Enterprise Standardization: Unlocking Efficiency, Consistency, and Performance Across Manufacturing Operations
Author Sticky
Michelle Rosinski
GE Vernova’s Proficy Software & Services
Mar 26, 2025
3 minutes
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The Importance of Standardization in Manufacturing Enterprise Scale
Enterprise Scale refers to the ability of industrial operations to efficiently manage and optimize large-scale or multi-plant facilities through technology-driven solutions. A critical pillar of Enterprise Scale is Standardization, which ensures consistency in data, processes, and workflows across all locations. By enabling centralized enterprise standardization, manufacturing organizations can drive efficiency, improve enterprise-wide performance, and reduce operational costs.
Image credit: GE Vernova
Why Enterprise Standardization in Manufacturing Matters for Operations, Engineering, and IT Leaders
For manufacturing enterprises, inconsistencies in data, processes, and workflows across multiple sites can create significant challenges. Enterprise Standardization in manufacturing is essential for:
Operations Leaders: Enterprise Standardization in manufacturing helps create efficient and repeatable processes across all facilities, reducing production variability and ensuring optimal plant performance. By having a unified framework, Operations Leaders can benchmark performance across sites, implement best practices more effectively, and minimize downtime through consistent troubleshooting methodologies.
Engineering Leaders: Deploying and managing industrial software solutions at scale is complex, but enterprise standardization in manufacturing simplifies this process by providing a framework for best-practice replication. Engineering Leaders benefit from reduced inconsistencies in configurations, faster system rollouts, and more effective troubleshooting due to uniform architectures and workflows across all plants.
IT Leaders: A unified infrastructure is critical for enabling seamless data aggregation and maintaining security and compliance standards across the enterprise. By standardizing data management practices, IT Leaders can reduce integration challenges, enhance system interoperability, and ensure that all facilities operate under the same security and compliance policies, mitigating risks and improving operational efficiency.
By standardizing workflows, templates, and data management across plants, manufacturing organizations can significantly improve productivity, quality, and decision-making at every level.
Key Challenges of Enterprise Standardization in Manufacturing and How to Overcome Them
Implementing standardization in manufacturing at an enterprise scale is crucial for driving efficiency, consistency, and operational excellence. However, achieving this goal is not without its challenges. Large-scale manufacturing enterprises often struggle with inconsistencies in data, workflows, and system configurations across large sites and multiple plants, leading to inefficiencies and lost opportunities for optimization.
Standardizing processes requires a coordinated effort across operations, engineering, and IT teams to ensure uniformity while maintaining the flexibility needed to adapt to site-specific requirements. The following sections explore the key challenges enterprises face when implementing standardization, as well as how overcoming these obstacles can lead to improved performance, reduced variability, and better decision-making.
Standardizing processes requires a coordinated effort across operations, engineering, and IT teams to ensure uniformity while maintaining the flexibility needed to adapt to site-specific requirements. The following sections explore the key challenges enterprises face when implementing standardization, as well as how overcoming these obstacles can lead to improved performance, reduced variability, and better decision-making.
Challenge #1: Inconsistent Data, Metrics, and Operational Processes
Many manufacturing enterprises struggle with siloed data and inconsistent reporting structures across plants, making it difficult to benchmark performance, identify inefficiencies, and implement improvements.
Many manufacturing enterprises struggle with siloed data and inconsistent reporting structures across plants, making it difficult to benchmark performance, identify inefficiencies, and implement improvements.
Operations Leaders: Lack of a single source of truth leads to unreliable performance comparisons.
Engineering Leaders: Difficulty in diagnosing process inefficiencies due to variations in data collection.
IT Leaders: Fragmented systems require extensive manual integration efforts to unify data.
By establishing a consistent data structure, manufacturing companies can eliminate inefficiencies caused by fragmented systems, ensuring that every facility operates from a unified foundation. This consistency enables seamless reporting, accelerates problem-solving, and provides leadership with clear, actionable insights to optimize production and drive continuous improvement.
Challenge #2: Enforcing Uniform Standards Across Geographically Dispersed Operations
Manufacturing Enterprises with multiple locations often struggle to enforce standardized operational processes and best practices across plants, leading to inefficiencies and compliance risks.
Challenge #2: Enforcing Uniform Standards Across Geographically Dispersed Operations
Manufacturing Enterprises with multiple locations often struggle to enforce standardized operational processes and best practices across plants, leading to inefficiencies and compliance risks.
Operations Leaders: Without enterprise standardization, plants operate with different workflows, making it difficult to ensure consistent production efficiency and quality.
Engineering Leaders: Custom configurations at each site make troubleshooting and optimization cumbersome.
IT Leaders: Managing disparate systems and ensuring security compliance becomes a major challenge.
By enforcing a unified operational framework, manufacturing enterprises can create a structured, repeatable approach to managing workflows and processes across all locations. This reduces inefficiencies caused by site-to-site variations, ensures regulatory compliance is met consistently, and enables teams to implement best practices more effectively, leading to greater overall operational stability and efficiency.
Image credit: GE Vernova
Challenge #3: Variability and Inefficiency in Replicating Successful Setups
Manufacturing enterprises often face difficulties in replicating best practices across sites, leading to performance inconsistencies and operational bottlenecks.
Manufacturing enterprises often face difficulties in replicating best practices across sites, leading to performance inconsistencies and operational bottlenecks.
Operations Leaders: Increased waste and production inefficiencies due to inconsistent workflows.
Engineering Leaders: Higher maintenance burdens from non-standardized configurations.
IT Leaders: Difficulty in deploying updates and ensuring system interoperability.
By minimizing variations in setup and configuration, manufacturing enterprises can streamline production processes, reduce costly inefficiencies, and accelerate time-to-value across all locations. A standardized approach in manufacturing ensures that best practices are consistently applied, optimizing performance and driving sustainable cost savings at scale.
Challenge #4: Difficulty in Accurately Assessing Performance
When data collection and reporting methodologies vary from plant to plant, assessing performance and identifying opportunities for improvement becomes a major hurdle.
Challenge #4: Difficulty in Accurately Assessing Performance
When data collection and reporting methodologies vary from plant to plant, assessing performance and identifying opportunities for improvement becomes a major hurdle.
Operations Leaders: Difficulty in benchmarking performance between lines and plants.
Engineering Leaders: Lack of visibility into process inefficiencies.
IT Leaders: Managing disparate data sources for enterprise-wide insights is time-consuming.
By standardizing reporting methodologies, manufacturing enterprises can create a clear and consistent view of performance across all sites. This alignment minimizes discrepancies, enhances operational transparency, and enables leadership to make informed, proactive decisions that drive continuous optimization and long-term success.
Challenge #5: Deployment Delays Due to a Lack of Consistent Configurations
When standard configurations and processes are not in place, deploying new plants or production lines becomes time-intensive and prone to errors.
Challenge #5: Deployment Delays Due to a Lack of Consistent Configurations
When standard configurations and processes are not in place, deploying new plants or production lines becomes time-intensive and prone to errors.
Operations Leaders: Longer time-to-production and increased training burdens.
Engineering Leaders: Increased troubleshooting and inefficiencies in system integration.
IT Leaders: Greater workload in setting up new sites and ensuring system compatibility.
By adopting standardized deployment practices, manufacturing enterprises can accelerate the launch of new plants and production lines while ensuring consistency across locations. This reduces costly setup delays, minimizes configuration errors, and enables a smoother transition to full-scale operations, allowing teams to focus on optimization rather than troubleshooting inefficiencies.
Case Study on Coca-Cola Achieving Operational Excellence with Enterprise Standardization in Manufacturing
Coca-Cola, a global leader in the beverage industry, sought to reduce complexity, improve production efficiency, and enhance decision-making across its 70 manufacturing facilities. By modernizing its Line Information Systems (LIS) and standardizing its control architectures, Coca-Cola was able to centralize data management and drive operational excellence.
The Challenges:
The Challenges:
- Complex supply chain management required simplification and standardization to improve production efficiency.
- Inconsistent tracking of line assets and production data across multiple plants limited visibility into performance.
- Varied software and control architectures made deployment and support more difficult.
- Need for enterprise-wide insights to compare the performance of plants, lines, and individual machines effectively.
The Outcomes:
- Standardized control architectures across 70 plants, reducing inefficiencies and improving deployment.
- Enhanced enterprise-wide visibility through KPI dashboards and centralized data management.
- Increased operational efficiency and reduced downtime by modernizing LIS systems.
- Improved decision-making with live and historical data, allowing for better root cause analysis and process optimization.
By modernizing its LIS systems and standardizing operational processes, Coca-Cola successfully reduced complexity and improved decision-making. Their approach highlights the value of centralized standardization in achieving efficiency, enterprise-wide visibility, and continuous improvement in large-scale operations.
Read the full case study on how Coca-Cola improved operational excellence with manufacturing standardization and Proficy’s software suite now.
How Proficy Software Enables Enterprise Standardization in Manufacturing
Proficy Software and Services provide manufacturing enterprises with the tools they need to achieve Enterprise Scale through standardization. By enabling consistent data management, operational workflows, and system configurations, Proficy helps manufacturers drive efficiency and performance across large sites and multiple plants. The following section outlines how Proficy’s solutions support enterprise standardization across manufacturing operations.
Proficy Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
Proficy Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is engineered to provide a comprehensive solution for managing production operations across multiple sites. By standardizing data structures and workflows, it drives consistency and efficiency in manufacturing processes at an enterprise scale.
Proficy Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
Proficy Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is engineered to provide a comprehensive solution for managing production operations across multiple sites. By standardizing data structures and workflows, it drives consistency and efficiency in manufacturing processes at an enterprise scale.
- Standardized backend for configuration reuse across sites – Helps manufacturers to implement a unified framework, reducing the need for custom configurations and streamlining deployments across plants.
- Pre-built reports and templates for consistent analytics – Provides ready-to-use reporting tools that help standardize performance measurement, making it easier to benchmark across multiple locations.
Proficy HMI/SCADA
Proficy HMI/SCADA software applications, including CIMPLICITY and iFIX, are advanced automation platforms that facilitate enterprise standardization in manufacturing industrial control systems. Engineered to provide model-based development capabilities and centralized management, these solutions help drive consistency across manufacturing operations.
Proficy HMI/SCADA software applications, including CIMPLICITY and iFIX, are advanced automation platforms that facilitate enterprise standardization in manufacturing industrial control systems. Engineered to provide model-based development capabilities and centralized management, these solutions help drive consistency across manufacturing operations.
- Model-based development for uniform automation – Helps engineers to create standardized control strategies that can be easily replicated, reducing engineering effort and operational variability.
- Centralized management to enforce standard configurations – Helps align automation settings across sites, reducing configuration drift and improving long-term system reliability.
Proficy Historian
Proficy Historian software serves as the backbone of enterprise-wide data management, providing a centralized repository for live and historical process data. This helps manufacturing enterprises to drive better decision-making through standardization and consistency.
Proficy Historian software serves as the backbone of enterprise-wide data management, providing a centralized repository for live and historical process data. This helps manufacturing enterprises to drive better decision-making through standardization and consistency.
- Aggregated data for enterprise-wide insights and benchmarking – Collects and organizes data from multiple sources, allowing for more accurate comparisons across facilities and supporting continuous improvement efforts.
- Single source of truth to streamline reporting and analytics – Reduces discrepancies caused by siloed data by providing a unified, reliable data source for performance analysis and operational optimization.
Proficy Scheduler / ROB-EX
Proficy Scheduler / ROB-EX is a production scheduling software that helps simplify and standardize production planning, supporting manufacturers to maintain consistency in scheduling processes across their entire manufacturing network. This helps improve efficiency and reduce production bottlenecks.
Proficy Scheduler / ROB-EX is a production scheduling software that helps simplify and standardize production planning, supporting manufacturers to maintain consistency in scheduling processes across their entire manufacturing network. This helps improve efficiency and reduce production bottlenecks.
- Drives consistency in scheduling rules and processes across sites – Establishes a standardized scheduling approach that minimizes variability and aligns production workflows across locations.
- Provides quick-response data analysis for enterprise-wide optimization – Uses live operational data to adjust schedules dynamically, enabling manufacturers to respond quickly to changes and optimize resource utilization.
The Future of Standardized Manufacturing Operations
Proficy Software helps manufacturing enterprises modernize faster and improve performance by enabling adaptive scalability , enterprise flexibility , centralized standardization, and streamlined system integration . With an AI-ready data architecture, secure hybrid cloud capabilities, and a robust partner ecosystem, Proficy drives continuous improvement and strategic decision-making across large-scale operations.
Enterprise Standardization is essential for manufacturing enterprises looking to enhance operational consistency, improve performance, and reduce costs. Proficy Software empowers Operations, Engineering, and IT Leaders to implement centralized standardization across their enterprise, driving efficient, scalable, and optimized operations.
Read the next blog in our series on System Integration or contact us to learn more about how Proficy Software can help your enterprise achieve best-in-class standardization.
Enterprise Standardization is essential for manufacturing enterprises looking to enhance operational consistency, improve performance, and reduce costs. Proficy Software empowers Operations, Engineering, and IT Leaders to implement centralized standardization across their enterprise, driving efficient, scalable, and optimized operations.
Read the next blog in our series on System Integration or contact us to learn more about how Proficy Software can help your enterprise achieve best-in-class standardization.
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