system, you can, for example, adopt production management software (MES – Manufacturing Execution System ; WMS – Warehouse Management System ; ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning… ); connected objects; virtual or augmented reality equipment; artificial intelligence tools ; automation tools…

The use of new technologies is now essential, in the era of Industry 4.0, to maximize the operational efficiency of teams, shorten production and delivery times, control risks and disruptions in the supply chain, detect malfunctions in real time and optimize the entire supply chain management.

• Integrating industrial performance into a continuous improvement approach

Industrial performance should not be the subject of one-off improvement actions, but should be part of a continuous improvement process. It is therefore important to set up continuous and real-time monitoring of the performance indicators identified upstream. In addition, it is essential to register Improving industrial performance at the very heart of the company’s culture in order to raise awareness among operational teams and strengthen employee engagement and motivation.