Connected shop floor systems bring new options to streamline and integrate production, from product-design to prototype and from production planning to result.  MES systems for example may be configured to load the correct machine CNC program, setting or digital instruction automatically when an operator changes over to a new production order.  If such functionality is in scope, the master data management organization may need to step up a level to get this really going to;

  • find the right settings / programs to be applied,
  • determine where manufacturing master data is stored in current operations and where it will land in the new systems
  • review the working processes (create, change, release, make obsolete) used to manage the manufacturing master data

Organisations that are well-organized will recognize these subjects and have the answers readily available.  However often a project discovers that the manufacturing master data is on paper only. Maintenance and ownership is unclear, or manufacturing master data is just living on the shop floor in the heads of key operators.

If that is the case, the new systems have impact. The responsibility for loading the right settings at order start, move from the shop floor operator to the production engineers or the technologists who maintain the right program / setting in the systems. And this is not a little step, the operator now just pushes the button, tries to check where he can, and hopes for the best. And the responsibility for loading the correct settings is now in the hands of the owner of the manufacturing master data.

To handle these changes, it is important to:

  • Understand the starting point of the organization with regard to (manufacturing) master data management. How well-organized is the management of master data? Not all required data is readily available, and ownership may be unclear. Some people might like this grey area as it makes them important.
  • Involve the different teams / responsibilities in the design and test of the solution. As well as shop floor operations, product engineering, master data management and quality assurance should also be at the table.
  • Be open for the impact: vertical integration including the connection to shop floor equipment can move an organization from, “we instruct the shop floor of the change and leave the execution of the change to the shop floor” to “we apply the changes in the systems, do a test-run in production and when all looks OK we freeze the master data and release it to the shop floor for volume production”. From the shop floor perspective, this may feel like a step backwards.

To find out more and how MOMi can help contact us.