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Education & Resources

Explore our curated collection of Education & Resources, meticulously crafted to guide manufacturers on the path to excellence. From cutting-edge insights to foundational knowledge, each blog is a stepping stone towards elevating your production quality and operational efficiency. Dive in and unlock the potential of manufacturing mastery.

The Essential Manufacturing Shutdown Checklist

The Essential Manufacturing Shutdown Checklist

In manufacturing, shutdowns are inevitable. Whether it’s for routine maintenance, upgrades, or unexpected issues, a well-planned shutdown can make all the difference between a smooth restart and a prolonged downtime. For manufacturing engineers, having a comprehensive...

What is a Manufacturing Execution System?

What is a Manufacturing Execution System?

In the evolving world of manufacturing, staying ahead of the competition requires more than just advanced machinery and skilled labour. It necessitates the adoption of sophisticated digital solutions that can streamline operations, enhance productivity, and ensure...

How to Implement Traceability in Manufacturing

How to Implement Traceability in Manufacturing

In the rapidly evolving manufacturing industry, traceability has become a critical component for ensuring quality, compliance, and efficiency. Implementing a robust traceability system allows manufacturers to track the entire lifecycle of a product, from raw materials...

The Lean Manufacturing Approach to Cost Control

The Lean Manufacturing Approach to Cost Control

In today's highly competitive manufacturing landscape, controlling costs while maintaining high quality is paramount. Lean manufacturing, a methodology that emphasises efficiency by eliminating waste and optimising processes, offers a powerful approach to achieving...

How to Create a Manufacturing Traveler

How to Create a Manufacturing Traveler

In the world of manufacturing, keeping track of production processes is crucial for efficiency, quality control, and traceability. A key tool for this purpose is the manufacturing traveler, a document that accompanies a product as it moves through different stages of...

Success with Manufacturing Traceability

Success with Manufacturing Traceability

In today's competitive manufacturing landscape, ensuring efficiency, product quality, and customer satisfaction is paramount. Traceability, the ability to track every step of the manufacturing process, plays a crucial role in achieving these goals. By implementing...

How to Measure and Increase Manufacturing Output

How to Measure and Increase Manufacturing Output

Increasing production output is a critical objective for any manufacturing business aiming to stay competitive. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by accurately measuring and increasing manufacturing output. Understanding the key metrics and...

Data-Driven Manufacturing: Strategies for Success

Data-Driven Manufacturing: Strategies for Success

In the ever-evolving landscape of manufacturing, striking the right balance between securing quick operational wins and laying the groundwork for long-term strategic goals is more critical than ever. This delicate balance is the key to not only surviving but thriving...

Striking a Balance in Manufacturing

Striking a Balance in Manufacturing

Striking a Balance in Manufacturing: Immediate Results vs. Strategic Visions In the ever-competitive realm of manufacturing, industry leaders frequently face a significant challenge: striking a balance in manufacturing between achieving immediate results and pursuing...

What is Total Quality Management?

What is Total Quality Management?

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement in all aspects of an organization. It involves creating a culture of quality that permeates every level of the organization, from the top management to the shop floor...

How To Make Effective Digital Work Instructions

How To Make Effective Digital Work Instructions

Leave Paper Behind and Revolutionise Your Assembly Processes Digital work instructions are an essential tool for the manufacturing industry, particularly for assembly operations. Digital work instructions replace traditional paper-based work instructions with digital...

Non Conformance Reports for Manufacturing

Non Conformance Reports for Manufacturing

Hey, it's Martin from Metis Automation here.  I’m going to talk about non conformance reports in the manufacturing processes.  And the NCR or the non conformance report. More importantly, I am going to show you how Tascus can help and improve this process. The Current...

Measuring Manufacturing Downtime

Measuring Manufacturing Downtime

Hi, Martin here from Metis Automation. In my video, I am going to talk about how to configure our Manufacturing Execution System – Tascus.  You can use this fantastic tool to capture and record some of the downtime that you might experience in your manufacturing...

Tooling Traceability for Manufacturing Processes

Tooling Traceability for Manufacturing Processes

Tool Traceability When manual tools are used in the manufacturing process, it is very important for quality standards to record exactly which tool reference number has been used. It is also important to keep that aligned with its calibration records and its service...

Creating Digital Manufacturing Travellers

Creating Digital Manufacturing Travellers

Digital manufacturing travellers in a manufacturing process are required for traceability purposes. It's where you record every stage and every operation in the manufacturing process that's been completed. You capture key information like quality inspections,...

Streamlining Manufacturing Travellers

Streamlining Manufacturing Travellers

Are your manufacturing travellers optimised for efficiency? While they're crucial for tracking processes and ensuring quality, unnecessary duplicate entries can lead to confusion and wasted time. Streamlining your manufacturing travellers is essential to eliminate...

How to do Manufacturing Capacity Planning

How to do Manufacturing Capacity Planning

Every successful business has its own methods of achieving. More likely than not, if you have a successful business, you probably have high demand and make excellent profit from it. However, you can have as many clients lined up as you wish, but are you in control of...

Reducing Variation in your Manufacturing Process

Reducing Variation in your Manufacturing Process

Control is an imperative part of any manufacturing process, and reducing variation is a big step in ensuring control. Why? Because variation is a clear indicator that your manufacturing process is out of control. A high-quality process means the difference between...

How to Improve Visual Product Inspection

How to Improve Visual Product Inspection

Visual product inspection is critical, but we’re all only human – and humans are prone to error. While your factory likely has plenty of verification testing and automated inspections in place, it’s not uncommon for problems to continue slipping through the cracks. In...

How to Reduce Machine Downtime

How to Reduce Machine Downtime

Machine downtime can have a big influence on everything in your manufacturing process. In fact, not only does it affect the manufacturing process, but it can take a toll on your business operations as a whole. If you’ve experienced losses due to machine downtime,...

Ways You Can Improve Your Machine Productivity

Ways You Can Improve Your Machine Productivity

There’s little worse than having a slow production process. You can easily talk to unproductive employees, but slow machines are a different story altogether. Do you know what you call a process that has one thing slowing it down? A bottleneck. In order to run a...

How Can Manufacturers Work Remotely?

How Can Manufacturers Work Remotely?

Remote working has been popular with software companies and freelancers for the past 10 years, but it hasn't really taken off yet with manufacturers. With the current global pandemic of coronavirus, most government advice is to remote work where possible. So, in this...

7 Ways to Grow With an MES

7 Ways to Grow With an MES

Investing in new production processes is a major step for any business. It requires balancing of the costs in time and money versus the benefits the business will reap in the future. Using an MES helps you succeed by focusing on what your customer wants at every point...

Improve Profits Through Accurate Labour Costs

Improve Profits Through Accurate Labour Costs

To improve profits, manufacturers need to keep tight control of material and labour costs.  When jobs are estimated and quoted to customers, they are based on standard labour times for each manufacturing process.  But when products are moving through your factory, how...

Industry 4.0 Guide – An Overview

Industry 4.0 Guide – An Overview

We are currently experiencing the 4th Industrial Revolution, where machines and manual operations are being connected together to bring the benefits of automation to entire production processes and factories. The term Industry 4.0 was coined in Germany, as a proposed...

Paperless Manufacturing

Paperless Manufacturing

Paperless Manufacturing is when work orders and work instructions needed to control the production process, are replaced by an IT System that connects to manufacturing processes. The IT System then controls and guides the production process, resulting in increased...

Mass Customisation

Mass Customisation

Mass Customisation is when a manufacturer creates completely customised products at the same scale and cost of mass-produced items. Key Features of Mass Customisation: Customers and suppliers collaborate to create customised products. Unique product designs are...

Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 (otherwise known as connected manufacturing)was developed in Germany as a proposed way for SME manufacturers to remain competitive and relevant in the future. German business leaders recognised that their factories could not compete with low-cost...

Connected Manufacturing

Connected Manufacturing

Connected Manufacturing is a factory automation system where manual and automated manufacturing processes are connected together. As a result, this allows the automation of entire manufacturing processes and production planning. Key features of Connected...

Smart Tools in Manufacturing

Smart Tools in Manufacturing

Smart Tools are a low-cost investment that can transform manufacturing processes and save costly rework or product recalls. This article will outline their basic operation and the strategies for using them in assembly and manufacturing operations. What Are Smart...

Transformation of the Automotive Industry

Transformation of the Automotive Industry

The current state of the UK automotive industry is extremely healthy, with vehicle manufacturing at its highest level since 2005. Vehicles built in the UK now have 15% more UK content than they did in 2012. However, there are dramatic changes happening in the...

Fully Connected Factories Predicted by 2022

Fully Connected Factories Predicted by 2022

Zebra Technologies’ recently published "2017 Manufacturing Vision" predicting that by 2022, the majority of manufacturers will have fully connected factories. It has also identified that manufacturers are currently connecting operations to gain greater visibility and...

LabVIEW Developer Days Manchester – Day 2

LabVIEW Developer Days Manchester – Day 2

Local LabVIEW Developers gathered together in June for National Instruments LabVIEW Developer Days Manchester. The NI team of Jason, Peter, and Charlotte, accompanied by Metis Automation's Technical Director Martin Griffiths, hosted a collection of sessions aimed at...

Connected Manufacturing & Production Test Systems

How does Connected Manufacturing affect production test systems in factories ensuring that high-quality products are shipped to customers? Explore how Connected Manufacturing is being implemented in businesses, and how test systems need to adapt to be ready to...

Connecting Customers with Connected Manufacturing

Connecting Customers with Connected Manufacturing

Connected Manufacturing Systems In a recent project, a client of ours who we have been developing Connected Manufacturing systems for over 2 years, asked us to help them send production data directly to their customer. The aim of this was to improve the way our...

NI Days 2016 Review – Software Development

NI Days 2016 Review – Software Development

  At the User Group track during this year’s NI Days, engineers and scientists heard from talented LabVIEW software developers discussing the lessons they had learnt from many years of projects implementing solutions with high quality LabVIEW software. James...

The Dawn of a New Manufacturing Frontier

The Dawn of a New Manufacturing Frontier

Martin discusses the evolution of manufacturing processes and the dawn of the next stage – Mass Customisation, in an article published in Control Engineering Europe magazine. Mass Customisation is the ability to create custom, almost bespoke products at the same...

Smart Factory Blueprint

Tools to help you go Paperless:
Boost Quality, and Accelerate Your Operations

Download our free Smart Factory Blueprint to redefine operational clarity and excellence for your organisation.