Advanced Factories, the perfect environment and the ideal moment to highlight our productivity improvement tool’s innovative features
Last week, Itemsa took part in Advanced Factories 2024 with the UPM (Unió Patronal Metal-lúrgica) and we had the opportunity to gave a presentation about the new features of our software: “Approductivity 4.0, the integral tool for Industry 4.0. Defining standards, balancing static and dynamic workloads, monitoring production progress and calculating KPIs and incentives in real time “.
Advanced Factories is the perfect scenario to highlight our productivity improvement suite‘s latest innovations, in terms of usability and user experience, as well as design and, of course, the new functionalities it incorporates. An Industry 4.0 context, innovation, technical and technological development focused on digitalisation, efficiency, productivity, etc.
David Calvo, General Manager of Itemsa, began his speech by presenting the company and highlighting how its more than 35 years of experience in productivity improvement have made possible the design and development of a tool that, for more than twenty years, has evolved and has been enriched by the internal use of our engineers and process technicians as well as improvements related to integrations with other systems, usability, functionalities, etc. requested by our clients once Approductivity 4.0 was commercialised in 2005.
The reason why of Approductivity 4.0, a productivity improvement software in a lean and industry 4.0 environment
Approductivity 4.0 was originally conceived responding to Itemsa‘s necessity, as productivity consultants, of having a reliable solution to carry out our improvement projects. Consequently, it comprises the information and is designed on the basis of the most widespread methodologies and techniques in the field of process engineering and, enriched with Itemsa‘s know-how as experts in the field. This software has evolved during this time, from its beginning as an engineering tool, nowadays the Process Engineering module, which allows to carry out the projects of process improvement, method improvement, time measurement, workload balancing and documentary report for the workshop.
The modules of Approductivity 4.0 for improving your company’s productivity
Approductivity 4.0 comprises four complementary modules and is a comprehensive tool because of its ability to integrate all processes and operations that take place in the company:
- Process Engineering to define “what should happen”, meaning improving and standardising work methods, determining correct execution times and balancing static workloads (batch assembly lines, mix, cells or assembly lines based on multi-operator workstations).
- Dynamic Balancing to, once defined, know “what is really happening in the process/shift/operation” and being able to detect deviations so as to be able to re-plan to minimise or reduce their impact in real time.
- Competitiveness KPIs and Incentives Manager to assess whether the desired parameters are being achieved, if certain key indicators (KPIs) have been defined, to find out whether they are being successfully addressed and, if required, to design the allocation of variable compensation based on the employees’ contribution to improving the objectives set for efficiency, OEE, performance, quality, etc.
- Tablet Plus for carrying out method and time studies (timekeeping and MTM) directly on the shopfloor with no need for manual uploading to the application.
The differential value of Approductivity 4.0 as a productivity improvement tool
Approductivity 4.0 has been designed and developed with a Lean and Industry 4.0 approach, becoming the best tool for static and dynamic balancing of workloads available on the market.
One of the core strengths is that the tool has been designed to optimise processes and boost efficiency, productivity, added value, etc., so it is not possible to “work in a wrong manner”, and some of the average data about the benefits achieved by Approductivity 4.0 are:
Productivity improvement ( cost reduction) of 25%.
Efficiency improvement (productivity + inefficiencies) of 35%.
Reduction of engineering workload of 80%.
Reduction of incentive calculation workload (Engineering + HR) of 70%.
As well as non-measurable benefits, but not less relevant, such as:
Availability of unique databases, allowing a complete integration of plant and processes.
Standardisation of reporting through standard templates available at one click.
Solution and detection of deviations or delays in real time, allowing their immediate correction.
Production support, enabling communication with all company departments (logistics, maintenance, quality…) for a total integration of management.
If you want to know how Approductivity 4.0 can improve your company’s productivity, flexibility and competitiveness, please contact us:
