• • • IOT • • •
HOW TO USE DIGITAL TOOLS TO DRIVE CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT IN MANUFACTURING
But what does this look like in practice for manufacturing sites with high complexity and 24/7 operations? And how can it be integrated into a successful, long-term lean operations initiative?
BY VEIT HORA, CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER, ESCHBACH
lobal market shifts, high energy costs, the transition to green technology and a shortage of qualified personnel are all combining to increase pressure on manufacturing teams throughout Europe. In the face of these challenges, turning to digitally empowered manufacturing platforms to drive continuous improvement is more critical than ever to improving equipment effectiveness, increasing throughput and, ultimately, remaining competitive.
G Reframing continuous
improvement for the future For manufacturers, advancing operational performance requires a dual focus: driving continuous improvement in existing operations while also implementing and stabilising innovations. Advanced ways of working, such as individualised human-machine interaction, digital twins and AI-powered data analysis all offer significant potential. Yet adoption at the operations level is often slow, and most solutions remain narrow in scope, relying on experts to connect the dots and maintain oversight. As a result, the key to a truly state-of-the-art continuous improvement programme that delivers real value across the plant hierarchy lies in leveraging the strengths of both humans and digital technology to offset each other’s limitations.
28 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • APRIL 2026
Building the digital factory For organisations looking ahead, the most meaningful impact from continuous improvement comes when it’s built upon a solid foundation of leadership buy-in, underpinned by processes powered by data, collaboration and AI-powered analytics. After all, good decisions can only be made with good information, as if there are missing pieces to the puzzle, both manufacturing teams and leadership may either be overlooking crucial factors or spending their time trying to interpret incomplete datasets.
In practice, this challenge manifests through information silos, which are themselves born of various disparate platforms used for communication or storing operational data, shift logs, handovers, Excel sheets, Teams channels, as well as data in mission critical systems, such as the ERP or the MES.
These are just a few examples, with many of our customers citing up to 20 disconnected platforms across their plants. Many process engineers and operational excellence experts spend most of their time manually pulling together data from different sources, trying to make sense of raw data tables in different formats, and compiling reports for morning meetings and continuous improvement cycles.
In the absence of robust data integration and a single source of truth, data remains siloed and valuable time is consumed by manual processes. As a result, operational insight becomes overly dependent on a limited number of experts, slowing
down teams who need real-time access to make informed decisions. By connecting shift teams, plant management and relevant data from key systems, a platform like Shiftconnector ensures that nothing goes under the radar, offering an accurate reflection of the plant’s true status. In turn, this collaboration facilitates more digitally empowered decision making, which is key to driving any continuous improvement initiative. Data becomes a powerful enabler when it allows plant operation teams to visualise performance targets and then monitor their actual achievement against those targets in real time. Visual factories provide the transparency to turn operational metrics into clear, actionable dashboards. This enables manufacturing teams to gain immediate insight into where performance meets expectations and where gaps exist.
Once data is contextualised, drilldowns allow the relevant stakeholders to review pareto and waterfall charts which can identify where target compliance is missing. This ability to track target achievement and understand reasons for deviations is a cornerstone of digitally empowered continuous improvement, driving alignment, accountability and informed decision-making across the plant.
Collect, centralise
and contextualise Ultimately, the core focus of a continuous improvement strategy should be to uncover patterns which are harming plant productivity. This could range from improved alignment of production and maintenance schedules to optimised inspection and turnaround routines, or more efficient start-up sequences for batch process reactors.
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
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