Manufacturing Process Management

In the age of digital transformation, it is imperative that companies have a system that can manage the end-to-end manufacturing processes used to design and assemble parts and perform inspections. A manufacturing process management system gives users this capability and serves as a bridge between the design and the physical product by collecting and leveraging all relevant data including manufacturing bills of materials (mBOMs), tools, workstations, and manufacturing processes. With this, companies can derive instant business value and establish the foundation for further value-added use cases.

What’s the Value?

By digitally connecting engineering and manufacturing, companies can enhance the visibility and traceability of their product and manufacturing data and leverage it to optimize their manufacturing process plans. They can also expect a host of additional functionalities that were previously impossible or extremely tedious. For example, users can derive an mBOM from an eBOM with full traceability between design and manufacturing views. With this data under tight change control, powerful impact assessments can be applied upstream to product design and downstream to production and manufacturing equipment.

Manufacturing parts, production processes, skills and tooling can all be connected in the system to derive site-specific process plans and printable work instructions that consider local process specificities, available equipment, and operators. The PLM system will serve as a single source of truth for these work instructions enabling closed-loop updates – updates that occur automatically without human interaction – and direct feedback from the shop floor.

Traceability between products, tools and workstations as well as audit and validation history and information is also supported. This data can be made available downstream via integration to additional systems, such as ERP and MES. Finally, by tracking metrics across the enterprise, organizations have access to valuable data to further optimize process plans and set the foundation for advanced analytics.

Impact End to End

Suppose a product design engineer adds a handle or another new component to a product (eBOM). Consider how that change is executed in your organization today. Using a manufacturing process management system, a manufacturing engineer can quickly update the site or line-specific manufacturing view (mBOM) of this product and the manufacturing process plan to reflect the design change. They can also digitally add or update required workstations and tools to the production line for this new product update.

At this point, the production planner has full visibility into the product changes that have been made and can begin to update the production plan within the system. This may include ordering new parts, adjusting shifts, and training operators on updated processes. Further, using a tool built to consume that system’s data can enable operators on the shop floor, who are currently involved in making this product, to be quickly alerted of the changes to the product and the process plan and can easily pull up the latest version. Finally, production supervisors will be able to track progress based on the input of operators and assess any changes in productivity.

Problems Solved and Value Delivered - What's the Point?

By connecting manufacturing and engineering business processes in a single system, manufacturers can be sure that the most up-to-date product specifications and work instructions are being followed on the shop floor. In addition to bridging this common communication gap, we can further empower stakeholders to fully assess the impact of a design or manufacturing change on a process or product respectively.

Similarly, increased visibility into relevant data can shorten lead times for testing manufacturability. With the right tools, users will even be able to simulate/emulate how a design process change will affect different lines and resources.

By connecting and centrally managing all engineering and manufacturing data, organizations can enable traceability from global design to the manufacturing line to optimize production and operations. Finally, organizations can manage and plan manufacturing resources with enhanced visibility, ensuring the latest data is available.

Want to learn more?

Visit our alliance pages for examples of systems your company can start implementing to start realizing value now

You can also check out a recent webinar we did with PTC on Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) below.