User's key to success: Reduce costs, hike efficiency

InTech, May 2006 by Hale, Gregory

Isao Uchida knows manufacturers need to get more efficient.

"For manufacturers to succeed, it is simple," said the president and chief executive at Yokogawa Electric Corporation. "They must increase efficiency and reduce cost. They must also create customer centric solutions, use leading edge technology, and they must have suppliers increase efficiency."

While Uchida said these are simple steps to success, it remains very difficult to get to the point of executing those tasks.

"Markets are rapidly changing everyday," he said.

Part of the solution is to have clear and concise communication from the executive suite to the plant and back.

"We want the data (from the chief executive's perspective) to know what is going on. Management wants to see what is going on in the factory. " Once they know the entire picture, the company can make decisions across the enterprise. "All the businesses are seeking more profit by increasing efficiency of the entire business by eliminating all the waste and reducing (stockpiled product)."

Keys to success

Cutting back on waste and increasing productivity is easier said than done, and industry wags have talked about it for years, Uchida said. This is becoming more of a reality today than in the past.

"Back in 1997, Yokogawa said it would become an enterprise technology solution company," Uchida said. "Just as we predicted, almost everybody wanted to connect from the top layer to the factory layer, so we formed a division that included consultation because to make up an entire system, someone must consult and find out about (an end user's) requirements."

Getting down to the basics is all about communicating across the enterprise and having all parts of the systems working in sync.

"The best way is to get real-time information to the factory and have the whole system work together. Yes, this is a dream, and everybody is trying, but it is difficult to get a company wide system (in place)."

One of the other problems facing manufacturers throughout the industry is the idea of connecting disparate systems.

"That is a difficult problem because each plant uses different systems," Uchidasaid. "That is why it is so important to have interoperability and supplier independent global standards."

Bringing together different systems and utilizing standards all boils down to an integration issue that plagues manufacturers. They need to have all systems work together.

"We are seeing more (manufacturers) becoming more careful about information," said Satoru Kurosu, division general manager of the marketing division for industrial automation business headquarters at Yokogawa. "About 10 years ago, more people were becoming excited about the Internet, and they wanted more integration, but now they want all their measurement information shared on one screen."

One of the keys for engineers to succeed today is for them to get as much out of their systems as possible. "(Manufacturers) have to get more done today with less people," said David Johnson, president and chief operating officer at Yokogawa North America. "Most automation is not utilized. (Manufacturers) have to use their technology."

The evolution of change going on in the plant over the past five to 10 years has been incredible, and Uchida said the engineer's job function has evolved to be more than just a technical job.

"Factory engineers must have technology knowledge, but that is not enough," Uchida said. "An engineer's total lack of business knowledge can hurt the company. If the factory is connected to the CEO's office, there could be a disconnect between the two, and the factory will not be able to keep up with the demand."