Manufacturing in your pocket is a SaaS platform for factory insight. The name says it all: the performance of complete production environments in your pocket. The platform builds on the manufacturing dashboard we developed for coffee producer Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) and has grown into a product of its own, with a Make variant running at beauty group Coty.
In 2018 we rebuilt the foundation on new technology, while the first version stayed in use. From 2019 the platform got a second version at Coty, in its own house style and with its own accents. After that it grew into a product that can exist apart from a single client. That line runs on today: keep improving, without having to start over.
Zooming in layers
From overview to what stands out
The challenge
If you run several factories, each site often has its own way of recording KPIs. To turn that into one picture, different records have to be merged, from a spreadsheet for instance. Merging them takes days of manual work and is error-prone; the picture in the management report is out of date the moment it is finished. Without standardised reporting per site, factories cannot be compared with each other, so patterns and improvement opportunities stay invisible.
Report finished, figures already out of date
Our approach
From 2016 we developed the first version with and for JDE, to make KPI data and other performance data visually clear and to benchmark factories and regions against each other:
- World map with locations: four regions and their factories come together on one world map, so you can move from the overall picture to a specific site.
- KPI overviews with context: every KPI shows a target value and makes comparison with earlier months and quarters possible, so developments per factory become visible.
- Comparisons between sites: factories and regions can be set side by side per topic, which brings out differences in performance clearly and visually.
- Data streams and uploads: performance data mainly comes in through integrations and, where that is not possible, is supplemented with structured Excel uploads, so you can view data from different sources together.
- Managing site data: plant managers maintain contact details of managers and department heads themselves, information on hotels and restaurants for visiting managers, plus information on factory and quality audits.
- Insight on every screen: relevant data can be viewed clearly and attractively on phones and on large screens in the factories.
From 2019 we developed a second version for Coty, Make, in Coty’s own house style. It started from the existing platform, with additional topics such as days without accidents per factory, and then took its own choices and its own further development.
The result
The platform grew into a dynamic steering instrument for 38 factories of JDE and Coty. Plant managers, regional and corporate management and managers on site gained direct insight into KPIs, targets, historical performance, key figures and audit information.
That made it easy to compare performance across sites, regions and periods, both during meetings and while preparing for them. Figures no longer had to be requested, merged or worked into separate reports first. At JDE, hundreds of users used the application every day.
The app became a fixed tool during meetings and site visits, but just as much during a business lunch or dinner. Managers always had current figures within reach and could consult them at any moment. That earned the platform ‘Manufacturing in your pocket’ as its apt subtitle.
Alongside the mobile application we developed dashboards optimised specifically for the factory environment, which gave continuous insight into the most important performance figures on large screens at the production sites.
The factory in your inside pocket
What started at one manufacturer grew into a product that is still being developed at Coty ten years later.
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