Case Study
Flexible MES Cloud Solution Lowers Total Cost and Increases Manufacturing Velocity
The Challenge
A major clean energy OEM needed a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for two very different types of production that could also provide visibility across multiple manufacturing facilities. This company’s product is a complex industrial system with critical subassemblies produced using advanced chemistry and processing. With a new factory opening in a matter of weeks, their existing MES system was not adequate. More importantly, the older system would not be able to scale to meet their new product manufacturing challenges including:
- Flexibility to handle product lines that are both high volume/low mix and low volume/high complexity.
- Traceability of chemical modules produced in one facility and integrated into systems in another facility.
- Variability and ease of use in the user interface to adapt to different manufacturing and operator setups. For example, if an operator is 10-12 feet away the interface must be legible from that distance.
- Providing complete visibility across several plants around the world.
Why 42Q
The customer immediately understood the speed of deployment and flexibility possible with a cloud-based solution. They were surprised however by the advanced features and maturity of the solution, including simple integration with major life cycle management and ERP systems such as Oracle and Agile. Updated work instructions can be pulled from Agile and viewed by 42Q users instantly. If training has not been completed by the user, operation is not permitted. Other benefits included:
- No infrastructure to install or maintain.
- Flexibility to handle high and low-mix products in one solution.
- A subscription model that provides pricing predictability.
- Complete, proven functionality and seamless integration between lifecycle management and ERP systems:
- Serial and batch genealogy
- Parametric data collection and reporting
- Simplified management of temporary deviations
- Automatic updates for repair and refurbishment actions
Results
- The 42Q MES cloud-based solution was successfully deployed in under 2 months, allowing the new factory to open on schedule.
- Transparency of genealogy and traceability enabled field and product analyses to occur in a matter of days compared to 3 months with their previous MES solution.
- One consistent set of dashboards for multiple plants performing very different types of manufacturing.
- OEM is comfortable planning for new factory deployments based on a predictable, flexible pricing model.
See How Our Customers are
Transforming Their Businesses
Weir Minerals Reduces Manufacturing Lead Times by up to 30%
Weir Minerals, a part of the Weir Group plc, is a global market leader in the supply of engineered solutions and aftermarket products to the mining industry. Their customers require fast order fulfillment lead times, which are met by manufacturing products as quickly as possible within their 12 core manufacturing plants.
42Q Enables Production Readiness to Double the Volume at Comet’s Penang Facility
Comet’s facility in Penang, Malaysia needed to double the production volume of matching networks within a period of six months. While the manufacturing process itself could support the increase, the manual data collection process had reached the limits of its capability. The company needed to increase efficiency, improve quality, enhance traceability and wanted a single source of truth for all manufacturing data. They decided to implement a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and eliminate all spreadsheet and paper based processes. They also wanted the system to seamlessly integrate with their ERP system and a variety of manufacturing equipment.
Cloud MES Supports Sophisticated Automation in a High Speed, Highly-Regulated Manufacturing Environment
A global medical device manufacturer had been producing complex Class II medical devices for years, using 42Q as their MES. Now they faced the challenge of manufacturing high-volume Class III medical devices with complex, fully automated production lines. They feared that implementing advanced, high-volume automation using 42Q MES would require significant factory downtime. The new production lines required a high level of sophisticated automation and a manufacturing execution system that supported and seamlessly integrated with such systems.
Digital Factory Transformation with 35,000 Pieces of Manufacturing Equipment Connected in the Cloud
Sanmina manufactures 250 million products per year. More of a challenge is that there are over 200,000 different top-level assemblies produced each year for 700 different OEM customers with up to 20,000 forecast changes per week. The OEMs operate in diverse industries including telecommunications, enterprise computing & storage, industrial and clean technology. A significant amount of production is for medical, aerospace and automotive products with strict regulatory requirements. The existing on-premise MES required significant maintenance and upgrade effort from the IT and operations teams. It was also limited in its ability to manage supply chains beyond the walls of each factory, and was not well suited for factory automation and other IIoT initiatives.
Values & Capabilities
Delivered by Manufacturing Experts
Cloud-Based Technology
Subscription-Based Pricing
Rapid Implementation
Flexible Configuration
Multi-Plant Visibility
Traceability & Genealogy
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