The theory of being proactive rather than reactive is very appealing to manufacturers for many reasons. One reason would be that, in theory, a proactive approach that was carried out to perfection would lead to very few unexpected surprises. The definition of proactive is to create or control a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has already happened. In the language of manufacturing, an example of this would be having the ability to tell if a job is going to be late way before the job is due to be delivered. As a result, this would then give you the time to act accordingly, whether it be to prioritise and push the job through production, or to give the customer plenty of notice that their job will not be arriving on time. A reactive approach to this very situation could have a detrimental effect on the business and its reputation.
That all sounds so great, so how do we go about implementing such an approach? Keeping tabs on all of this information manually would be practically impossible. There are always going to be cases where the suppliers van broke down, meaning that you have no materials, or where drawings have to be put on hold as a result of changes being made to them. Things like these can never be helped, and so having measures in place to either still make sure that the job gets out the door on time or to give the customer enough notice to change their plans is a must. MIETrak Pro has systems in place that will notify you the second a job is expected to be late. We also have full inventory location control that will notify you the second your stock levels fall below your minimum reorder points.
Another strategy geared towards being proactive is having a quality control system in place. In todays industry some companies are required to abide by certain inspection criteria due to the markets they trade in and the accreditation they have gained. Again, that process of trying to find an issue before it is found by the customer is only going to have a positive effect in the long run. The quality control module within MIETrak allows you to associate specific inspections to a periodic quantity count of manufactured items, as well as having to inspect items that are purchased before they reach the stock shelves.
Im sure after reading this you are going to try and impregnate a 24/7 proactive approach into every employee within the organisation, but the truth is no company will ever be able to apply a proactive approach to every situation. There are always going to be situations well out of your control, like your delivery truck breaking down on the M25. The idea of MIETrak is to try and keep you having to use the reactive approach to a minimal.
If you would like any more information or would like to discuss your requirements in further detail then please either;
Email us: [email protected]
Call us: 01527 576 444
Visit our website: www.mie-solutions.co.uk