Manufacturing (Discrete) - Key Business Questions

The questions below are grouped by the persona who typically asks them. Each question is answered either through a ready-made standard report or through an ad-hoc, self-service analysis you build yourself on the semantic model by combining the listed measures with the listed dimensions.

Production Manager

Steer overall production performance, cost adherence, efficiency and quality.

How is my production performing right now across orders, output and cost deviations?

Answer with the report: Overview

Measures: # Prod. Orders, Finished Quantity, Prod. Totalcost incl. Overhead, ∆% (Act vs Exp)

How effective is my equipment (OEE) and where do I lose Availability, Performance or Quality?

Answer with the report: OEE

Measures: OEE, Availability, Performance, Quality

How much value is currently tied up in work in progress?

Answer with the report: WiP (Work in Progress)

Measures: WiP Amount

How do actual production costs compare to expected, and where are the biggest deviations?

Answer with the report: Prod. Order Statistic

Measures: Actual Costs, Expected Costs, ∆ (Act vs Exp.), ∆% (Act vs Exp)

Production Planner / Scheduler

Keep orders on track, ensure component availability and finish orders in time.

Which production orders are currently active and how far have they progressed?

Answer with the report: Active Production Orders

Measures: # Prod. Orders (open), Progress (%), Remaining Quantity

Which orders are at risk because components will not be on stock when needed?

Answer with the report: Production Orders (Blocked)

Measures: # Stockwarnings, # Stockwarnings (+7d), Quantity at Risk (out of stock)

Which orders should be finished (output achieved but not yet technically closed)?

Answer with the report: Production Orders (to Finish)

Measures: PO (to finish), Output achieved, # Prod. Lines (open), # Prod. Lines (overdue)

How were recently finished orders performing in quantity, cost and scrap?

Answer with the report: Finished Production Orders

Measures: Finished Quantity, Finished Qty ∆ vs Plan, Prod. Totalcost incl. Overhead ∆, Scrap Quantity (%)

Manufacturing Engineer

Optimize routings, operations, setup times and component consumption.

How much time is lost to setup versus run time on my work centers?

Answer with the report: Operations (Gantt)

Measures: Setup (%), Ops. SetupTime (Min), Ops. RunTime (Min), Ops. Total Time (Min)

Where do component consumption and cost deviate most from the plan?

Answer with the report: Component Consumption

Measures: Comp. consumption, Comp. consumption ∆, Comp. costs, Comp. Costs ∆

Which operations, work centers and orders drive scrap quantity and scrap cost?

Answer with the report: Scrap

Measures: Scrap Rate (%), Scrap Costs, Comp. Scrap Costs, Opr. Scrap Costs, Scrap UnitCosts

Which base units and conversions apply to my produced items and components?

Answer with the report: Unit Conversion

Measures: Comp. consumption per Unit

Plant Manager / Operations Manager

Balance capacity, load and idle times to protect throughput and delivery.

How were my work centers utilized historically, and where were load or idle peaks?

Answer with the report: Ops. Utilization (Historical)

Measures: Load (%), Idle (%), Efficiency (%), Overload time

How will my work centers be loaded going forward - do I face overload or idle capacity?

Answer with the report: Ops. Utilization (Outlook)

Measures: Load (%), Load (%) (M+1), Exp. Cap. (effective), Time allocated

How is OEE developing versus the previous year?

Answer ad-hoc (self-service): build this on the semantic model yourself.

Measures: OEE, OEE ∆PY, OEE ∆%PY
Break down by: Work Center, Posting Date

Controller / COO

Cost transparency, deviation control and margin protection in production.

Where do actual manufacturing costs deviate most from expected across cost groups?