Paperless Manufacturing and Procrastination

You may not realize it, but many companies procrastinate away profit and production. We offer easy-to-use tips for eliminating tech-procrastination. 

In the book “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength” by John Tierney and Roy Baumeister, Tierney and Baumeister discuss how to set realistic goals, monitor progress, pick your battles, and look beyond immediate challenges.  Studies show, by doing these things you will decrease stress and increase your personal energy and health. As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think about how this applies to my job and how paperless manufacturing helps companies increase their own productivity. Of course, there is a whole chapter on procrastination and how it affects willpower. I have found procrastination to be a huge factor for companies considering, but not moving forward with a paperless manufacturing project. Companies know they need to do something, but discover it is much easier to do nothing, even as profit, success and productivity drain away.
 
Many procrastinators (including corporate and business procrastinators) overestimate the size of a task which can cause anxiety before the project even starts.  Therefore, potential solutions are put aside and expensive production errors continue as they have for years past. Companies ignore an easy solution out of ignorance, not because there is any real problem.
 
There are some simple tips you can use to avoid procrastination and move forward with a beneficial paperless project:
 

• Focus on starting, not finishing – by doing this, you avoid getting overwhelmed.  Decide what can be done right now, the finish line will come, but no one gets there in one stride. 

• Break things down into short tasks – implementing an MES system is a large investment, so it won’t happen overnight.  There are several steps in the process, take them one step at a time. This is an advantage of a phased implementation. 

• Celebrate small advances – by doing this you avoid getting discouraged during the process.  Each task completed is a step closer to shop floor success and more productive manufacturing. 

• Find others who support your cause – by doing this, you are creating a circle of support to help push the project forward, even on days when you may feel overwhelmed, your MES team can trudge on. 

• Don’t let budget hold you back – there may not be an active budget for a paperless initiative, but if you don’t get started on building your case there never will be.  Gather the information you need, you may find budget once you show the powerful benefits MES can provide.

• Create a benefit list – develop a list of MES functionality and how each feature will solve your shop floor problems.  This will help you stay focused on the project and will be a huge selling point for your business case down the road.

• Don’t give up – there are always setbacks during a big project.  Don’t get discouraged.  If you need to, find a way to rework your goals in order to keep advancing.

Getting started

Creating a list of questions regarding your shop floor inefficiencies is the first hurdle to overcoming procrastination.  What could we be doing better?  What are we going to do about it?  What challenges do we face?  How can we overcome them?  What can MES do for us?
 
After you answer these questions, research MES systems and see which systems can solve the problems you’ve identified in your manufacturing processes. Bring your questions to us, we would love to help.  Our team can identify what you need, how to solve your critical production problems, and work out a rapid ROI. We’ll take you through each step in the process. Contact CIMx today for more information.