Production bottlenecks occur when there is a blockage somewhere on your production line. People often assume that shortcomings related to machinery or equipment cause bottlenecks. Yet it often turns out that the bottleneck lies in the "employees." 

Operators, shift managers, production managers, operations managers, and engineers make decisions that affect the company's business daily. Still, many of them do not have access to the information they need in real-time. This can be particularly evident when a rapid response is required. Delays caused by multiple layers of data and information can hamper decision-making and the resolution of acute problems. As a result, the operational staff is not always fully empowered to make decisions in time to prevent an abnormal situation or to take advantage of an opportunity.

By keeping track of all production and distribution processes, you can react faster to potential problems. For example, in the event of a product recall, you can quickly and easily identify the cause of the problem and tell distributors to remove the product from the shelves. This protects the supplier from legal action the consumer from a potentially dangerous product and, of course, preserves the company's reputation in the marketplace.

The market's response has made production planning and scheduling increasingly complex, as many parameters need to be taken into account for scheduling to be carried out efficiently. One of the significant challenges in production scheduling and planning is how to manage schedules and timetables when unexpected changes occur effectively.

To achieve an efficient production cycle, it is necessary to implement lean manufacturing to ensure that all elements of the production cycle are analyzed on an ongoing basis, from the order to the consumer's use of the finished product. Because many manufacturing companies focus only on the production period of the product, even though there may already be shortcomings in the technological processes, or there may have been a poor execution in the design of the product, or it may simply be due to poor quality or storage of the input material. All of this can impact the production cycle, which is why it is essential to monitor all the parameters that can affect the production process itself and the end-use of the product by the consumer.

It is noticeable that plant managers and planners are still using Excel to draw up staff rotas, in some cases even manually on paper, and thus tactically scheduling workers, willingly or unwittingly. However, such subjective and less efficient scheduling can significantly impact employee satisfaction and turnover. In addition, manual scheduling does not consider the dynamics of the business, leading to chronic overstaffing or understaffing. In this way, labor costs are artificially inflated.

Some quality problems are caused by poor communication. Most production processes are complex, with many interdependent steps. Improving communication between process steps and people can significantly reduce the cost of poor quality. One way to improve communication is through digitally-connected work cells. With this method, each area can see what is happening at previous steps in the production process and prepare accordingly. They can also pass on information to the following cells if anomalies, rework, or equipment repairs in real-time.

Although unplanned congestion has a detrimental financial impact and can negatively affect a company's brand in the long run, not enough attention is paid to it. Dealing with it usually ends when the accurate diagnosis is just beginning.

It is fair to say that many potential events lead to unplanned congestion. These precisely give rise to the difficulty of diagnosing and dealing with the causes. Because most of the information obtained is not tied to objectivity, received directly from the machine, but is obtained through subjective data obtained from various stakeholders, which in turn leads to poor identification of the natural causes of unplanned congestion.

Discarded and other defective pieces represent a waste of time and material that could have been spent on making a working piece. Defects also mean that time has to be spent on necessary corrections, leading to unnecessary overtime costs. It is essential to find the causes of these to be eliminated. Causes can stem from poor machine repair, lack of process standards or proper documentation, inaccurate stock levels, or other things. Finding and eliminating the root cause will ensure that the entire production process runs smoothly and reduces errors. 

If everyone in the company knows what to do and how to do it and has critical information on why the company is run the way it is and how their actions affect customers, the company thrives, and its people keep their jobs. However, to ensure proper communication and information transfer, it is essential that the tools and systems that employees use daily work in a way that they share information and data at all times.