How Digital Can Transform Manufacturing

Introduction

For the most successful manufacturers, technology is not an add-on or afterthought. It’s an integral part of running a company. Technology automates tedious, manual processes, saving you money and empowering your workforce to spend more time making an impact on what matters most to growing your business.

For example, a major global automated systems manufacturer increased quality and efficiency by switching to mobile forms for automated data collection during compliance audits.

In fact, many of your manufacturing peers leverage the GoCanvas platform to increase the business impact of data. By using customized GoCanvas forms that automate mobile data to conduct a range of inspections and audits (even in offline mode!), these organizations are saving time and working smarter to leverage insights in making more-informed business decisions like mitigation of compliance risks.

You, too, can transform your business by using GoCanvas.

This eBook will show you how our technology can help your business grow in three key areas:

Safety and Compliance: By harnessing the power of big data through GoCanvas mobile forms, safety checklists, and audits, manufacturers can ensure compliance with state and federal regulations across their entire operation, including OSHA’s myriad regulations for manufacturers (machine guarding, lockout/ tagout, electrical hazards, personal protective equipment) to avoid worker injury and big fines.

Standardization: By switching to GoCanvas mobile forms and tapping the analytic power of big data, companies can achieve standardization in daily operations through automation that simplifies data collection, sharing, and insights generation across dispersed organizations. In this way, manufacturing data is captured, shared, and analyzed… from New York to Sydney. This is useful for incident reporting, maintenance reporting and tracking, audits, and open issue tracking — keeping quality assurance managers on the floor up to date.

Interoperability: It’s not a new concept to manufacturing. Having systems that work with one another — so that data from one machine can be analyzed in the same software as from another machine in a plant halfway around the world — is still something many manufacturers are struggling with. Collecting data in GoCanvas mobile forms and then storing it securely in the cloud to access from anywhere allows scenarios for your company that were previously reserved for mega-corporations. The power of digital is that businesses of any size can gain access to insights previously reserved for “the big guys.”

The maximum penalty for a willful or repeated violation: $132,598.

Chapter 1: Automation

Automate how work is done

There’s not a single step at your manufacturing plant that is unnecessary. Parts need to be welded, machined, and assembled with precision. You don’t waste time with steps that add inefficiency or unneeded features.

But while the way you make your products might be efficient, the way you manage your business – especially reliance on manual, paperwork-driven processes – might not be as efficient as it can be. Tracking maintenance schedules, safety inspections, and quality control checks with paperwork includes too many unnecessary steps. Employees have to lug binders full of blank forms around. Completed forms are filed away in a dusty cabinet and often never found again. Or they’re keyed into a computer system, which takes time and often introduces errors.

Even when paper forms are scanned or retyped, there’s the lack of a “big picture.” The information in those forms could be used strategically: to learn which machines always break down (and should be replaced instead of repaired), to train employees on ongoing safety and compliance issues, or to make process improvements.

If only the information wasn’t locked into paper or typed into an inefficient system…

Data captured in the field and entered directly into a mobile form is more accurate (no more worrying about illegible handwriting or typing/ entry errors), and it’s richer. Fields can be required — so inspectors and quality control agents can’t skip a section (either by accident or on purpose) — and you can also include photos. Not only is data collection standardized, there’s no longer any need to worry about or spend lots of time looking at manual checklists.

Some fields can be prepopulated: think timestamps, geographic coordinates, and more. This saves time and keeps data in a standard format. 

As soon as the form is submitted, you have access to it back in the office or at any other plant around the world. That data can be sliced, diced, and arranged on dashboards so that the global team can spot issues such as safety hazards on the manufacturing line or equipment repair bottlenecks and make informed decisions to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Moving to Mobile for Data Access

A major flooring manufacturer frequently audits manufactured products and raw materials for defects, warping, breakage, and other flaws. The company’s reporting did not offer the transparency and visibility they desired, and quality and ease of distribution were issues. This company needed better and quicker access to its data than it could get from paper forms.

It recently implemented GoCanvas in one of its facilities. It used the GoCanvas Mobile Forms Builder to digitize its processes and “automate” the creation of easy-to-use digital forms. Now, using barcode scanning on each pallet as well as on each individual item, inventory and defect data now flow into a database.

Summary reports in Microsoft Excel with charts, bar graphs, and more are pulled out, turned into PDFs, and forwarded to compliance managers three times a day. More detailed reports are available if issues are identified, and GoCanvas-designed custom dashboards are available for higher-level analysis.

The model is being launched in one plant but is designed to scale so that it can be implemented in the company’s other plants around the country. 

Manufacturers are subject to a range of OSHA regulations, which seem to be constantly changing.

Chapter 2: Compliance

Here are three key areas in which GoCanvas is already transforming manufacturing.

Compliance

Manufacturers are subject to a range of OSHA regulations covering equipment safety, protective work attire, warning signs, and other worksite and reporting requirements. Federal safety regulations are constantly evolving; for example, OHSA issued new guidance and an enforcement initiative in 2021 regarding worker exposure to indoor and outdoor heat hazards.

OSHA continues to maintain rigorous enforcement of safety regulations; major manufacturers continue to be routinely cited with fines for OSHA violations and worker injuries, indicating that the agency is taking preventable errors very seriously,

• On October 27, 2022, OSHA issued a $1,232,705 penalty to an Ohio vinyl tile manufacturer in response to a worker suffering severe injuries as a result of being caught in a machine. The plant where this incident occurred has been in a “Severe Violator Enforcement Program” since 2017.
• On December 15, 2022, OSHA issued an approximately $300,000 fine to a Texas-based auto parts manufacturer due to ignoring repeated safety concerns raised by workers and exposing them to unsafe conditions, such as a lack of compliance with machine safety procedures. 

$1,232,705 – Biggest Single Fine So Far In 2022.

Keeping track of all these regulations — not to mention rules and regulations from other agencies — can be overwhelming. But it’s vital to do so to protect your workers and keep your company liability free. One way to do this effectively is with checklists.

Checklists are a key tool in inspections and compliance. As safety supplier New Pig puts it, “Checklists break down complex plans into manageable action steps. Well-written checklist questions guide whoever is using them, and allow them to complete the audit quickly and effectively. Checklists can also help whoever is using them to come to a concrete answer for each question by removing the chance for judgment calls: it’s either yes, no, or a measurement.”

Checklists are a key tool in inspections and compliance.

You can use checklists for any safety audit or compliance issue. This eliminates the need to store paper records or re-key forms into a computer due to missing, illegible, or disorganized paperwork. By using mobile forms, there is no need to worry about or waste time with paper checklists. Since they are stored in the cloud, they can be accessed immediately if an OSHA inspector shows up, eliminating the need to go hunting for inspections in filing cabinets.

GoCanvas customizable standard mobile forms help you spend less time on paperwork and automate your safety procedures related to some of the most common OSHA regulations:

• Machine guarding requirements 
• Lockout/tagout electrical hazards
• Personal protective equipment

A good platform will help catch compliance errors and violations as they happen and let employees document the fixes they made at the time.

It will also integrate compliance with process management, according to consulting firm AT Kearney. This means that you won’t keep seeing the same issues come up over and over again, because you have data to ensure that your processes can change and adapt.

Chapter 3: Standardization

Imagine life without standardization. Suppose every car had a different-sized opening for the gas pump, or if every lumberyard sold pieces in whatever shape they liked. Getting gas or building a house would be much more complicated than it is today.

Standardization is often derided as stifling innovation, but the truth is more complicated. If a process is written down and standardized, it becomes routine — which frees up employees to innovate in other areas. This is because standardization helps improve efficiency by focusing work time on the most important tasks as redundant and distracting administrative tasks can be eliminated.

And standardizing side processes that are only indirectly related to making products can result in huge savings in time. Why wouldn’t you want to collect data from machines in the same format, or conduct safety or quality inspections in the same way across all of your many plants?

But according to research firm LNS, more than half of executives (55 percent) say their quality metrics aren’t effectively measured, and almost as many (47 percent) say they have too many systems to measure quality. Clearly, there’s room for improvement.

According to research firm LNS, 55% of Executives say their quality metrics aren’t effectively measured.

Standardization of manufacturing work processes is part of the movement to lean methodology and, according to a post by SafetyCulture, enables “cuts down on waste, ensures constant uptime, and boosts efficiency within the organization.” One of the central benefits of standardization is improved safety as documenting and communicating the specific, appropriate ways for workers to complete work tasks minimizes distractions and promotes adherence to safety protocols.

With a standardized system to measure quality and process improvements across plants, data can be captured and analyzed across all facilities.

Data collected via the GoCanvas analytics solution is automatically uploaded into a SQL database or Excel spreadsheet to create a custom dashboard where data can be analyzed almost instantly to identify efficiencies and mitigate safety hazards at all your plants/worksites.

By establishing a standardized process, “Organizations are better able to identify standards that are not being adhered to or adopted, as well as when and where to take corrective action. Such a system simplifies and consolidates these critical processes to provide real-time insight across plants, geographic regions, and suppliers,” according to a Sparta Systems white paper.

Kevin Prouty, research director for Enterprise Applications at Aberdeen Group says that mobile inspections allow companies to add discipline to standard processes.

“Before, you might have suspected not every item was being inspected. Now, when inspections are performed using a mobile device with a bar code scanner, you know when steps are skipped. It enforces discipline in the process.” – Kevin Prouty, Research Director for Enterprise Applications at Aberdeen Group

Manufacturers must comply with strict safety and quality compliance regulations. Using a mobile app increases the accuracy of data that is necessary for quality checks and OSHA compliance checks. The inspection process is much simpler and smoother.

Chapter 4: Interoperability

Interoperability is not a new concept to manufacturing. Modern manufacturing relies on the idea of using interchangeable parts that work with one another — and that idea dates all the way back to Eli Whitney and his muskets in the early 19th century, or maybe even earlier.

But having systems that work with one another — so that data from one machine can be analyzed in the same software as from another machine in a plant halfway around the world — is still something many manufacturers are struggling with.

“Major problems remain with respect to the interface between the enterprise corporate level and the manufacturing shop floor level,” wrote researchers Hervé Panetto and Arturo Molina.

For those who embrace technology, there are huge gains to be made.

– James Kember, Industry Analyst

Some industries, particularly that of small businesses, are limited by size and funding capabilities, but with higher efficiency due to the interoperability, standards can allow for those limitations, even work with them better. This allows smaller businesses to maximize the use of property to achieve higher levels of production with fewer personnel. Many factories are using a third less space to accomplish the same thing that they previously needed far more space to do.

Kember adds that the factory of the future “may look a good deal different than what many of us are accustomed to seeing. Personnel moving here and there, machine noise, and shouts for assistance on a given machine may all be factors that are missing in the near future. The shop floor of yesterday, replete with dozens of personnel necessary to operate the machinery may be gone, replaced by just one or two people who are carrying a tablet computer or a small hand-held device that can offer them all that they need to know about what’s happening on the factory floor.”

Interoperability allows smaller businesses to maximize the use of property to achieve higher levels of production with fewer personnel.

Leading manufacturers, says IBM Global Business leader Dave Lubowe, are increasingly transforming operations with big-data analytic approaches that simulate “what if” scenarios. “For example, what if we closed this warehouse? Or assigned this customer to a different distribution center? What would be the impact on service levels, inventory levels, CO2 output, and profit and loss? Before you take a step, you can do the simulation and basically get an automatic business case.”

With data available from every machine in every plant, stored securely in the cloud, and accessible from anywhere, these scenarios aren’t — the power of digital is that businesses of any size can gain access to insights previously reserved for “the big guys.”

Real-time data collection and insights that enable you to spot trends and make informed decisions are available to manufacturing organizations of all sizes. For example, you could customize an inspection checklist with all the data you need (and none you don’t). The results of the inspection — who conducted it, what they found, and what, if any, anomalies were corrected — are automatically and instantly uploaded to the cloud, where they’re stored securely. You can use this data, presented in easy-to-use dashboards, to determine which machines are most likely to fail. Quality data and customer returns can help you trace faults back to the machine that caused them.

Purchase orders can be sorted and tagged — imagine being able to tell at a glance that 70 percent of your orders came from one geographic location.

What’s the Future?

See how GoCanvas can transform your manufacturing business by automating tedious, manual processes so you can spend less time on paperwork and more time growing your business. Our user-friendly digital solution lowers costs, minimizes compliance risks, and empowers your people to work smarter.

For manufacturers big and small, mired in manual, time-consuming processes and paperwork the future clearly lies in digital transformation. Those who are slow to adopt, or worse, ignore the trend and remain mired in the paper, risk falling behind the competition — quickly. Don’t wait to optimize your business through an automated digital solution.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.