Data is transforming the manufacturing industry in a big way. Accurate data offers multiple benefits to the industry by way of reduced machine time, enhanced processes, better cost management, boost supply chain efficiency, producing customized products, and much more. According to Fortune Business Insights, the data market in the manufacturing industry is predicted to reach $9.11B by 2026. Therefore, it is time for you to be ready for this exciting era of data boom. 

The challenge, however, remains the accurate availability of data from diverse sources in an easy-to-access format integrable in your system. Poor data quality costs nearly $9.7 million per year to organizations across the globe, says Gartner. Even a minor typo in data entry can prove disastrous for the company. AT&T, biggest phone manufacturer, discovered that cumulative data entry errors in purchase orders and invoices caused it to overpay suppliers by tens of millions of dollars. Accurate data entry is critical to any and every business and needs serious attention.

Challenges faced by manufacturing companies that can be solved with accurate data entry

Manufacturing companies have evolved over the last decade because of advances in technology with a skilled and trained workforce. However, the industry still struggles with multiple challenges related to inventory management, keeping track of sales leads, waste management, etc. Some challenges that can be solved with accurate data entry include:

Maintaining the right inventory levels

Lack of real-time inventory data entry can play havoc with your stock and deliverables. You may not meet customer demands because of stock-outs and keeping extra safety stocks can add to your costs and cut profit margins. Effective inventory management requires reducing errors occurring because of erroneous data entry.

Use of multiple data sources

Multiple data sources, storage, or siloed systems leads to clumsy data management and error-prone retrieval. Data in manufacturing come from multiple sources, including devices, OPC servers, text files, business systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), etc.

In a survey, 8% of manufacturer respondents cited the integration of quality systems with disparate data sources as their top challenge in meeting quality objectives. Data sources often have incompatible data formats and complex systems that require efficient data entry systems in place.

Waste management

Managing waste and scrap in manufacturing units is a challenge. Errors in entering data or information about units or products to be manufactured, measurements, amount of elements to be used etc. prove disastrous. Accurate data entry is what manufacturers seek to control the excessive or wasteful use of raw materials. Erroneous entry can lead to overproduction, unsold stocks stored in storehouses, etc. All these could lead to waste money in transportation, moving extra stocks and raw material from one manufacturing unit to another.

Augmenting inefficient processes

Not having efficient data entry processes leads manufacturers to struggle with inaccuracies and delays in order fulfillment, resulting in cancelation of orders or heavy penalties. Inaccurate entries can damage your operational efficiency, your production process may slow down, and your labor could waste time trying to manage production with insufficient raw material. Irrelevant or incorrect data can disrupt the entire manufacturing assembly.

Using technology effectively

The manufacturing industry uses technology in a big way to interpret and analyze data to use in production. Accurately entered data helps manufacturing companies in improving product quality, logistics, manufacture products as per the client’s taste and requirement, etc. Any wrong entry related to customer preferences, requirements, etc. could lead to wrong analytics and insights. No tools or technology will work efficiently to manufacture best products; if inaccurate data is fed into the system. 

For manufacturing units to be successful, forecasting, budgeting, planning, business intelligence, etc. are all based on the accuracy of data. Inaccurate information due to inaccurate data entry can negatively affect production efficiency, revenues, and brand credibility.

How accurate data entry services benefit manufacturing companies

Data accuracy and visibility are important for the business growth of the manufacturing industry. Data streams are increasing hugely and to draw insights from the data for the shop floors to operate efficiently, accurate data entry is the only solution. An infrastructure that supports manual as well as automated real-time data collection and data entry of shop floor data can take care of the challenges, we discussed above

Benefits of accurate data entry for manufacturing companies:

• Enhanced visibility: Accurate data metrics collected and entered from across the organization give enhanced visibility to operation managers on shop floors. This gives them insight into individual performance, manufacturing operations, poor performing shifts, recurring machine downtime, etc. This helps improve overall operations like faster document processing, allocation of resources diligently, and improved decision-making process.
• Accurate inventory: All accurate and relevant information related to inventory, when compiled in one place in correct order, works as a good reference for production. You are always appropriately stocked. wastage is minimum, production is as per requirement driving process efficiency.
• Enhance employee efficiency: Accurate inventory data entry improves your processes and your manpower doesn’t waste time dealing with things manually. There is a significant reduction in downtime, quality standards improve, leading to overall employee efficiency.
• Cost optimization: Accurate data entry reduces the cost of operations by greatly reducing waste, scrap, and operational expenses. Your employees also don’t waste time on mundane tasks and spend quality time on more productive tasks.
• Accurate pricing: ccurate and real-time data entry helps in accurate pricing, planning, and forecasting to achieve a seamless end-to-end quote, order, engineering, and production process.

Why outsource data entry

Outsourcing data entry is a smart solution that helps manufacturers to focus on core activities, creating a digital backup of physical documents. It also enables them to keep easy track of real-time data much needed for the success of their manufacturing units. They predict that by 2023, the market size of global data entry outsourcing services is projected to reach $1.7 billion, with an expected CAGR of 4.65%. Some benefits of outsourcing data entry services include:

• Saves time and cost: You save on resource hiring and infrastructure cost and time zone benefits save time as well.
• Offers flexibility and scalability: You have the option to increase or decrease the team size based on the project requirement.
• Access to technology and skilled workforce: You don’t need to hire or train resources nor incur any infrastructure cost.

Conclusion

Manufacturing companies need to leverage data to stay in the competition. Accurate shop floor data helps manufacturers better measure and optimize production. Floor managers use production dashboards to check the machine's efficiency, spot problems, and tweak processes accordingly. Data also helps in setting up factories, location identification, hiring employees, producing customized products as per market requirements, creating next-generation products, inventing new business models, and much more. Lack of accurate data hits manufacturing companies hard in multiple ways, from hitting deliverables and stocks, excess waste creation, inefficient processes, etc.

The solution lies in having an efficient and skilled data entry team. However, having an in-house team has its challenges; investing in infrastructure and resources may not turn cost-effective. Outsourcing data entry tasks is a great option. Accurate data helps you deal with operational challenges and outsourcing data entry to an efficient service provider helps you deal with the challenges of accurate data entry itself. Moreover, as a manufacturer, you need to think beyond just operational challenges. Connected manufacturing is the strategy to adopt. It works on connectivity and sharing of data to drive efficiency.