Don't Automate a Broken Process

​Fixing manufacturing processes before automating is essential for several reasons:

1. Efficiency and Effectiveness: Automating faulty or inefficient processes only amplifies the existing issues. By fixing the processes first, organizations can eliminate waste, reduce variability, and optimize workflows. This sets the stage for automation to further enhance efficiency and effectiveness, rather than automating flawed processes that may lead to inefficiencies and costly errors.
2. Cost Optimization: Process improvement initiatives often lead to cost savings. By identifying and eliminating waste, organizations can reduce costs associated with overproduction, excess inventory, unnecessary transportation, and defects. Fixing processes before automation allows companies to maximize cost savings and avoid investing in automating inefficient or unnecessary steps.
3. Streamlined Automation: Fixing processes prior to automation enables companies to streamline the automation implementation. By thoroughly understanding the optimized processes, organizations can design and deploy automation solutions that align with the revised workflows. This reduces the risk of investing in automation that becomes obsolete or incompatible with improved processes in the future.
4. Flexibility and Adaptability: Markets and customer demands evolve over time, requiring companies to be flexible and adaptable. By first optimizing processes, organizations become more agile and better equipped to respond to changing circumstances. This ensures that the automation solutions implemented are scalable, flexible, and can accommodate future modifications or adjustments.
5. Employee Engagement and Buy-In: Involving employees in process improvement initiatives fosters a culture of engagement and ownership. When employees witness their input and suggestions being implemented to improve processes, they become more receptive to automation. Engaged employees are more likely to embrace automation as a tool to enhance their work rather than perceive it as a threat to their jobs.
6. Risk Mitigation: Automating faulty or inefficient processes poses risks such as increased errors, quality issues, and delays. By fixing processes before automation, organizations mitigate these risks and ensure a smoother transition to automated systems. It minimizes the chances of encountering significant disruptions, production delays, or negative impacts on product quality.
7. Optimization of Return on Investment (ROI): Process improvements can yield significant returns on investment. By focusing on fixing processes first, organizations maximize the ROI from their automation investments. The improved processes serve as a foundation for automation to deliver enhanced productivity, quality, and cost savings, thereby optimizing the overall returns achieved.

In summary, fixing manufacturing processes before automating is crucial to optimize efficiency, reduce costs, streamline automation implementation, foster employee engagement, mitigate risks, and maximize ROI. It ensures that automation is applied to optimized processes, setting the stage for improved productivity, quality, and competitiveness.