Smart Tips to Balance Secondary Operations with Cost Efficiency

In the manufacturing industry, time is money. Let’s address how you can best make use of your time, maximizing profit potential while minimizing your attention to low value adding operations.

1.  Focusing on your core business.
   Profit margin on your primary operations will always be much higher than a low value secondary operation. Naturally, this is the area you have the most expertise and experience in, so taking really any time or focus away from that is a major detractor.
2. Minimize your supplier numbers.
   The best approach for this is a good slogan to live by: “every second op from a single source.” In doing so, processes like superfinishing, flat finishing, inspection, or laser etching have a significantly reduced risk of failure if you’re utilizing the expertise of just one supplier. There’s also the added benefit of lower administrative costs.
3. Cutting unnecessary training costs.
   Training can be a daunting expense for manufacturers, especially processes that include secondary ops. In the evolving technological atmosphere of the manufacturing space, having the ability for employees to learn about new machines remotely can decrease time spent on training. Through the usage of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and other smart techniques, necessary parties can learn their machines faster and have machines up and running with expediency, all without the added cost of on-site training. Finding a partner to ensure these operations are done correctly, every time, will increase overall profit margins and keep employees focused on tasks that increase key performance indicators.
4. Conducting Machine Evaluation & Inspection with Smart Accessibility.
   With the invention of smart technologies, you can now purchase machines with the ability to alert users before maintenance is needed. This can result in preventing extended downtime. Similarly to how a car has predictive maintenance built-in to alert drivers when they need to replace their oil, tire pressure or other necessities; machines are no different. High wear and tear items consistently need replacing, but at different intervals. Knowing when to repair or replace parts of a machine can increase cost-efficiency by limiting downtime.

Utilizing these tips can help you on your way to improving your cost efficiency, and maintaining a healthy profit margin. For help with your manufacturing processes, Supfina has decades of process know-how and highly customizable solutions that can help you achieve your manufacturing goals.