Transitions Optical Thailand

I’ve been lucky enough over my career to work for great companies who were:

- Well advanced in Smart Manufacturing

- In the process of evolving from static to Smart

- Optimizing some of the Smart foundational pillars that had been in place for some time

These companies ranged from one of the Big 3 in Automotive in the heart of the Midwest of The United States. A Prescription Lens Manufacturing in the North East, USA and more recently forth past 7 years manufacturing in Asia. Additionally, I have recently received great insight after completing a certificate program through MIT: Smart Manufacturing: ​Moving From Static to Dynamic Manufacturing Operations.

All of this has provided me with a unique experience and a wide view of the “life-cycle” or "supply chain” of manufacturing in a Smart way and valuable lessons to build upon and share.

My biggest takeaway from all of this is that ​it is and always will be an evolution of people and their capability, creativity, openness and understanding​ that makes any organization; manufacturing or other, be able to move more towards Smart and the increased use of any form of technology.

"“​It is and always will be an evolution of people and their capability, creativity, openness and understanding​ that makes any organization; manufacturing or other, be able to move more towards Smart and the increased use of any form of technology"

My insights:

Capability​ → Capability comes in many forms and you need many different types. The most obvious one Engineers and IT professionals who understand the technology and how to use it and maintain it. This is first and foremost. Yet what you need in terms of capability around that core is huge. You need capability in your leadership team to manage the change. You need capability in the supporting functions to be able to clearly communicate what they need, why they need it and how to make those user requirements turn into functional ones. You also need capability in the day to day operations: Technicians skills are different in a Smart factory. Operators, Supervisors, even HR need different skills to meet the rapid changes happening on the manufacturing shop floor.

Creativity ​→ Top down or bottom up, I won’t argue the point of where and how Smart manufacturing should come. The point I’d like to make is that creativity must continue to be value of the people who work in the smart environment. Even with mundane tasks that are automated and closed loop systems are functioning well doesn’t mean you need people to only focus on “maintenance” of the smart system. There is no end to continuous improvement and awe see things today the rate of technological advances are so rapid that we need these creative types or creative cultures even in manufacturing to find the different views, apply unique solutions and most importantly help themselves and others in the organization learn from the creative insights and application.

Openness ​→ Or what I like to say as a “healthy dissatisfaction with the current state”. This is tough one, because we as humans like our comfort zones and like to protect what is stable and going well. This is the characteristic or the cultural enabler that is key to any business to adapt to the rapid changing technology and embrace it. Openness to problems that we may have and are just discovering. Openness that our current or previous way of working was good, but with technology there could be better ways. Openness to ideas from all stakeholders. Openness to try, learn, fail, retry and repeat the cycle.

Understanding​ → Understanding by all of the layers and functions within an organization. Do the technical teams understand the process well enough to move towards Smart? Do they understand the Smart technology that will be applied either from their own doing, from a centralized/standard push, from management? Does the organization as a whole and the leadership team who supports it both understand why we are moving towards smart, what smart is and how it can help their jobs and the jobs of their teams become more meaningful by removing simple things and free them up for deeper work? Does top management understand that foundations need to be in place in addition to quick win ROI’s? I’ve learned that understanding comes positively from two different approaches: learn by doing or thinking your way through the change.

As I write this article we are currently going through an evolution of our team and our process towards different levels of smart. We are evolving in different areas of the Factory in different ways, although we are still following the above insights

One team is looking at a robust process of one piece flow over many unique pieces of equipment. And they are “learning to see”, with LEAN eyes. They are essentially doing a VSM of the product flow through this automation. Their waste comes in milli-seconds and any change in one place affects flow in another. They are being open to see differently, understanding that everything can still be improved and their capability is improving through their creative solutions.

The second team is connecting discrete steps in the process of packaging and whether they like it or not are becoming very open to the “hidden factory” that is discovered from how the operator/human who has managed the process between those two steps has done things forth past 15 years...

Whether it is the Smart Factory of the future or the current smart watch you have on your wrist; in the end it is and always will be a people process.