Don’t be the Weak Link in the Supply Chain

The last few years have seen a lot of changes that have had a dramatic impact on supply chains. The COVID pandemic, ransomware attacks, and global unrest have all had a hand in disrupting supply chains around the world, causing frustration for both manufacturers and consumers alike.

The fallout from a supply chain shortage can be severe. As Nina Golder and Monil Malhotra share in a recent article in Automation World, the consequences can even result in lost customers,

“If a supplier can’t rebound quickly from a setback, its customers may move to another supplier. More disastrously for suppliers, customers may even redesign its product to eliminate that component, effectively designing the supplier out of the value chain. The pace of technology today has made these transitions and redesigns much easier.”

Fortunately, there are steps organizations can take to protect against supply chain issues. Managing strategies locally and moving toward more autonomous operations can help plants minimize the effect of disruptions to drive more continuous operations.

Preparing for the unexpected

When it comes to process manufacturing, supply chain problems are a double-edged sword. First, they can interrupt production at a facility, making it hard for a company to meet its commitments to customers. Whether it is missing feedstock or backordered parts needed for asset repairs, when a necessary supply is unavailable, manufacturers often pay a steep price. Moreover, supply chain issues aren’t simply internal. Most manufacturers rely on other companies to supply them, and the same issues can cause snarls further up the chain, which is particularly hard to control.

Navigating these challenges requires building resiliency into operations. Nina suggests a few key strategies:

  • Audit supply chains to ensure suppliers aren’t concentrated in one place
  • Strive to secure multiple suppliers wherever possible
  • Have a mix of global and local suppliers

Teams can also provide significant protection against problems in their own facilities by leveraging intelligent systems to capture tribal knowledge. When best practices are encoded into automation, the plant can operate at peak performance regardless of who is on staff, hedging against retirements and experienced workforce shortages.

Autonomous operations avoid disruption

Many plants are also turning to more automated operation to help avoid unexpected outages. Continuous monitoring systems like the AMS Asset Monitor can collect data and apply embedded edge analytics not only to help less experienced operators understand the health of their assets, but also to predict when equipment in the plant will fail. And in more advanced applications, advanced controls and reliability technologies can be combined with digital twin simulation technology. Doing so helps identify bottlenecks in processes and allows for continuous testing and improvement of operations and maintenance strategies. Monil explains,

“Digital twins can understand the current state of a plant or asset and then try to predict the future. Powerful simulation software can identify when processes will stall or stagnate and then provide actionable advice to remove bottlenecks and keep operations running at peak performance.”

Nina and Monil offer additional strategies for navigating the complexity of supply chains to avoid disruption in the full article over at Automation World. If you have experienced supply chain disruption in the past, either at your facility or via one of your suppliers, head over there now to learn how modern technology can help you limit disruptions and deliver higher customer satisfaction across your operations.

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