More and more manufacturers want to start intelligently tracking downtime these days, but a lot of them aren’t sure where to begin. Typically, the first step you need to take involves finding yourself a partner who can offer an intuitive, scalable and flexible downtime tracking solution to meet your needs. But be warned – not all so-called “partners” are created equally. 

A Genuine Collaborator in Every Sense of the Term 

Maybe the most important thing to look for when choosing a downtime tracking solution partner has to do with their perspective about your relationship in general. You don’t need someone who is going to come in, offer you a generic solution and say “here, we’ve done our part, good luck.” You need someone who is ready to work with your business to build the best downtime tracking experience possible, regardless of what that looks like within the context of your business. 

Case in point: at Thrive, we only build things into our solution because our customers expressly ask for it. We never add something simply because it’s cool or flashy, or because we think the market needs it. 

Everyone in the industry is going in the same, complex direction. They’re adding more features, more functionality, more pointless automation – you name it. Because we actually listen to and collaborate with our customers, we’re actually going in the opposite direction at Thrive. We only build what you tell us to and we’re focused on creating something that allows you not to replace your workforce, but make the most out of them. 

Not Just an Easy Solution, But Effortless 

Another one of the major things to look for in a downtime tracking partner ultimately has to do with the level of support they’re willing to offer long after that initial purchase is made. 

At Thrive, it’s absolutely true that we’re always available to answer your questions about how our solution works – but honestly, we don’t think we’re going to get to that point. We purposely don’t offer training of any kind because we built our solution from the top down to be so easy that anyone can do it. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about someone who has been with your business for years or who just walked in the door for the first time last week – they’ll be able to pick right up and get to work like an old pro. 

Other companies design software that is intentionally confusing and cumbersome so that they can sell you support services later – and that’s just now how we’ve ever done things and we’re certainly not going to start. If we have to train you on how to use our software, we believe that means we didn’t build it right to begin with. 

If you’d like to find out more information about what to look for in a downtime tracking solutions partner, or if you’d just like to learn more about our own downtime tracking and OEE management software to see more about what it can do, please don’t delay – contact Thrive today. 

Believe it or not, there are still people who are skeptical as to the value of downtime tracking software. “I know whether or not my equipment is running,” they say to themselves. “I have eyes. What do I need that type of tool for?” 

Yes, downtime tracking is a great way to provide real-time equipment performance tracking. But the long-term benefits are so much greater than that – especially as your business continues to grow and expand in the future. 

The Major Advantages of Downtime Tracking: Your Overview 

Possibly the biggest long-term benefit of implementing a downtime tracking solution has to do with how you’re never more than a few quick mouse clicks away from a total road map of all equipment performance across your business. It’s so simple to compile this information that you can easily do so right before your morning meeting as you’re still having that fresh cup of coffee. 

But this is about more than just convenience, of course. If you know exactly how your equipment is performing (and can compare the current status to historical data), you can identify poor performing equipment almost instantly. Then, you can hand that insight off to your maintenance team so that they can prioritize their own activities throughout the day in a more efficient way. You can see how minor and even major actions will impact production, thus informing your maintenance team about what is a high priority for the day and what can be pushed off down the road a bit. 

Speaking of historical data, this is another one of the most significant long-term advantages of implementing a downtime tracking solution like Thrive – it actually gets more invaluable and more insightful the longer you use it. 

With historical performance charts, you can track your equipment’s performance by individual machines or by entire lines over a period of days, weeks, months or even years. This is a great way to see how your overall equipment effectiveness changes over time. You can also see the results of actions you’re taking in the present day and watch as your entire business trends towards reduced downtime and increased efficiency. 

Plus, with company-wide reporting, you can manage multiple locations within the same business from the Thrive dashboard – even if they’re all spread out across the country or even the state. You can easily compare lines that produce the same product to find plants that can accept more volume, as well as quickly identify those that are underperforming. Are you looking at a situation where one plant needs a bit more training? Is it simply a matter of people being forced to make do with outdated technology that could easily be upgraded? Do you need more standardized practices to keep things running smoothly? 

A downtime tracking solution can help you answer all of these questions and more, which is why this is one investment that is absolutely worth making for your business. 

If you’d like to find out more information about the undeniable long-term benefits of implementing a downtime tracking solution, 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 downtime events is that not all instances are created equally. Yes, if a critical piece of equipment suddenly breaks and grinds production to a halt, that’s a problem. But something as simple as a shift change is a downtime event, too – albeit a planned one. 

At Thrive, our innovative downtime management solution actually tracks these events separately from those unplanned outages. We do this for a number of important reasons, all of which are worth exploring. 

Diving Deep Into Planned Downtime Events 

Maybe the biggest reason why Thrive tracks planned downtime events separately from unplanned instances has to do with their very nature – planned events are obviously something that you know about in advance (and therefore have a much higher level of control over), whereas that isn’t true with unplanned downtimes. 

Unplanned downtimes are when you suddenly find yourself with a problem on your hands that you really can’t explain. The information you need to make the most out of that experience – to fix the issue and mitigate risk – falls into an entirely different category than something like a line change over for obvious reasons. 

But that doesn’t mean your current planned downtime figures have to simply be a “cost of doing business” or a “necessary evil” – far from it, and Thrive can help to that end, too. 

Because Thrive makes it a point to track planned downtime events separately, you can set an individual goal time for each reason. You can specify that your next line change over should only take a certain number of minutes, for example, based on similar experiences you’ve had in the past. 

Then, if that event exceeds that goal time, your equipment operators have an opportunity to assign a reason for the delay. They can tell you exactly what the issue was in a way that helps you fix it, thus allowing that next planned downtime event to execute even faster as a result. 

Likewise, tracking planned downtime separately allows you to answer a number of important questions – especially if all similar change overs aren’t happening at the exact same pace, as logic dictates that they would. Only Thrive provides you with this deep level of insight that can help you not only analyze the changeover process to identify and capitalize on opportunities for improvement, but that can also help you create standardized processes to ultimately reduce planned downtimes across the board. 

Even if the issue is something as simple as all breaks aren’t ending on time, seeing this level of data – especially in a highly visual and intuitive way through the Thrive dashboard – helps to build a culture of both ownership and accountability that will serve your business well for years to come. 

If you’re interested in learning more about why Thrive tracks planned downtime events separately from those unexpected outages, or if you have any additional questions that you’d like to go over with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay - contact us today. 

Downtime tracking is important because it allows you to gain a clearer picture about what is going on with your production lines today, yes. It’s even helpful for anticipating what the future might hold before it gets here. But one of the biggest values it provides has nothing to do with the future, and has everything to do with the past. 

Historical performance data in terms of manufacturing equipment is something that people often overlook, but they shouldn’t – because there’s a treasure trove of valuable information just waiting to be uncovered within that data that is far too important to overlook. 

Why Historical Performance Data Matters 

Maybe the biggest reason why historical performance data is ultimately so critical has to do with the age-old saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” 

As you take meaningful steps to implement overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) across your business, it’s important for you to acknowledge that achieving maximum performance isn’t going to be as simple as flipping a light switch. It’s less the product of any one major move and is more about a series of smaller ones that all add up to something far more significant than they could be individually. 

That is to say, it’s going to take time to get to that ideal point and without historical performance data, you can never be truly sure that you’re moving in the right direction – or that you’re moving at all. 

Historical performance charts like the ones available as a part of Thrive’s dashboard lets you trend your equipment’s performance by days, weeks, months or even years. Not only can you get an instant look into your OEE improvements as they exist today, but with a few quick clicks you can also see how far you’ve come over the last week, or the last six months, or the last year if you prefer. 

It’s the perfect opportunity to watch the trend as you reduce downtime and increase efficiency, even during those frustrating periods where it may not seem like you’re making much headway at either one. You can see how changes you made six months ago are beginning to pay dividends in the form of quality improvements, or reduced periods of unplanned downtime. But more than that, you can follow those trends through to their logical conclusion – thus allowing you to get an idea of how the NEXT six months (or whichever period you prefer) is going to play out, too. 

With regards to historical performance data, another one of the most important age-old sayings to remember is “those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.” With a robust downtime tracking solution like Thrive by your side that allows you to look both forward and backwards in equal measure, you’re putting yourself in an excellent position to make sure that you learn all the right lessons from “the mistakes of the past” and leave the risks associated with them in your rearview mirror where they belong. 

If you’d like to find out more information about the power of historical data and why understanding past performance is critical to future success, or if you’d just like to get answers to any other important questions you may have in a bit more detail, please don’t delay - contact Thrive today. 

In the simplest terms possible, overall equipment effectiveness (or OEE for short) is maybe the most important key performance indicator there is. In the manufacturing industry in particular, it’s used to determine the efficiency of a plant and its operations. If you want to make sure not only that you’re producing the highest quality parts as effectively as you can with as few potential downsides as possible, tracking OEE is how you do it – all while making sure that you’re taking advantage of the full capacity of your manufacturing equipment at the exact same time. 

But still, far too many business leaders make the mistake of assuming that OEE is only relevant to individual machines on the shop floor. They have a list of their most critical assets and they’re very interested in reading those stats, but a lot of other machines tend to fall by the wayside. Not only is this a mistake, but you should absolutely take things as far as they will go by implementing OEE across your entire production line. 

OEE: Global Data, Global Visibility 

Remember that one of the core benefits of OEE is that allows you to both measure and visualize your plant’s operational effectiveness at a moment’s notice. Once you know exactly what you’re dealing with and what problems you are faced with, you’re in an excellent position to create actionable steps to not only improve quality and production but also save time and eliminate waste as well. 

Why would you NOT want to be able to do that within the context of your entire production line? 

With a solution like Thrive by your side, you’ll always know the efficiency of your entire production line so long as you actually choose to implement it that way. You’re talking about an automated downtime tracking solution that effectively measures production output and compares it against your line’s maximum potential. Plus, with production run records, you can easily track shift efficiency or even analyze trends line by line. 

All of this means that when you choose to implement OEE across the entirety of your enterprise, you can easily see how efficiently your line produces each product. You can take a deep dive into potential machine output based on SKU. But more than that, you can sit back and let the software do all of this automatically – all so that you can spend less time collecting those insights and more time putting them to good use. 

This simply isn’t something you’ll be able to achieve if you only care about OEE within the context of a few machines or specific assets. If you truly want global visibility over your production lines (and you should), this is absolutely a step worth taking and we’re proud to stand by your side while you do it. 

If you’d like to find out even more about why you should absolutely implement OEE across your entire production line, or if you’d just like to discuss other important topics with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay - reach out to your friends at Thrive today. 

Although cloud-based computing has become enormously popular in our personal lives over the last decade, there are still some businesses who are slow to adopt these advancements in the context of their professional lives. “I already have a solution that tells me what I need to know,” they say to themselves. “It’s right there on the computer in my office. Why do I need to take that into the cloud?” 

Well, for a lot of reasons, actually. 

In no uncertain terms – a cloud-based downtime tracking solution isn’t just important for a business like yours in the modern era. 

It’s absolutely crucial for a number of distinct reasons, all of which are more than worth exploring. 

The Impact of the Cloud on the Modern Business: Breaking Things Down 

By far, the most important advantage that a cloud-based downtime tracking solution like Thrive brings to the table has to do with how easy it is to access the important information you need to work smarter, not harder on a daily basis. 

Think about it like this: Thrive’s innovative dashboards are already designed to empower the way you like to work, regardless of what shape that happens to take. If you’re too busy to log into a terminal for detailed reporting because you want to get out on the shop floor as fast as you can, don’t worry – the daily downtime digest is built to summarize all activity you need to know in a way that is automatically put front and center. 

So not only is the dashboard itself inherently powerful in that it gives you easy access to the type of trends and patterns that would have otherwise gone undiscovered… but thanks to the fact that it’s all cloud-based, you can get that information from literally anywhere. 

Are you on the other side of your facility, far away from the desktop computer in your office? Don’t worry – you can pull up the exact same information on your tablet. Are you taking half a day off at work but still want to check in to make sure that things are going smoothly from home? You can have all the same information in a matter of seconds, right from your smartphone. 

Because Thrive is based on the cloud, you can get detailed insights from literally any device on Earth with an active Internet connection – including from any location, too. At any given moment, you’re never more than a few seconds away from all the detailed, real-time reporting on overall equipment effectiveness that you need, and that is just something you’re not going to be able to achieve if everything is still hosted on-premise like the “old school” way of doing things. 

If you’d like to find out more information about why cloud-based downtime tracking solutions matter so much in the modern era, or if you’d just like to discuss the specifics of your own business with someone in more detail, please feel free to contact us at Thrive today. 

At its core, downtime tracking is about providing you with the insight you need to make the best and most informed decisions possible, no matter what. While a lot of businesses have been embracing downtime tracking for years, so many of them still insist on doing things “the old fashioned way” – meaning manually, by hand, or at best using a generic program that was never really designed for that purpose in the first place. 

Not only is this a mistake… but this also puts your business at a significant disadvantage during a time when you probably can’t afford it. 

The Problem With the “Old School” Approach to Downtime Production Reporting 

If you want to put yourself in a position where you always know the efficiency of your entire production line, there are a massive number of things that you need to start tracking immediately. Shift start and end times. Efficiency percentages. The number of finished goods that were produced versus the number scheduled. The overall downtime for each piece of equipment. The list goes on and on. 

But once you start collecting that data, you also need a way to store it. If you’re still doing things “the old-fashioned way,” you’re probably doing it by way of an Excel spreadsheet or similar resource. With so many moving parts and with conditions changing almost constantly, simply keeping track of all this can quickly become a full-time job – which is a problem, since you already have one of those monopolizing the majority of your time. 

Then, you need to be prepared to dive beneath the data itself – uncovering the true story hidden underneath. This means wading through those spreadsheets to try to figure out how efficiently your line is producing each product. This means adjusting the efficiency calculation to take into consideration changes that you’ve made to employees or other resources. This means figuring out the cause, length, and frequency of downtime events, all in the name of uncovering your biggest source of downtime as quickly as possible. 

If all of this sounds equal parts time-consuming and frustrating… that’s largely because it is. But the good news is that with an automated downtime tracking solution like Thrive, this ISN’T the way it has to be any longer. 

The Power of Automated Reporting: A Brave New World 

Thrive’s innovative algorithm takes the data your production lines are already creating to uncover real-time visibility in a matter of minutes. You can see the impact on uptime and production that each downtime event will have if you proactively fix it, all before you ever actually do anything. Not only can you uncover the types of insights you need to prioritize equipment maintenance, equipment purchases and other actionable steps by their expected results, but you can do so IMMEDIATELY. 

All of this segues into the most important benefit of all in terms of automated reporting: it frees up as much of your valuable time as possible so that you can focus on those matters that really need you. 

If you’d like to find out more information about why automated production reporting is critical to your continued success as an organization, or if you just have any additional questions that you’d like to go over with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay - contact Thrive today. 

Think for a moment about the benefits of implementing a downtime tracking solution like Thrive across your entire production line. In a matter of minutes, you can track and chart the performance of individual machines by days, weeks, months or even years. You can uncover trends and patterns that would have otherwise gone undiscovered. You can see how efficiently your machines are operating not only based on the product they’re producing right now, but based on shift and other criteria that matter most to you. 

Now, imagine if you had that same level of insight across multiple locations within your company. It’s a true “bird’s eye view” in every sense of the term, and it’s not something you’ll be able to achieve unless you embrace company-wide reporting with open arms. 

The Impact of Company-Wide Reporting: Better Decisions, Better Performance 

With company-wide reporting, you can unlock that same level of insight across your entire business – regardless of whether you’re talking about two locations in the same city or a dozen spread out across the country. Not only that, but you can see every location’s performance in a single, straightforward report – all so that you can compare individual plants as a whole, or even individual lines in separate locations that are producing the exact same product. 

Even going beyond the fact that this allows you to quickly correct what isn’t working to improve efficiency and productivity, it brings with it a host of other unique advantages, too. In just a few quick clicks of your mouse, you can easily find plants that can accept more volume – all to keep things running as smoothly as possible. If a specific plant is underperforming relative to the rest of them, you can see WHY – thus putting you in a position to do something about it. You could upgrade inefficient technology to get that plant to the exact position it needs to be in, or even allocate training funds based on cold, hard data. 

You can even implement standard work practices that will improve productivity – all in the name of meeting your goals and exceeding your expectations whenever possible. 

But if you’re still only tracking effectiveness based on individual pieces of equipment or on smaller portions of your organization, you may be getting A picture of what is going on – but you’re not getting the COMPLETE picture. That’s a point you can only get to through true company-wide reporting, which is a large part of what our own downtime tracking solution at Thrive is all about. 

Not only that, but you can also print out a road map of your entire company every morning right from Thrive’s dashboard. Make no mistake: that is a very exciting position for any manufacturing business to be in. 

If you’d like to find out more information about why company-wide reporting matters more than you realize, or if you just have any additional questions that you’d like to discuss with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay - contact Thrive today.