The Knowledge Source

Where do we get the knowledge? That is a question we face as external suppliers of software and automation services.

Every production manager and every operational director is curious to hear how we can provide solutions for their problems while we have only just got to know them.

Of course we could brag and say that we are all Jonahs, after the consultant in Eliyahu Goldratt’s book The Goal. Jonah had experience in production and knew exactly which questions to ask a plant manager to make him aware of where the bottleneck in his plant was — or to trigger him into finding out. We know the questions Jonah asked, and we know there are many more than the five he asked. The key, however, is in the answers, and these answers come from the people we ask our questions to: the people on the floor.

We don’t know everything about every production line and factory in the world, but we know who does: operators, team leads, production managers. Asking the right questions leads to getting the right answers. Once we have those, we combine them with our knowledge of software development, system integration, data collection and management, and technology selection.

Selling off-the-shelf software solutions may be a nice way of making money, and some companies have grown very big doing that, but do they really help their customers solve their problems? To some extent yes, but often at the price of extra cost for modification, reconfiguration and complex integration.

I’d like to start — and our team with me — by first hearing what the exact problem is before offering the solution. If a planner uses Excel and gets lost in macros, a planning and scheduling tool may be a solution — but we don’t need to offer a full MES system. Maybe that MES system is already there; it’s just not used for the type of planning that needs to be done. Then let’s solve that problem, instead of shoe-horning the planner’s needs into a tool that doesn’t really support them. Similarly, we could suggest buying the most sophisticated SCADA and production control system to get some data out of a small production line, but maybe a simple database and a web application are sufficient as a first step.

I believe in improving step by step — no big factory, no leading production company was what it is now from day one, and nobody needs to make giant steps to get there if small improvements make it work. Smart Industry is not just about making your factory smart, but also about making smart steps to get there.