Many manufacturing organizations face a daily challenge to remain competitive in a global economy, compounded amid the rising tide of the Made in America movement.
The Flex Facility, a manufacturing concept that emphasizes efficiency, agility, and sustainability, will play a significant role for companies seeking a sustainable model that supports domestic production with competitive pricing.
Three key concepts of this approach:
- Eliminate
This facet involves identifying and eliminating waste and inefficiencies in manufacturing processes, for example, reducing excess inventory, minimizing transportation and handling, and eliminating non-value-added activities.
- Simplify
Simplifying the manufacturing process starts by reducing complexities and increasing standardizations. This can include using common parts and components across multiple products, simplifying product designs, and reducing the number of production steps.
- Automate
Using technology to automate and streamline the manufacturing processes yield tremendous benefits. Improved quality and increased productivity can be achieved through the utilization of human-robot coupling, robotics, machine vision, and artificial intelligence.
By embodying these key concepts, the Flex Facility operates with greater efficiency, lower costs, and higher quality than old-school manufacturing approaches. By doing so, Flex Factories support the Made in America movement by making US manufacturing more competitive and sustainable in the global marketplace. They’ll be a key player in efforts to reshore production, expected to reach tsunami-like proportions during the next three to five years.
And the benefits are significant! Companies that embrace the Flex Facility concept can experience real-world outcomes:
- Minimize time and cost to production
- Maximize production flexibility and capacity
- Become globally competitive
- Reduce start-up risk
- Enable user-designed products
- Increase success rates of innovation efforts
- Create higher portfolio company valuations
- Leverage product obsolescence
Birch Creek Innovations is here to help you achieve your goals, maximizing value for your customers through consistent production and delivery cycles. We specialize in product design, engineering, prototyping, and volume manufacturing. We excel at helping our clients compete on regional, national, and global levels. At its core, Birch Creek innovations drive non-essential functions to near zero through automation, cost reduction, waste elimination, energy consumption and conservation.
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