Analyzing production data from your processes is an important part of improving quality, efficiency and profitability in the manufacturing industry. Combining and evaluating information from multiple parameters, processes and departments can provide valuable insights that enable both rapid responses to current events and long-term improvement efforts.
At the same time, many companies struggle to make use of the data they collect and spend a lot of time manually compiling reports. A common reason for this can be the use of multiple IT systems and a lack of connectivity between them.
To achieve greater efficiency, control and optimization of production, you need to bridge that gap. With our help, and the Microsoft Power Platform, you can connect islands of information and get maximum value from your data. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?
Production management & data integration strategies
One method to overcome integration problems between different systems is to invest in a central data repository, such as a Data Lake or Data Warehouse, where large amounts of data are collected and stored in their original form. This is a costly and resource-intensive investment that can also take time to implement correctly.
However, in our experience, Microsoft's Business Intelligence tools offer a faster and more efficient solution that enables the use of varied data from across the organization.
Improved efficiency during the product life cycle
A powerful tool in Microsoft's software suite is Power BI, which can be used to combine and visualize data from a wide range of sources. We developed a Power BI solution for an international pharmaceutical company to help them increase transparency in the organization and distribute their production plan to many departments.
The solution brings together data from different systems to provide a unified overview of production, and easily makes available more detailed information, such as material requirements, production times and more. This helps production operators, engineers and managers to work smarter and make more informed decisions in their work.
A further benefit is that plant maintenance planning is now easier, helping to ensure that the manufacturing unit is operating at optimum capacity. Other departments have since realized the potential of this and the Power BI solution has been extended to help with things like raw material purchase planning, monitoring batch status and much more - contributing to significant cost savings.
Innovative ways to use data & save costs
In addition to combining data from different systems, the Microsoft Power Platform can also be invaluable for companies that want to organize and structure their data more efficiently.
An international pharmaceutical company enlisted our help to optimize their packaging and shipping processes by developing an information hub in Microsoft Power BI. Previously, the organization spent a lot of time preparing for a shipment, as they needed to search through many different documents to find shipping terms based on product, destination country and package size.
Thanks to the Information Hub's data collection and filtering capabilities, information is now easily accessible from a single interface, instead of multiple ones. What could previously take up to an hour now takes just a few minutes, saving the company thousands of hours a year while simplifying the process for new employees.
The solution has been so successful that the pharmaceutical company is now exploring the possibility of implementing the information hub in other parts of its business.
Become an expert on your own data
Do you spend a lot of time searching for data in different systems? Then this solution, bringing everything together in a single platform, will streamline your ways of working and deliver valuable insights.
Our extensive experience in developing seamless integrations makes your data more useful and can make a significant difference to your production operations.
If you work smart today, you can work even smarter tomorrow. Contact us to learn more about how we can customize our solution to help your business.
