Modernizing manufacturing: from analog overload to digital simplicity

In manufacturing, change often starts with positive intentions but risks creating more work than value on the shop floor. That’s a lesson Luke Savage, our guest on this episode of Manufacturing Matters, learned firsthand during his years as a leadership consultant in factories. Armed with paper forms and whiteboards, he tried to drive improvements, only to realize these tools often became an administrative burden.

Today, Luke helps manufacturers adopt digital solutions that reduce complexity instead of adding to it. In this conversation, we explore his journey from consulting to software, the cultural challenges of driving change across regions, and how simple digital tools can give people their time back, improve OEE, and even make work more enjoyable.

If you’re in operations or manufacturing leadership, this episode offers practical insights on how to bridge the gap between analog processes and digital simplicity.

From leadership consulting to software: Luke’s journey

“I used to be guilty of going into a factory with a piece of paper and telling people to fill it out. Use that to understand performance and top downtime, then fill in the whiteboard etc.”

“Actually, this was just adding administrative burden. It’s important you don’t do that. You need to give people on the front line tools that help them.”

“Every product you purchase is costed on a certain amount of labor and material. If that value-added labor is spent on something other than producing the product, businesses are going to make less money.”

Luke recalls a factory visit that helped reshape his thinking.

“Yeah. I mean, wherever you go, you know, I remember going into a factory in Belgium and we put the Short Interval Control (SIC) sheets on the line. I went out to get my lunch. I came back and the whole factory were sat in the canteen. ‘We don't want to fill these sheets in; we just want to produce the product.’ Okay, okay, well, how do we gather data? How do we get information to help these people to actually solve their top problems? Give them a voice on the factory floor”

That experience highlighted a key lesson: workers want tools that save time and make their jobs easier, not processes that add friction.

“So I went into selling, software and actually supporting people and implementing that in order to help them, give them their time back and then also make work a little bit more fun again.”

“Too many production managers out there, go home at the end of the day exhausted. Yeah. And they stay. They get there half an hour early to do their shift handover. They'll leave half an hour later. To do a shift handover again. Long hours. And by the end of that I mean you know they want some energy to go home to their families a little bit happier. And it sounds quite idealistic, but simple tools, simple processes can make people's every day significantly better from a happiness point of view.”

“And maybe that's not the metric we measure at Factbird, but maybe we should, we should have a happiness metric? Where we have at the end, like the three buttons when you walk out of the toilet (at the airport).”

“Yes, we improve OEE performance. Yes, we improve material utilization, your material variance, and your labor variance. But actually, we’re leveling up people on the shop floor, and we're engaging them in performance and doing better each day.”

Regional differences in celebrating change

Luke has seen how cultural differences shape the success of digital transformation projects.

“A core part of when you're deploying any digital tool, you could make it quite laborious if you just dropped it in. It's how you celebrate the wins in each region that really stuck out to me.”

“You would deploy digital transformation in a factory in the US, and they would shout about it. They would be really excited. Really celebrate the individuals. Very much in APAC as well. In Europe, we're not good at celebrating people. We’re not good at celebrating performance. So culturally, doing any project in Europe, it's always a little bit of a slower move.”

Challenges of introducing new technology

Luke points out that industries like CPG and food and beverage face additional hurdles.

“So CPG, food and beverage, which can be low margin, it can be a grind. It can be 20, 30 years behind other industries from an investment point of view. Old machines, old processes.”

“Most factories have grown organically, added lines here, an extra building there. There’s no consistency in their manufacturing lines. Onboarding is difficult. Getting consistent performance day to day is difficult. Communication is exceptionally difficult. And you see a lot of silos.”

Factbird’s role in helping organizations

Factbird’s role, as Luke explains, is to bring visibility and engagement into businesses, helping shop floor teams act in real time rather than waiting on lagging indicators.

“If you think about, a business structure, you've you've typically got the forecast element, the plan element, the execute element, and the control. It's like a plan, do, check, act loop.”

“If you look at what Factbird does really well, it does a really good job in the execute and control element of that. So we can start to visualize performance, engage people on the shop floor.”

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“And then if you look at the planning and forecasting element, they typically happen in the office space. But there's a disconnect between those because there are walls; they're usually big rabbit warrens. So, historically, to check performance on the plant floor, you had to do that like race track pattern management, right?”

“Run around every line, and then by the time you reach 10:00, you'd suddenly know what your performance was. So visibility probably came from gut feeling. Or lagging indicators as they popped up. So a really, really difficult environment to work in.”

Empathy as a sales superpower in manufacturing

Luke discussed the benefits of his consulting background and how it makes him a better software partner for manufacturers.

“Coming into the sales world or getting this software into that environment is significantly easier when you can empathize with the people that you're working with, that you're selling to. So if I'm selling to a VP of Ops, that’s what they way up through a plant. I understand the problems and the challenges that they've gone through.”

“And I empathize, and I genuinely want to help. Yeah. It's not like we just want to get the software in as many factories as possible. But you can see the change that happens not just in the factory, but in the individuals as well.”

“It's like, you know, I felt that once I felt that pain, I felt the disconnect between quality and production and maintenance and the manual whiteboards that you're being made to fill in every day.”

Advice for leaders driving change today

“So I think if we look at manufacturing in general, it's about how do you get your entire team pulling in the same direction? You’ve got maintenance working off a CMMS. Production on Excel spreadsheets and paperwork. A QMS. An ERP system. To get everyone singing off the same hymn sheet is extremely difficult. And the best leaders I've seen in manufacturing are the ones that communicate the most.”

Luke’s advice:

• Involve people in decisions before deployment
• Celebrate the individuals driving change
• Communicate the strategy clearly and often
• Establish one source of truth across metrics

“If you achieve something great, celebrate it. Put a flag in the sand and say it doesn't slip from here. This is our new baseline. This is where we move from.”

The future of manufacturing: AI and human engagement

So what is the main change that is going to happen in manufacturing over the next five years? Here is what Luke has to say.

“Obviously, everyone talks about AI. But I think we need to be pragmatic in the fact that, particularly in food and beverage manufacturing, CPG manufacturing, it's 20, 30 years behind everything else anyway.”

AI, Luke believes, will strongly influence forecasting and planning. But on the shop floor, people will remain central.

“So yes, AI is going to be influential, but I think the best manufacturers will be the ones that do the visual factory, the ones that engage the human beings, and the ones that can actually put something in place to retain their staff. That's my take on it.”

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