KPIs Made Easy

Behind the data walls and executive dashboards, metrics increasingly link to real-time, plant-floor data. Do you know enough about key performance indicators (KPIs) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) to invest in efficient process improvements? Process control is hip. Manufacturing line optimization is cool. Everybody from the CEO down wants a piece of it. And judging by the clamor around video walls, information portals, and executive dashboards, everyone wants to visualize control to drive performance. Globalization and pressure on companies to compete at the most fundamental level of operational excellence means everyone is looking at the factory, the mill, or the plant more closely. The challenge is whether control engineering can master the strategic role implicit in this level of scrutiny.