Obviously, downtime is a major concern for nearly all manufacturers out there because lost capacity is exactly that – lost forever. Regardless of how hard you try to make up for those losses tomorrow, you can’t fight the fact that they existed today – and you can’t hide the amount of money you left on the table because of them.

In an effort to try to mitigate risk from this as much as possible, many manufacturers turn to downtime tracking – albeit in the wrong way. Far too often, people are still recording machine downtime the old-fashioned way: via pen and paper or, at best, an Excel spreadsheet. The issue is that while this may record downtime “data” in a literal sense, it does little to help you uncover the true story hidden INSIDE that data.

Therefore, if you really want to find out what your data is trying to tell you, you need an innovative, accurate downtime tracking solution and you need one sooner rather than later.

Dive Right to the Heart of the Matter With Downtime Tracking Software

One of the most important reasons why accurate downtime tracking matters so much is because it does a whole lot more than just tell you WHEN a critical asset went offline. Not only will the right solution automatically capture start and stop events, but it will also provide you with downtime reason codes thanks to a direct connection with the machine itself.

What this means is that you’ll have the critical context of WHY something went down, all so that you can see if it was a one-off issue or a symptom of something larger than needs to be addressed as quickly as you can.

But more than that, if you can increase the visibility of your stops, you also put yourself in a position to react faster to them than ever before – thus creating meaningful improvements to your shop floor based not on “instinct” or “intuition,” but on an accurate analysis of both your equipment downtime AND the losses that you accrued because of them.

When you have the right solution at the heart of your downtime tracking efforts like Thrive, you’ll also have access to the insight from literally any computer or device on Earth with an active Internet connection. What you’re left with is a perfect storm in the best possible way – an opportunity to dive deep into what is really going on with your shop floor regardless of where you’re located, and a chance to drive positive, forward progress across your enterprise on a daily basis. In a world where continuous improvement is one of the cornerstones of lean manufacturing, this is clearly a powerful weapon to have on your side.

If you’re interested in learning more about why ACCURATE downtime tracking matters most of all, or if you’re just eager to get a closer look at what our innovative solution can do for your organization, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today.

A Matter of Perspective, or: The Thrive Approach 

Obviously, the benefits of tracking downtime across your production lines are as enormous as they are essential. You can’t monitor what you’re not tracking, and only with the right solution by your side will you be able to view real-time efficiency information in just a few quick clicks of your mouse. Only with the right, powerful tool will you be able to diagnose issues with any device on the shop floor at a moment’s notice. Only technology can bring you the historical performance data you need to see how far you’ve come and, more importantly, where you might be headed. The list goes on and on. 

But while all of these features are critical, there is one that matters more than ever that far too many people don’t pay attention to until it’s too late. That element is ease of use, and it can make a big difference for your own efforts moving forward. 

Why Ease of Use Matters Most of All 

Think about it like this: the volume of data your business is creating on a daily basis is enormous. Not only do you have access to insight about every last piece of equipment you own, but you can also see operator information and get a better understanding of how these two elements interact with one another. Hidden inside that data is the true story of what is REALLY going on with your business – all you need to do is figure out how to extract it and you’ll have everything you need to make the best decisions possible, no matter what. 

Downtime tracking software is designed to BE that solution… but it ultimately isn’t doing anybody any good if you need an advanced engineering or computer science degree to use it. 

Why invest in downtime tracking if every last employee on your shop floor can’t use it? If you need to bring in a secondary team to support your people all the time, are you really dealing with a “solution” at all? Not really. 

At Thrive, we designed our downtime tracking system to be as easy to use as possible for this reason – because literally anyone in your business should be able to get started in a matter of seconds. It doesn’t matter what their background is or how long they’ve been with your company. In fact, we believe that if we have to train you on how to use our software, we didn’t actually design it right – so we’ve pulled out all the stops to show you just how committed we are to making your experience as easy and as effortless as possible. 

If you’d like to learn even more about why ease of use is the most important factor of all when it comes to downtime tracking software, or if you’d just like to discuss your own needs as a business with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today. 

One of the most important things to understand about manufacturing software is that no two options are created equally. Yes, they’re all designed for businesses LIKE yours – but depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, they may not be the right fit given your long-term strategy. 

For example: if continuous improvement is one of your major focuses as a manufacturer and as a business professional, there are a number of key features you’ll want to make sure any manufacturing software you choose to invest in includes. 

Critical Features for Your Manufacturing Software: Breaking Things Down 

Obviously, as a manufacturer, one of your top priorities always involves keeping every last piece of equipment on your shop floor up and running for as long as possible. Therefore, it makes sense that the number one feature you want to look for in manufacturing software comes by way of some form of comprehensive downtime tracking functionality. 

Remember that downtime tracking is about more than just gaining an understanding of your line’s efficiency. It’s also your key to instantly learning the cause, the length and even the frequency of downtime events – including small ones like those micro starts and stops that you may not have been paying attention to but that are costing huge amounts of time and money just the same. 

Not only that, but innovative solutions like Thrive take this one step further by using a unique algorithm to calculate the impact on uptime and production each downtime event WOULD have had if it had been fixed. So not only will you know what your biggest source of downtime is right now, but you’ll also be able to see the major advantages you’ll achieve if you set your mind to fixing it, too. 

These days, another one of the most important features to look for in manufacturing software has to do with dashboards that take all of your complicated, high volume data and distill it down into a series of visual charts that literally anyone in your business can understand. You should be able to log into this dashboard from any device on Earth with an active Internet connection thanks to the cloud, and you should be able to access and print a performance snapshot anytime, anywhere, no exceptions. At any given moment, you should never be more than just a few quick mouse clicks away from seeing your equipment’s efficiency, your historical performance, operator comments and more – all in any date range that you choose. 

Speaking of date ranges, your manufacturing software should also offer historical performance dating back days, weeks, months or even years if you so choose. Then and only then will you be able to learn what the past is trying to tell you in order to build a much more successful (not to mention profitable) future for your organization. 

To find out more about all of the important features that your manufacturing software needs to be able to provide, or to get answers to any other important questions that you may have, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today. 

By far, one of the most frustrating “costs of doing business” for any manufacturer is downtime in all its forms. 

Yes, if you had to pick between unplanned and planned downtimes, the latter is always preferred. Planned periods of downtime you can control, whereas unplanned instances are fraught with uncertainty and frustration. 

Having said that, you don’t necessarily have to write planned downtimes off as an “inconvenience that you’re just going to have to deal with.” In fact, you can actually turn it into an opportunity to shift your attention to other matters that are just as critical to your long-term success. 

Turning Planned Downtime Into an Opportunity: Your Overview 

Obviously, whether you’re talking about a planned lunch break period or an entire shift change, you’ll want to keep even your planned downtimes as short and as infrequent as possible. Every minute that those machines are offline is a minute that you’re not making money and especially given everything that is going on in the world right now, that’s probably a situation you’d want to avoid if you’re able to. 

Having said that, planned downtimes are actually a perfect opportunity to take care of a lot of those preventative maintenance items that you’ve been working through on your checklist. Rather than waiting for something to break so that you can fix it, it makes far more sense to stop a small problem today before it has a chance to become a much bigger (not to mention more expensive) one down the road. 

Of course, maybe the biggest criticism that a lot of people have when it comes to preventative maintenance is that you’re performing “excessive maintenance.” To put it another way, people are concerned that technicians are spending so much time inspecting and maintaining pieces of equipment that probably don’t (yet) require that level of attention-to-detail. 

While this is certainly valid from one perspective, it also underlines the importance of having the right downtime tracking solution by your side in the first place. By understanding the maximum potential of each piece of equipment on your shop floor, and by being able to take a closer look at their current status at a moment’s notice, you always know WHERE to direct those human resources during periods of planned downtimes. 

They don’t have to spend time inspecting everything only to accomplish nothing if everything is working as it should be. But by tracking OEE, you won’t have to go looking for those “small problems to fix” today because the data will come right out and tell you. That way, during shift changes or lunch periods, technicians can step in and address those issues to avoid costly UNPLANNED periods of downtime moving forward. 

If you’d like to find out even more information about what you can do to make the most out of planned downtime events, or if you’d just like to discuss your needs as a business with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today. 

One of the major things that people often overlook when discussing downtime ultimately comes down to the human costs associated with it. That is to say, those factors that may not necessarily be obvious like an urgent repair but that can cost a company just as much money if officials aren’t careful. 

Case in point: too much downtime almost always creates the need for overtime at the worst possible moment. If a critical piece of equipment suddenly goes down and you were only able to produce 50 parts per hour over the last eight hours when you really needed to produce 100, the needs of your client don’t change. The parameters of the original order aren’t thrown out the window. That client still needs 400 additional parts and they need them as quickly as possible – which means that your skilled workers are going to need to stay longer to make sure the job gets done. 

The Human Impact of Too Much Downtime 

More often than not, overtime is incredibly expensive for companies – creating a situation that further harms their profits beyond simply making them deal with lost profits. If you’re forced to work overtime and still can’t quite close the gap on those 400 parts, you’re also going to harm the relationship between your business and that client, too. 

But with downtime tracking, these are exactly the types of situations you’ll be able to avoid. Rather than guessing as to the cause of a particular downtime incident, you’ll know beyond the shadow of a doubt. You’ll know if it came down to operator inefficiency or maintenance issues with core equipment or shift changes that took too long or something else entirely. You’ll be able to allocate funds for additional training or identify poor performance equipment so that you can prioritize maintenance in a more intelligent way. 

You’ll know why the downtime is happening so that you can put a stop to it as soon as possible – thus removing the need for all that overtime to begin with. 

If you know exactly what steps you need to take to unlock the true potential of both your equipment and your employees, you’ll be operating at peak efficiency at all times. At that point, you won’t have to worry about overtime because it would never be needed – you’re already making the most of every hour of the day as it is. 

That creates more than just a situation where your business is operating more profitably than ever. It will absolutely impact the quality of the work you’re able to do in a positive way, too – which will go a long way towards creating a genuine competitive advantage for yourself at the exact same time. 

If you’d like to find out even more information about how the right downtime tracking software can help you cut overtime and more, or if you’d just like to discuss your own needs with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today. 

In general, real time efficiency tracking is exactly what it sounds like: your ability to dive deep into what is going on with your production lines and monitor things as they happen. Rather than waiting for someone to hand you a report at the end of the day, you see what is happening instantly – all so that you can make better and more informed decisions across the board. 

Many manufacturers make the mistake of relying exclusively on historical data and reporting and, while this is also telling, only real time efficiency monitoring will bring with it a number of clear advantages that your business simply cannot afford to overlook. 

Why Real Time Visibility Matters: Letting the Present Inform the Future 

One of the biggest advantages that real time tracking and monitoring brings to the table ultimately comes down to an increased sense of responsibility (not to mention accountability) on behalf of your operators. If you always know exactly how efficient someone is being at a moment’s notice, you know who is already doing their best and who could need a little more guidance. Maybe someone needs a bit of additional training on this one particular machine. Perhaps they need more help becoming invested in your company culture. Regardless, these are the types of issues that you’ll know about immediately – putting you in an excellent position to do something about them right away. 

Obviously, one of the main advantages of real time efficiency tracking comes down to how it can help you decrease (and often eliminate) downtime across your company. Keep in mind that when you partner with a downtime tracking and management solution like Thrive, this means that you can track your production line efficiency on an ongoing basis and analyze trends according to shift, line or even SKU. If your downtime issues are a matter of all those micro starts and stops throughout the day adding up to a much greater period than you realized, you’re going to know about it. If it’s a larger problem and you have to optimize assets or prioritize certain types of maintenance over others, you’re going to know about that, too. 

In the end, you should remember that yes, historical data is incredibly important – but it’s also just one small part of a much larger story. Equally critical is your ability to take a look at exactly what is going on across your production lines at a moment’s notice. By being able to see exactly what is going on right now, you’ll have a better idea of where you’re headed – and you have better control over that destination as well. 

If you’d like to find out more information about how to measure your efficiency in real time and why this is so important to your ongoing success, or if you’d just like to discuss your own needs with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today. 

With the sheer volume of data that your business is creating on a daily basis, simply making sense of it all can often feel like an uphill battle. But what you’re talking about is more than just 1s and 0s sitting on a hard drive somewhere. 

Inside that data is the true story of what is really going on with your business – not just in terms of where you’ve come from, but also with regards to where you’re likely headed. If you want to uncover that narrative and get to the truth of your company, you need the right solution designed for all of this and more. 

Historical Data: The True Story of What’s Happening With Your Business 

With the right downtime tracking solution like Thrive by your side, you can always access a historical performance chart that lets you trend your equipment’s performance by days, weeks, months or even years. If you want to “go back in time” and see exactly how a shift performed last week or last month, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you. 

But what this comprehensive level of reporting really does involves allowing you to let the past inform the future, so to speak. If you know where you currently stand today and you know where you started, you know exactly how far you were able to come – and you know what worked and what didn’t along the way. 

Historical performance charts with this level of detail will show you when a piece of equipment or even an entire shift is suddenly getting less and less efficient over time, for example. You can pinpoint exactly where the issue began and, in all likelihood, what caused it. Maybe you hired an operator who wasn’t trained properly. Perhaps it’s an issue with a legacy piece of equipment that is no longer as effective as it once was and maintenance will now need to be prioritized moving forward. Regardless of what your hypothesis happens to be, the data will confirm it – thus allowing you to make smarter and more informed choices moving forward. 

But the major reason why the historical performance reporting in a solution like Thrive are so critical is because they unlock true company-wide reporting, probably for the first time. 

With Thrive, you can see both the current and historical performance of EVERY location in your company in a single, easy-to-understand chart. Not only can you see which plants are historically underperforming given a particular task, but you can also find locations that can easily accept more volume, too. This puts you in a position to better allocate training funds, upgrade technology and more – all because historical data allowed you to uncover trends and patterns that wouldn’t have otherwise been obvious. 

If you’d like to find out more information about unlocking the narrative hidden inside your historical data, or if you’d just like to learn more about our innovative downtime tracking solution and what it can do for a business like yours, please don’t hesitate to contact Thrive today.