Manufacturing Transformation

Manufacturers have long pursued manufacturing excellence to continually improve performance in productivity, cost, yields and agility. Now manufacturers also have to deal with escalating digital disruption that increasingly challenges their competitiveness. EYs end to end Manufacturing Transformation capability delivers step changes in performance now, next and beyond. 

Related topics Future of manufacturing Advanced Manufacturing Industrials Supply chain Digital Consulting

The team

Alan Dickson

Alan Dickson

EY Ireland Consulting Partner; Procurement and Supply Chain

Christopher Ryan

Christopher Ryan

EY Ireland Business Consulting Director

Gary O'Callaghan

Gary O'Callaghan

EY Ireland Business Consulting Director

What EY can do for you?

The Manufacturing Challenge

In an increasingly data driven and integrated manufacturing environment, today’s organisations face the following challenges:

  1. Disconnected E2E supply chain visibility (shop floor, site management, executive leadership)
  2. Lack of accurate operations data and communication processes
  3. Non-optimal yields, productivity, energy wastage, unplanned maintenance, etc.
  4. Poor execution of standard work processes limits realisation of improvement goals

Client questions?

  • How can we close the skilled labor gap?
  • How can we incorporate advanced technologies such as IoT and AI in our manufacturing plants to improve efficiency and productivity?
  • How can we extend visibility throughout our manufacturing processes?
  • How do we realise leading manufacturing performance to underpin our strategy and trade resilience needs?
  • Is our overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) where it needs to be? What steps can we take to improve it?
  • Where should we invest CAPEX to have the best impact on the business?

Services:

  • Manufacturing Excellence

    We aim to make a lasting difference to the organisations we work with. Our local team of 50+ Operational Excellence (OpEx) and GMP consultants are skilled and experienced in all areas of your manufacturing improvement journey covering:

    • Lean Manufacturing Transformation
    • Continuous Improvement Engagement and Culture
    • Digital Process Innovation

    Working collaboratively alongside all levels of your organisation, we will support you to identify short, medium and long-term tangible improvements through hands on analysis and delivery of the shop floor, labs and warehouse. Partnering with EY also gives you access to our global professional network spanning the entire value chain. We will bring joined up thinking that fosters collaboration across all levels of your organisation, helping to remove silos and turbo-charge performance. 

  • Manufacturing Strategy & Footprint Optimisation

    In an increasingly competitive and ever-changing manufacturing landscape, more and more businesses are being tasked with re-thinking their Manufacturing Strategy and global footprint. Our Manufacturing Strategy and Footprint Optimisation (MSFO) service offering is designed to empower businesses as they re-think their core competency, allowing them to seamlessly transition from their as-is model to a to-be model of the future.

    Leveraging industry leading experience and a vast network of manufacturing experts globally, we will partner closely with your firm to develop a top-down manufacturing strategy aligned with an optimal global footprint. Our local team of Manufacturing consultants are skilled and experienced in all areas of your strategic journey covering:

    • Asset Management & Utilisation optimisation
    • CAPEX & Maintenance and Repair Analysis 
    • Long-range volume planning
    • Strategic divestment & Network “right-sizing”
    • Resource Planning
    • Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • Strategic Benchmarking

    Our Footprint optimisation service covers all areas of your manufacturing footprint, from strategic location of facilities to site-level cost/viability analysis, aimed at minimising costs, streamlining logistics and mitigating supply risk.

  • Manufacturing Asset Management & Reliability

    Asset management involves the systematic and coordinated activities and practices through which an organisation optimally and sustainably manages its assets and asset systems, their associated performance, risks, and expenditures over their lifecycle for the purpose of achieving organisational strategic plan. Reliability, on the other hand, refers to the ability of an asset to perform its intended function without failure over a specific period of time and under specific operating conditions. In asset management, reliability plays a crucial role in ensuring that assets deliver their intended value and contribute to the organisation's objectives. Therefore, asset management and reliability are closely intertwined, with reliability being a key component of effective asset management strategies.

    Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a key performance indicator used in manufacturing to measure the efficiency and productivity of equipment or assets. OEE provides insights into how well assets are performing relative to their maximum potential. Here's how OEE can support your manufacturing asset management and reliability programs:

    • Performance Monitoring: OEE tracks downtime, speed losses, and quality defects, providing real-time feedback on asset performance. This information helps identify areas for improvement and informs maintenance schedules to maximise asset uptime and productivity.
    • Root Cause Analysis: By analysing OEE data, maintenance teams can pinpoint the root causes of asset failures or performance losses. This allows for targeted maintenance interventions to address reliability issues and prevent future failures.
    • Predictive Maintenance: OEE data can be used to predict asset failures before they occur. By monitoring trends in performance metrics such as downtime and quality losses, maintenance teams can implement predictive maintenance strategies to address potential issues proactively, reducing unplanned downtime and extending asset lifespan.
    • Optimised Asset Utilisation: OEE enables manufacturers to identify underperforming assets and prioritise resource allocation to maximise overall production capacity. By optimising asset utilisation, organisations can improve efficiency and profitability while minimising maintenance costs.
    • Continuous Improvement: OEE provides a baseline for measuring the effectiveness of asset management and reliability improvement initiatives. By setting OEE targets and continuously monitoring performance against these targets, organisations can drive ongoing improvement efforts to enhance asset reliability and overall operational performance.

    In summary, OEE serves as a valuable tool for manufacturers to optimise asset management and reliability by providing actionable insights into asset performance, facilitating proactive maintenance strategies, and supporting continuous improvement efforts.

    Implementation of OEE is not restricted to those manufacturers with the newest equipment. Data mining of legacy equipment can often be realised through the introduction of a bespoke internet of things (IoT) module facilitating connections to the cloud. This option not only significantly reduces the investment required, but also eliminates further downtime through removing the need for replacement of equipment. If you would like to learn more on how our team of consultants can assist with you Asset management & reliability programs, or implementation of OEE, please reach out to our SC&O team.

  • Digital Strategy, Roadmap & Implementation

    • Digital Supply Chain

    EY have supported a multinational pharmaceutical company with a large manufacturing base in Ireland. EY has been able to support this clients digital manufacturing programme with:

    Strategy/Roadmap Definition and Digital Manufacturing Expertise.

    • Smart Factory

    Smart Factory is our people-centric solution for bringing together operations strategy, industrial Internet of Things (IoT), shopfloor operational excellence (OpEx) leading practices and analytics to drive sustainable performance improvement. Smart Factory can help you understand whether your practice standards are consistent from line to line, leverage manufacturing data to improve results, and check whether your digital strategy is translating into performance on the shopfloor. This solution combines our leading capabilities with the cloud-based EY Catalyst OpEx platform and our EY Smart Factory execution apps to help you gain insights and take the right actions.

    EY Smart Factory helps manufacturing executives develop, implement and drive global operational excellence programs in a connected and centrally controlled system. It offers access to an extensive database of leading practices, methodologies, tools, training and analytics. The integrated solution helps us assist our clients with tracking and sustaining performance improvement, in which the entire workforce knows why improvements are needed and what needs to be done — by when and by whom. Companies taking advantage of EY Smart Factory can see sustainable improvements in cost and cash, higher manufacturing reliability, a digitally enabled shopfloor and a more engaged and empowered workforce.

    • EY Smart Factory Network

    1. Operational excellence with our P&G IWS system and smart deployment console

    Supports sustainable phase progression by providing 24/7 digital access to the manufacturing excellence work system to guide self-directed teams on the journey to capability development and performance improvement.

    2. Smart daily management and connected workforce

    Standard work processes are transformed from whiteboards and clipboards to a digital environment that significantly improves adoption and execution across the network.

    3. Digital manufacturing / industry 4.0

    Specific use cases that harness disruptive technology to drive better decision making and eliminate loss.

    • Integrated Digital Planning Solution

    EY‘s Integrated Digital Planning solution is enabled by the latest technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud platforms, and is also supported by assets including VC Sync™, Working Capital Optimization, Cognitive Automation and “Lights Out” Planning. By taking advantage of our experience, assets and advanced technologies, the Integrated Digital Planning solution can help align your planning and decision-making at strategic, operational and tactical levels, and allow you to react faster to rapid changes in the marketplace.

    • Digital Fulfilment

    Many of today‘s supply chains suffer from disparate and inefficient fulfilment processes in terms of performance, risk and cost. EY‘s Digital Fulfilment solution leverages innovative technology such as autonomous automated vehicles to carry out goods movements, AI equipment to safeguard execution of material flow, and analytics to generate heat maps for areas to improve inventory allocation. The Digital Fulfilment solution can help you address the traditional logistics challenges of efficiency, cost, accuracy and speed to market in an environment of ever-increasing complexity around delivery points and shortening lead times.

  • Industry 4.0, Shopfloor Systems & Automation

    Through a people-centred digital platform and powered by execution applications, EY Smart Factory embeds manufacturing excellence by arming the shopfloor with dynamic predictive data analytics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence to deliver unprecedented performance.

    What EY can do for you

    In a business environment characterised by margin pressure and changing consumer demand, manufacturing performance is more critical than ever. Four challenges keep Manufacturing leaders up at night:

    • Operational excellence improvement
    • Scalability and speed of deployment across multiple lines/operations
    • Internet of things return on investment
    • Building a performance culture

    Some hail disruptive technologies as the answer, but new technology alone won’t solve the problem. True performance improvement is delivered by people working with the right processes and the right training and enabled by the right technologies to make better decisions.

Why EY

The power of EY people, technology and innovation can turn your transformation ambitions into reality. With access to a Global network, EY can support you and your Manufacturing facilities all across the world. From strategists to designers and engineers, from data scientists and technologists to people advisory and project managers, EY can guide you through the entire lifecycle of your transformation in a way few organisations can match. Read more about our Transformation Realised approach.

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