Since the inception of high volume assembly lines, operations managers have continuously looked for ways to improve their operations efficiencies. Within the past fifty years, several quality, operations, and procurement programs have been widely adopted by manufacturers, including statistical process control, just in time, ISO 9000, and total quality management. Regardless of the specific process a company may choose, the goals are fundamentally the same; reducing waste, and increasing shareholder value.

Today’s corporate managers are faced with operational challenges that rival anything presented in the past. Increased global competition, Internet information availability and increased customer demands for annual price reductions have all forced corporate managers to re-evaluate their competitive advantages. Many corporate managers are responding to these challenges by implementing supply chain management and lean manufacturing programs, among other efficiency improvement programs. For these programs to be fully functional, information flow has moved from monthly updates to hourly and even minute-by-minute updates. This increase in real-time data gathering and presentation requires business to significantly increase their level of automation.

Millions of dollars have been invested in factory automation equipment and sophisticated business software programs, where data can be stored for report generation. Up until just recently, efficiency reports were reviewed by senior management and responded to accordingly. However, most of today’s lean manufacturing programs, encourage the dissemination of key performance indicators to plant floor production personnel. Many of these productivity reports are posted at the end of each month on a designated production bulletin board. The processes used to post the data are all rather similar; create the data, develop the report outline, run and post the report, and hope that production teams actually read the reports. Unfortunately, this type of information presentation is ineffective, as most production personnel don’t look at these boards and are incapable of changing the status of past events.

Operations managers are frustrated with the situation and are requesting that their lean manufacturing program managers address it. Many lean program managers have responded by value stream mapping their data dissemination processes. These programs have led to the utilization of LED displays for creating and posting real-time data automatically. Today’s open LED display architectures allow for seamless integration with existing ERP, MRP, CRM, and production control business systems that utilize Microsoft products like Excel, Access, and Visual Basic.

Posting key performance indicators real-time has allowed production personnel to proactively take corrective action before unacceptable production events occur. LED displays have proven to be invaluable to operations managers, producing proven efficiency gains ranging from as low as 1% in highly efficient environments, to as high as 30% in others. It is important to recognize that LED displays will not make an automated machine run faster, just more efficiently because LED displays affect the human side of productivity.

Simple return on investment calculations using the payback method have produced returns measured in days, rather than weeks, months or years. As production costs rise, LED display ROIs become extremely attractive. Automotive manufacturers have used LED displays for years, as their manufacturing downtime cost can range from $5,000 to $10,000 per minute. These applications have produced LED display ROIs in less than one minute!

Need more proof? Contact your local Kendall Electric Automation Engineer to show you real case studies and introduce you to the power of LED displays to show you what they can do for your company.

Kendall Electric are distributors of both the Allen-Bradley and Adaptive lines. We carry a wide variety of displays to suit your needs, ranging from smaller single-line units to large multi-line, multi-color displays. Let us help you select the right display for your production needs.

Bulletin 800L Indicator Lights

Introducing the new Allen-Bradley Bulletin 800L indicator lights! This new line of 12mm, 18mm, 22mm, and 30mm indicators is ideal for commercial-grade and light-industrial applications. Available with LED, strobe, or incandescent illumination, the 800L line is more cost effective than traditional industrial-grade pilot lights – perfect for high volume OEM’s, panel builders, and contractors.

Contact Kendall Electric to take advantage of the cost-effective Allen-Bradley 800L indicator lights.