GSI Website Blog 2023

7 Ways Manufacturers Can Use JD Edwards Orchestrations

Written by Brooke.Bacon@getgsi.com | Dec 20, 2021 5:00:00 AM
 
 

 

Your business can be compared to a body, and JD Edwards orchestrator can function as the brain, controlling many moving parts, keeping everything in sync, and ensuring the health of your operations. This is particularly true for manufacturing companies, which tend to have numerous moving parts that need to work in unison. Learn how JD Edwards orchestrations can help.

 

1. IoT Production

With JD Edwards orchestrations, you can take advantage of data from Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices connected to various elements of your manufacturing, fulfillment, and shipping processes. In this way, you’re able to automate interactions between the machines, processes, and people that power your business.

For example, suppose you’re manufacturing metal pots, pans, and similar kitchenware. Cooking pots are made in one location and frying pans in another. These are then combined into sets that you ship out to wholesalers.

At the location that makes the metal pots, you have an IoT device connected to the machine that pours molten metal into a mold. It collects data related to the amount of molten material in the machine, how often it’s poured, and the rate at which it’s dispensed. Using JDE orchestrations, you could leverage the data from this IoT device to automate changes to the production rate at the other factory, where frying pans are made, to ensure you can ship complete sets to your wholesale clients.

2. Machine Downtime Management

Whether machine downtime is a result of planned or unplanned outages, you can use JDE orchestrations to manage and optimize it, as well as identify trends. With JDE, each machine, regardless of what it does, acts as a node within your larger system. The outputs of each machine can be processed within an orchestration system.

For instance, suppose you manufacture circuit boards and a machine used to attach chips to the board needs maintenance every 500 hours. You can create a JDE orchestration to strategically decide:

  • When to service the machine
  • How to minimize the impact on the overall production process
  • When to service other machines that depend on the units produced by the chip-connecting unit

3. Manufacturing Environment Notifications

Managing the temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors on your manufacturing floor can be essential to a successful process. With JD Edwards Orchestrator, you can unify a range of notifications and data produced by gauges and sensors in your environments. In this way, you are able to:

  • Automate an alert system that lets managers know when environmental conditions may impact the production process
  • Automate settings applied to your HVAC equipment
  • Fine-tune your factory’s energy efficiency, as well as you're spending on heating, cooling, and dehumidification

4. Material Shortage Management

With JD Edwards ERP, you can keep track of the inventory levels of materials that play a key role in your manufacturing process. For example, a promotional products manufacturer can keep track of the number of T-shirts available for printing, using real-time data to decide when to order more from the supplier. The same could be done with the ink, screens for printing, and other materials central to the production system.

5. Creation of a Simple Shop Floor Interface for End Users

JD Edwards orchestrations can make it easy to create an efficient shop floor interface for managers and other employees. You can, on a single screen, discover ways to improve the rate of production or quality of your products. For example, you can create an interface that enables you to:

  • Track material shortages or surpluses
  • Log when employees clock in, clock out, and take breaks
  • Manage work orders

With visibility into this and more data, you can uncover relationships between your production processes and the various factors that impact them.

6. Recording Time/Work Center Scheduling

JD Edwards Orchestrator can enable you to automatically record the time devoted to tasks, which you can then analyze for insights into:

  • The number of hours people worked
  • The time it took to set up and shut down equipment
  • The time individual machines spent in operation

Using JD Edwards orchestrations, you can also strategically decide how to design your work center’s schedule. For instance, you can collect data on the number of units produced when certain workers are on the floor as opposed to others, set up teams, and then schedule them based on your desired rate of production. GSI can assist with any of your JDE Orchestrator training needs.

7. Real-Time Inventory Tracking

With a JD Edwards Orchestrator implementation, you can track your inventory levels in real-time, empowering you to make decisions regarding:

  • When to order new materials
  • How to allocate storage space
  • When and how to manage perishable materials based on their shelf lives
  • Which workers or machines should be used to efficiently move inventory from storage to the production floor

Orchestrator can also be used to automate elements of the ordering process, as well as help executives, make better funding decisions. If you need help managing your Orchestrations on an ongoing basis, GSI provided a full complement of JD Edwards managed services to help with your JD Edwards requirements.

Boost Productivity with JD Edwards and GSI

GSI’s team of JD Edwards experts provides JD Edward consulting services and training to make your JD Edwards implementation as fast and seamless as possible. Armed with the knowledge and experience of GSI’s JD Edwards consultants, you can take the digitization of your manufacturing system to the next level. When you’re able to effectively orchestrate interdependent systems, you save time, make life easier for your employees, and increase shareholder value. Connect with GSI today to learn how.