Benefits of Paperless Manufacturing

by | Nov 13, 2013

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paperlessPaperless manufacturing can improve a company’s business operations through higher quality, greater responsiveness to change and less waste, according to Tadeusz Dyduch senior product manager at Apriso, writing in IndustryWeek.

Eliminating paper from the manufacturing process drives down the cost of quality, Dyduch writes. Quality is dependent on timely and accurate information. A paperless system can both speed up the rate at which information can be passed around — as it can be sent electronically — as well as improving accuracy as correct data in a computer is more protected from human error that data on paper.

For example, if a manufacturer identifies a shipment or product run that does not meet its quality standards, that shipment or product run can be quickly isolated within a paperless system though the use of automated responses without human involvement.

Paperless manufacturing systems can also cut back on barriers to innovation. They offer far greater ease of collaboration as information can be shared, edited and sent around to collaborators at a far greater pace than their paper-based equivalents.

Finally, going paperless cuts down on waste. This cuts down on recycling or waste processing costs as well as the time it takes for staff to throw away unwanted paper.

In May, Heckmann Water Resources and Blueknight Energy Partners, both of which serve the oil and gas industry, announced that they had both realized cost savings and made their fleets more efficient using PeopleNet’s paperless systems and open technology.

PeopleNet says it worked with Heckmann to create workflows that have eliminated for one customer more than 700,000 pieces of paper, improved the customers’ efficiency by $1.4 million, shrunk receivables aging from 120 days to 20 days, eliminated $1,200 a day in carrying costs, and improved driver safety.

Photo Credit: Paperless office via Shutterstock

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