Manufacturing Benchmarking

Consumer Packaged Goods

Food & Beverage

Pharmaceuticals

Industrial

2009-2010 Manufacturing Benchmark Study

Benchmarking is the practice of determining your performance levels and comparing them to other companies in your industry. There are two main types of benchmarking: performance benchmarking and best practice benchmarking. Performance benchmarking focuses on comparing performance levels in one company to the entire industry. However, performance benchmarking does not offer any clues around what actions to take to drive improvement in the lacking areas. This is where best practice benchmarking comes in. This type of benchmarking study compares performance metrics as well as the methodology of best-in-class companies. Our "Closing the Perception Gap" article explains this and the importance of benchmarking in greater detail.

Solarsoft conducts best practice benchmarking to demonstrate how practices of best-in-class companies impact manufacturing performance. Researchers use 3-6 months of real-time manufacturing performance data aggregated using Solarsoft Manufacturing Execution & Intelligence solutions. Researchers use OEE to rank manufacturing operations because it is simple to calculate, easy to understand, and takes into account several key performance indicators at once. By correlating attributes of best-in-class performers across a variety of metrics, executives have the ability to gain insight and direction. Manufacturers can use Solarsoft performance benchmark studies as a starting point to understand how they stack up against peers and develop an action plan for operational improvement.

Each year, Solarsoft publishes a number of benchmark studies across manufacturing industries that include consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and industrial products. Our IMPACT Consultants work with a myriad of companies so we can help you understand and apply best practices from peers in other industries.

Explore our latest benchmark studies:

Manufacturing Benchmark Highlights

• Researchers leveraged 725 global manufacturing operations to collect 337 years of manufacturing data that tracked the production of 9.1 billion units — the largest benchmarking study yet!
• Typical plants in the CPG industry average more than 88,100 minor stops per year (interruptions lasting 10 minutes or less). View the full CPG Benchmark here.
• Food and Beverage manufacturers struggle the most with equipment failures. However, best in class manufactures have found ways to minimize those losses. Equipment failures are only 6% of capacity for best in class manufacturers, but they represent 16% of capacity for the lowest quartile. View the full Food and Beverage Benchmark here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing operations struggle the most with changeovers and short, frequent stops. Changeovers on average take up 14% of capacity compared with the 3% average across all industries, which is almost five times more! View the full Pharmaceutical Benchmark here.
• Despite having reliable machinery, industrial manufacturers have problems of their own. Laggards have 7x more shutdown losses than best in class in the industry. View the full Industrial Benchmark for the full story.
• How do you stack up against peers in your industry? Contact Solarsoft for a customized study that analyzes your plant in context with your industry.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Schedule a briefing of the study findings and learn how best in class consumer packaged goods companies achieve the following results:

• Run with 8x fewer minor stops
• Achieve 5x fewer shutdowns
• Reduce changeovers by 16x
• Outperform laggards' OEE by 173%