Success Stories
MES SUCCESS STORY / MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY
A global materials technology leader needed to increase line performance and overall product yield to maximize production performance at each facility. To attain their goals, they required a common production monitoring and execution platform that could integrate with the automation layer at each plant and their corporate ERP platform to standardize work order execution, quality data collection, and control.
They began their MES journey by implementing AVEVA Performance Management to reduce startup and changeover time losses between production runs. Once visibility to line performance was achieved, an integrated AVEVA Quality Management solution was implemented to minimize scrap and gain tighter control over specification tolerances for each product produced. Working with Q-mation’s Expert Services team, this solution footprint was templated and rolled out across additional plants to normalize performance monitoring and quality data management across the entire organization.
Location: United States
Software Products: AVEVA System Platform, AVEVA MES (Quality, Performance, Operations)
Project Goals:
- Reduce startup and changeover time losses
- Reduce product scrap and gain tighter control over product specification limits
- Provide a standardized system template usable across each plant
- Provide more accessible and accurate data for reporting and analysis
Challenges:
- The solution deployment had to be supportable by a 2-person customer implementation team that was new to MES functionality
- Complex ERP production requirements necessitated significant upfront definition of the MES integration rules to ensure success
- Initial operational issues breaking away from existing processes and leveraging the new MES environment
Results:
- The shop floor system provided sustainable performance improvement through faster root cause analyses, greater site awareness/responsiveness, and improved product yield:
• Easy access to reporting and data
• Reduction of time workers spent searching for information - Production was synchronized to end of line QC data enabling a faster response to out-of-control conditions and tighter control over specification tolerances:
• Sample plan frequency became an attribute of the MES job creation - Ease of use of the new system and validation of the accuracy of the reporting data won over line operators as they embraced the new capability:
• Better visibility to required product roll changes at operator stations
• MES interlocks to line automation ensure easy and correct initiation of product work orders - Implementation of MES and integration to the automation layer and ERP produced many significant benefits:
• Scrap reduction over two years: $700K with a consistent 10% increase in yield
• Startup savings
• Changeover savings
• Shut down optimization savings - Improved process standardization (visibility to when orders need to be run outside book conditions):
• Overall line utilization increase (higher percentage of items running at target throughput)
• Raw material cost savings initiatives (higher percentage of items running at target settings)
Contact us today to put our Expert Services team to work on your MES digital transformation project!
Certified MES Training
Q-mation offers a curriculum of training courses for a variety of AVEVA MES software products:
- System Platform I
- MES Operations and Performance
- MES Quality Module
- AVEVA Work Tasks
Go beyond training with our certified senior-level instructors who combine expert technical skills and knowledge of best practices to create real-work application experiences.
