Take a walk down any supermarket aisle and you'll find a product that has been produced using technology from a Melbourne company that is helping make Australian manufacturers smarter.
In fact, the company – Operation Feedback Systems, or OFS – thinks its software has helped produce almost all products stocked by the big retailers, if you count their packaging.
OFS began in 1998, targeting the packaging industry with Visy as one of its biggest customers. But it has only been in the past five years that it has been able to double its growth annually and secure big customers, which include Asahi Beverages, Dulux Group and Coca-Cola Amatil.
"The industry [is] starting to realise that in five years … no forward thinking manufacturer will be operating the way they are now," OFS's Asia Pacific sales director James Magee said.
"They are going to have to be using all sorts of technology in order to remain competitive."
OFS's software is essentially a counter. It counts how many items are produced each hour, each day, how much time is wasted and how often targets are missed.
It then broadcasts that information, in real time, to web enabled devices such as smart phones and tablet and desktop computers.
"When the product first came to life it was actually designed to improve an industry term called DIFOT – which is delivery in full, on time – trying to make sure schedulers were aware of where jobs were at in the production process and trying to manage customers' expectations and so forth," Mr Magee said.
"But a by-product of monitoring what was … that efficiency was soaring, in many cases up to a 30 per cent improvement. In the end, it became the bigger prize and that's what the company went on to focus on."
It sounds simple, and Mr Magee said OFS has spent 10 years trying to make its software look effortless. But it has created a big shift within the manufacturing sector.
Previously obtaining performance data was cumbersome and often couldn't be accessed for months after it was recorded, he said.
"It was basically a series of phone calls, bunch of spreadsheets, a lot of hearsay, whereas the promise we gave to the likes of Asahi was that we are going to provide you with a single source of the truth. There will no emotion tied to it, nothing but factual information."
Paint maker Dulux trialled the software 18 months ago at one of its factories in Melbourne. Now it has become fully integrated in Dulux's entire manufacturing operations.
"We were so impressed with the ease of use of the software, and the wealth of data provided for facilitation of continuous improvement in our manufacturing processes, that we now utilise it in nine of our manufacturing facilities across Australia and New Zealand," said David Kind, Cabot's and Dulux Protective Coatings operations manager.
Cornerstone of a digital factory
Mr Magee envisages OFS software has being one of the cornerstones of the so-called "digital factory" – where everyone knows how they and everything are performing at any time.
"No individual walking through a production environments should be under any illusion when they are having a good or a bad hour. That's a massive shift from where the industry is now," he said.
"This is probably where our software is different to alternate ways of doing this – we have decided to put a huge focus on the people who are actually responsible for those pieces of kit.
"If you are able to combine the … the data that comes from the machine, with information that comes from your people – operators, fitters and turners, maintenance people – and then broadcast that in a format that everyone can understand … then you can focus on the key areas of opportunity that can help lift your efficiency in your business."
