sampling

Have you ever listened to a song and felt there was something familiar about it? If yes, it is likely that you noticed the use of sampling, or interpolation. Sampling is the reuse of tracks or snippets from a previous recording in a new recording. There are challenges to sampling, namely licensing and theft, however it can give a new lease of life to old, but worthwhile, records. There is a parallel between sampling in the music industry and sampling in metal fabrication where creativity can be nourished with the reuse of tried-and-true, successful fabrication practices. This blog will look to explore this topic in greater detail.

Smart Manufacturing and Advantage of Work Sampling

Smart Manufacturing or Industry 4.0 gives designers and heavy steel fabrication companies a comprehensive view of materials, processes, equipment, and products, letting us capture experiences across the product lifecycle. This gives the operations manager the unprecedented ability to study and learn from previous product design and development successes and failures. In many instances, managers can reuse common components and processes to leverage learned successes while allowing greater focus on innovation in new and unexplored topics. These processes often include variability but do not necessarily require innovation. With the fabrication team’s prior captured experiences, the common processes and techniques can be reused with the modifications that best suit the firm’s manufacturing demands.

Work sampling is a process to improve workforce productivity by obtaining a complete and accurate picture of the productive time and idle time of the machines in a specific production area. This knowledge is then used to improve production times of machines, equipment and personnel going forward and to reduce costs for laser cutting, electricity etc. Also, there is a lesser chance of work sampling to produce skewed or incomplete results since the entire operations floor would be covered as part of the sampling process and the resultant quality of data would make manipulation difficult.

Importance of Data

It is important to note that learning and reuse of experience demands that manufacturers collect and maintain quality, relevant data. If a question on data is posed to manufacturing companies, there will be some firms that will speak proudly about the volume of data they possess. This is like bragging that one’s garage is so full you that there is no space for a new car in it. The relevant point here should be the focus on the quality, governance, and oversight of data. Too many organizations hoard data but fail to support its quality, relevance, and usefulness and this can also lead to cyber-crime attacks on manufacturing firms. Obsolete and poor-quality data only drains resources and decreases processing efficiency, which gives rise to longer lead times. Also, if a manufacturer decides to use sampling and relies on earlier data which is incorrect and unwieldy, the results are likely to be disastrous depending on the scale and function of the implemented project (e.g., development of water tanks). Data resources available to capture manufacturing experiences across a product’s lifecycle include:

• IoT-enabled monitors.
• Design and simulation data.
• Enterprise resource planning.
• Product lifecycle management.
• Manufacturing execution systems.

Closing Comments

It can thus be seen that, similar to the music industry, manufacturers can find meaningful information in their past experiences. Making these experiences useful requires discipline in capturing and maintaining thorough, quality information about the firm’s design and operations. With knowledge, skill, and creativity, an operations manager can use these experiences as a foundation for efficient innovation to take on future manufacturing challenges!