The Ultimate Guide to Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM)

No matter what the industry or the type of products being made, manufacturers all share a similar goal: they want to produce the best quality products, as quickly and efficiently as they can, at the lowest cost possible.

Achieving this Holy Grail of efficiency involves embracing the concept of manufacturing operations management (MOM) – a structural approach to overseeing and optimizing the production process.

Operations management in manufacturing encompasses not just production improvement, but also the related areas of inventory management and staffing processes.

Digging a little deeper, MOM includes production planning and production control (continuously monitoring the production process and stepping in to correct or change the process when something goes wrong). It also involves inventory control and monitoring, and quality control.

In a digital context, manufacturing operations management software is any solution used to monitor, track and improve MOM processes. This includes production management software that tracks jobs and the status of machinery on the factory floor, through to compliance and quality management solutions, and human-machine interface (HMI) technologies, which bridge the gap between the factory workforce and the technology on the floor.

Manufacturing operations management softwares cam also encompass other integrated solutions including manufacturing execution systems (MES) solutions. MES software tracks the overall manufacturing process (see the section on MOM vs. MES below).

Whether we are talking about the processes or the software, the purpose of MOM is to enable continuous improvement within a manufacturing environment. The importance of MOM is that it has a hand in determining the effectiveness of the process across all aspects of operations management in manufacturing: from inventory management to production, quality control, and maintenance.

Without inventory planning and monitoring, a factory is at risk of running out of raw materials, resulting in production grinding to a halt. At the same time, production needs to be planned, controlled, and analyzed, and machines and SCADA systems monitored, for operations to run smoothly. Quality needs to be monitored to keep customers happy, and maintenance needs to be planned, executed, and monitored to ensure everything keeps working.

As mentioned above, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are a category of solutions that track the overall manufacturing process, or the journey from raw materials to finished products.

More specifically, MES help manage, monitor, and synchronize the execution of real-time, physical processes involved in manufacturing operations. This includes tracking and managing work orders with production scheduling and enterprise-level systems like ERPs or product lifecycle management (PLM) systems.

However, the difference between MES and MOM is that MES software solutions are generally limited to tracking and analyzing what happens on the factory floor. MOM software, on the other hand, generally has a broader scope, extending into related areas including warehousing and supply chain management.

The purpose of MOM is to enable continuous improvement across a manufacturers' operations. By improving processes across the business, manufacturers can find themselves experiencing a range of benefits, including:

• Increased product quality: By digitizing workflows and improving production tracking, manufactures are able to identify and eliminate the source of quality issues. In addition to improving production quality on the shop floor, MOM systems can also track warehouse and inventory management efforts, enabling improvements across raw material sourcing and storage.

• Waste reduction: Increased visibility across production enables supervisors to identify the sources of waste in the production process. For example, a focus on operational improvement will likely result in better utilization of raw materials, and therefore a reduction in waste, leading to cost reductions.

• Increased customer satisfaction: Being able to demonstrate a commitment to continuous process improvement and waste reduction will give a MOM-focused manufacturer a competitive advantage and keep customers satisfied over the long-term.

• Increased profitability: All of the above advantages add up to improve the bottom-line performance of the business.

In the highly competitive world of manufacturing, organizations taking advantage of MOM system and other digital solutions can reap many of the benefits associated with improved operational visibility.

As an all-in-one operations platform, Tulip can help you connect and manage the people, machines, devices, and systems that exist across your facilities.

From machine monitoring and quality management to digital work instructions, traceability, and audits, Tulip provides a pathway to better planning and execution, resulting in more efficient production, and ultimately greater profitability.