MAY 20258MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSIN MY OPINIONAt the height of the Covid-19 crisis, institutions worldwide were implementing hygiene and sanitation protocols at an unprecedented level. As a global manufacturer of commercial and industrial cleaning equipment, Nilfisk had a unique opportunity to capitalize on the needs of schools, hospitals and other public spaces for advanced cleaning systems that would meet new cleaning standards. At the same time, however, Nilfisk was experiencing many of the supply chain challenges and labor shortages as other manufacturing businesses. On top of that, the company's distribution center in Arkansas was hit by an EF-3 tornado in March 2022, destroying most of the component parts stored there.Faced with these challenges, our strategy to retain current customers ­ and also take advantage of a potentially growing market ­ has been to transform our manufacturing processes in several critical ways that require significant investment. The result? A stronger, more resilient business than we ever could have imagined had these disruptions never occurred. DEFINE THE PROBLEMManufacturing disruptions like those caused by COVID and the tornado were not only setbacks in and of themselves, but also they exacerbated operational issues that had existed for many years. At Nilfisk, my role was created to examine the impact of these operational issues, the effects of the many supply chain disruptions, and the overall "health" of our operations in the Americas.For example, one of the challenges we identified and continue to face is a backlog of orders. While it would be relatively easy to blame that on supply chain shortages caused by COVID, we decided to dig deeper into the problem to truly understand all the factors contributing to our growing backlog.Only by clearly defining the problem ­ and not making assumptions ­ could we begin to address it.MEASURE CURRENT STATEThe first step in solving the problem was to benchmark TRANSFORMING MANUFACTURING AMIDST DISRUPTIONSBy Ramon E. Gonzalez, SVP Operations & Supply Chain, Americas, Nilfiskthe current state. In other words, what was getting done, by whom, on what timeline? What production goals were set for various machines, parts and kits, and were we meeting those? Did the goals match the changing needs of our customers? We also collected data on our process flows, procurement practices, safety stocks, warehouse and distribution inventories, etc. BRING TOGETHER THE RIGHT TEAMAlthough there is a tendency to maintain a consistent staff for the sake of stability, last year we decided it was in everyone's best interest to make some strategic staffing changes aligned with the new and improved processes we needed to establish, as well as to prepare us for growth. As a result, now when we make operational changes, we can do so confidently, knowing we have the right people in place to successfully follow through on implementation. ANALYZE THE DATAAs we continue to collect data, we turn to our employees to help with analysis. We ask:Ramon E. Gonzalez
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