Removing Paperwork & Paperless Manufacturing

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Removing Paperwork & Paperless Manufacturing
Removing paperwork and transitioning to full paperless manufacturing is a goal for many companies and a crucial step towards digitalisation, the smart factory and Industry 4.0. Every organisation will be at a different stage in this ‘journey’ but there are some common elements.

The problem with paper
Organisations collect data, whether it is operational or regulatory, not for the data itself but for the information the data can provide. Whether data is collected and stored to paper or transcribed to software the following problems are suffered:
Inaccuracy
Cost
Lack of Visibility
Data islands
Inaccuracy
Errors are easily introduced when using paper based data collection, especially if it is subjective and relies, for example, on someone’s perception of time. How long was that machine stopped for? Transcribing paper based data to software introduces yet more errors and further increases costs due to the time taken to input the data. Inaccurate data is virtually worthless as the information it provides cannot be relied upon. Any action taken based on that information is likely to be wasted, adding to the overall cost. Efficiency improvements will be limited by the accuracy of the data collected.

Cost
Firstly, the cost of paper, ink etc. Paper and ink is not in itself expensive, making it easy to implement data collection with, so is one of the main reasons it is used
Storage is more expensive. You need to keep all that paper somewhere. Regulatory documents may need to be stored for years and in some case require specialised storage facilities so that the original documents do not deteriorate. Much more costly is the time taken by staff to collect and process the data. Even if you consider they are already being paid for their time they could be doing something more value added. If you do a simple cost calculation of the time taken it can easily run to many thousands of Pounds per year.

Lack of Visibility
Retrieving paper based data, and therefore the information it can provide, is often difficult to impossible. If the data is transcribed to software it takes time for someone to do this so there is always a lag before the information is available. The information to manage operations efficiently is not available when it is needed and it is common practice to be reacting to yesterday’s problems rather than responding to todays.

Data Islands
Over time, companies use a variety of applications and tools to support daily operational activities such as design and modification management, quality, production planning, sales, etc. This is how isolated ‘data islands’ are created, that are not shared or well maintained. Data collected for different reasons, in different formats. For example, production data is stored in a spreadsheet, on a laptop, without connection with other departments. Quality data is stored in another database and the rest of the organization cannot access it. If the data is not easily available to those who need it within the organization, then people will waste an unnecessary amount of time searching for that data.
Without a clearly defined central data source the chance of accessing the wrong version of that data increases significantly. The end result of data islands is that decisions can be made based on incorrect data, at every level of the organisation. Data islands are often based on different applications, files types, databases etc. so it is not straight forward to integrate them together.

How to remove paperwork?
The ideal solution is to remove the manual element of data collection altogether. If at all possible data should come directly from source, digitally. For example, if the data is from a manufacturing asset such as a machine, the data can be taken directly from the machine PLC, control system or by the addition of a low cost sensor. If it is not practical to eliminate manual interaction then devices such as barcodes and RFID tags can be used to ensure high accuracy and minimise interaction.

Where manual data entry is necessary then this should be done directly to an interface such as PC, touchscreen, tablet, smartphone or specialised hardware etc. In this way the data becomes digital instantly and easily retrievable. These types of interface not only allow data entry but can also provide feedback to the user regarding their performance and access to any other information they may need to do their job more effectively. For example, work instructions, training materials, schematics, checklists. Once data is captured digitally it becomes available enterprise wide enabling better management decision making.

Flexible systems like PlantRun are designed to provide this functionality, can act as ...

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