Manufacturing schedules can be easy to maintain when the flow of supplies is predictable and steady. It’s when disruptions occur that Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) systems earn their keep.
We need look no further than the weather to find a perfect example of this challenge. Whether or not you believe man-made global warming is real, it’s a topic that has been top-of-mind over the past couple of years. Whatever the cause, local weather events are certainly becoming more and more extreme, to the point of disrupting manufacturing operations.
In the United States, we’ve seen two dramatic examples of this in the past year. The West Coast drought, the worst in more than a century, has forced businesses to change their practices as they work around a severe water shortage. And on the East Coast, record snow fall (more than 7 feet in three weeks) has disrupted business operations as travel and commerce have slowed to a halt for days at a time.
Personally, I am experiencing this extreme, as a resident of the Boston metropolitan area. Just look at this photo to see what I am now dealing with! 🙂
Of course, an enterprise MOM system can’t do anything about the weather, but it can help manufacturers cope with the consequences.
Respond Faster to Adversity
With a sufficiently advanced and automated system of controlling manufacturing execution and visibility into the supply chain, manufacturers can minimize the negative impact of these events. Take the recent snow falls in New England, for example. There’s not much that can be done about closed roadways and workers unable to get to their jobs. But an enterprise MOM system could at least let management assess the impact of lost days and quickly adjust schedules in an optimum way, by finding suppliers who are able to deliver or by shifting operations to another plant until nature has settled down again.
Meanwhile, what does the non-MOM enterprise do? If the delays are only going to last for a few days, it may not be worth attempting to adjust. After all, by the time the logistics are sorted out, the roads will be open again and it’s back to business as usual. So for these companies, the direct impact in terms of delays and lost business can be twice as severe as for the more advanced manufacturer.
Does this really matter? It’s only a winter storm, right? Well, New England has already had several days of lost business this year, and the winter isn’t over yet. And in California, the drought rages on with no end in sight.
Of course I’m not suggesting that enterprises should modernize their operations just for the weather. There are plenty of other compelling reasons to invest in supply chain visibility and manufacturing agility. But, should you make the investment, the next time one of these weather surprises comes up, you will be far better suited to adapt.
As climate change continues to create more extreme weather events, it becomes yet another argument in favor of modernizing operations management—and perhaps doing it before any more business slips away in a flurry of epic snow storms!
If you liked this post, then you may enjoy these as well:
- Agile Manufacturing: The Smallest Parts Can Make the Biggest Difference
- The Relentless Pressure for Supply Chain Agility
