Summary
When businesses grow faster than their processes can sustain, inefficiencies can ripple throughout an organization. In a manufacturing setting, this can result in limited throughput, slowed decision-making, and capital-planning challenges.
A manufacturer in the Life Sciences and Diagnostics industry was experiencing these issues first-hand, having grown significantly over the past decade yet still relying heavily on manual work in its operations. They recognized a need to scale and modernize their workflow to meet new demand without overwhelming their workers, but were unsure of the best path forward.
Seeking a blueprint for optimizing their automation, the company engaged DMC to evaluate its current processes, equipment, and operations. Through a detailed assessment, DMC developed detailed recommendations for automation, including throughput projections, approximate budgets, and ROI calculations that helped the client envision their operations at a new scale and make capital decisions with confidence.
Customer Benefits
Accelerated Decision-Making
Completed in less than a month, the assessment was conducted, and a report outlining next steps and ROI calculations was provided for confident decision-making throughout the organization.
Reduced Internal Workload
The in-depth analysis and attention to detail freed internal teams and operators from time-intensive analysis, RFQs, and vendor comparisons.
Objective, Expert Perspectives
Decades of cross-industry automation experience provided the basis for practical, high-impact improvements.
Confident Capital Planning
DMC’s roadmap to automation, along with budget and output projections, enabled the client’s internal leadership teams to allocate capital accordingly.
Scalable Roadmap for Growth
A clear blueprint was provided to effectively automate and scale operations in a fraction of the time, with budgeting and existing systems factored into the plan.
Solution
Improving Throughput and Identifying Bottlenecks
As our client’s operations scaled, their existing manual processes and limited automation created persistent bottlenecks. Production output per operator plateaued, and the ability to meet demand suffered.
DMC partnered with the client to assess production processes, equipment, and workflows in detail. By engaging directly with the client’s operators and stakeholders, our team leveraged its more than 20 years’ worth of manufacturing automation experience to quickly identify constraints, uncover inefficiencies, and pinpoint the root causes limiting throughput.
Accelerating Automation Evaluation
The client’s internal teams recognized opportunities and the need for automation, but lacked the time and resources to fully evaluate concepts, gather vendor input, and build a business case. Traditional request-for-quote (RFQ) processes would have required months of effort.
Working in tandem with the client, DMC streamlined this process, rapidly evaluating more than 20 automation concepts in just a few weeks. Through collaborative working sessions and quick iteration, the team was able to narrow in on the highest-impact opportunities without the delays of a typical vendor selection cycle.
Enabling Data-Driven Capital Planning
Leadership and board members needed a clear, defensible path to justify investing in automation, with defined costs, clear timelines, and expected returns. To highlight the highest-priority opportunities, DMC delivered a report outlining the following:
- An outline of the business, including process maps as well as key cost and value drivers.
- Custom descriptions of potential improvement paths and automation.
- For the top 5 strongest concepts, DMC included budgetary costs, timelines, and ROI calculations.
This structured, data-backed approach provided a clear roadmap for capital planning. The client was able to turn DMC’s report into funding requests, using the ROI and budgetary cost calculations in any leadership-facing collateral.
Results & Conclusion
By rapidly assessing operations and delivering a clear automation roadmap backed by data and 20 years of experience optimizing manufacturing operations, DMC enabled the client to move from stalled productivity to actionable improvements. Instead of spending months evaluating concepts and building a business case, the team gained immediate clarity on where to invest and how to achieve measurable impact.
With defined automation initiatives now underway, the client is positioned to increase throughput, reduce operator dependency, and support continued growth with confidence.
Uncover high-impact opportunities in your manufacturing operations with DMC.
With several decades of automation experience, our team helps you move from concept to execution quickly, with clear ROI and a practical path forward.