If your machine operator is hitting their targets and your maintenance technician is keeping equipment running, why is the production line still underperforming? According to Dan Wilde of Four Six Services, the answer is usually that the two teams have become siloed – and neither is seeing the full picture.
Dan told host Adam Hanslow-Smith that this pattern is consistent across manufacturing: “Engineering and operational teams naturally become siloed. It’s never through a lack of effort or intentional need. It’s purely a result of different language, different output, different terminology, and different viewpoints on how things are measured.” In high-volume, low-margin environments, those gaps directly contribute to unplanned downtime – which costs a significant amount of money.
For manufacturers considering how to address this, Dan’s starting point is always data. Without capturing and interpreting the right figures, teams cannot know where their real priorities are. He cites a telling example from early in his career: a production line reporting 104% efficiency – a statistical impossibility that, once corrected, revealed an opportunity to improve rather than just a data error. “KPIs are a symptom of the foundations you build,” he explains.
The full episode is available on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Podcasts. Visit Dandelion’s website for this episode and more.