Inventory management

Synchronize inventory with ERP or maintain it directly in the MES system, but keep it updated, it helps you to have an accurate inventory where you can track real-time location and status. You can receive items, keep track of material when it is transported between locations, do picking, packing and shipping operations and you can avoid missing out on sales due to out-of-stock situations.

Using an automated inventory updated in real-time according to operations done in the plant allows to have an up-to-date situation at anytime. Decison can be taken immediately and company executives can access the data through a browser to check inventory numbers.

Label printing

When receiving materials, transferring between locations, shipping and inventorying you can use an handheld device to scan barcodes. Printing barcodes help eliminate the hassle of manually entering information during the operational stages. The system let you generate barcodes and print them both for internal and external use.

Printing is centralized and the system let you be printer agnostic. You can create and manage your own templates.

Traceability and consumption

Warehouse and logistics

Managing inventory in real-time, knowing where all the products are, keeping under control expiration dates, certificates, shipping orders, these all can be done with an MES system. The system lets you improve your competitive advantage by minimizing labor expenses, echancing customer service, improving inventory accuracy, increasing flexibility and responsiveness.

All the operations done are recorded and tracked. Product traceability is guaranteed. Information about extraction, shipping and whatever is needed can be linked with the ERP.

Scheduling

Synchronize production planning with ERP or create production and packaging orders directly in the MES system. It doesn’t matter. Basing on quantities of product to produce, delivery date, asset and sequence of production constrains the system propose a schedule that you can easily edit and modify. You can test several “what if” scenarios just changing some parameters and running the scheduling again. Once you are satisfied you can assign production and packaging machines, teams and more. The schedule is in real-time available to anyone needs to access it, from the line operators to the management. Real-time visibility of job progress and schedule attainment let you inform promptly your customers on the status of their orders. Information can be shared real-time with the ERP so to keep it updated and take your strategic and financial decisions in the most informed way.

Production scheduling and resource management can be  optimized applying business rules. The real time information on availability of materials, machines, teams can be used to plan and assign resources to each single job in production or packaging. Maintenance plans can be taken into account during the calculation of the proposed schedule as well as changeover time and cleaning. In this way it’s possible to determine the job sequence that can optimize the production throughput. The system can leverage the first available or best performing machine to define production routes.

Jobs and recipes

To instantiate a job you can use a recipe. A recipe contains the defined procedure and a mapped formula that defines the making of a product by associating a formula and capability parameters. Manual capabilities are available for manual data entry and acknowledgment.

Comprehensive history records and reporting allow users to view historical information about formulas and recipes that have been created, changed, or executed. Any change of the recipe can generate a new version. A workflow can be triggered to collect all the approvals before a recipe is released for production. Previous versions are kept for historical purposes but cannot be used any more. The system guarantees that product is produced and packaged following the latest official instructions.

The Recipe management user interface can be accessed via a web browser on a desktop, or on mobile devices.

When everything is set up correctly you can start production that can be fully automated or manual. The system will send the recipe information to the production line PLCs or deliver them to the operators. If manual, the recipe can be printed or accessed through a web browser using a tablet where the operator can access instructions and declare the operations done.

On automatic production lines an operator simply assigns a recipe to the appropriate line and starts, monitors, and controls its execution. All the setup parameters values can be adjusted within the defined limits, either prior to recipe start or even just before the capability is executed. In both cases they are downloaded to the PLC in a second and with guarantee of no errors. Avoiding misconfiguration of the devices allow to reduce scraps, reworks or, even worse, commercializing mispackaged or mislabeled products.

OEE, KPIs and downtime

Connecting the system to the existing automation infrastructure, allows to have a clear view of what’s happening on the shopfloor and to be informed of events requiring attention.  Operators can be engaged to detail specific root causes or corrective actions, to leverage their knowledge, for performance improvement. The information can then be accessed to have in-depth analytics by drilling down using function and time slicing methods – zoom into the root cause of line constraints. Real-time capturing and visibility of production equipment utilization, performance, and production progress brings to better performances and significant savings. Line Performance dashboard and reports can support Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement practices. They provide essential information for the production, quality, and maintenance teams, such as OEE details, loss analysis, production details, stoppage causes.

Waste and scrap

Recording production waste and scrap manually or automatically helps companies to keep track of their processes. You can analyze waste with real-time data capture to help reduce losses optimizing the processes. When data are recorded, waste and scrap causes can be easily identified and rectified.

It is possible also, if you need it, to manage giveaways reducing them. Giveaways management let the plant ensure that product net weights meet the stated label weight minimizing the amount filled over the minimum required value. Our solution can help getting the filling process in statistical control. When a process is stable and predictable, and with reduced variation, it can be adjusted to run closer to the Label Claim reducing the amount of overpack. Having weighs recorded periodically gives operators and supervisors immediate statistically-based feedback when processes shift or become unstable. This better use of real-time actionable information can have a profound impact on both risk management and material use and let the company reduce giveaways up to 40%.

Log and events

Using an MES solution you have the possibility to have digital master logs, electronic batch and device history records. This means that you don’t need to maintain paper copies of documentation. You will save time because you are not forced anymore to fill, store and track down paperwork since most of the information are collected automatically and digitally.

Since the MES system is connected to your existing automation infrastructure, you are having a clear view of what is happening on your plant floor and you are promptly informed of events requiring attention. You can record a specific cause or even multiple causes of an event and then analyze the trends.

With real-time alerts, notifications, escalations, and the ability to configure automated workflows, our solution gives you the tools to communicate and resolve problems quickly and effectively.

Labor

In every company, despite the degree of automation, most of the processes implemented still rely on human controllers to execute them and provide the desired output from the requisite input.

Many key procedures as: qualification, certification, training, recording, scheduling, attendance to shift pass-down, still remain either fully or partially manual in most plants. Our MES solution help align labor management with other process management KPIs and help improve the management and handling of labor, through streamlining and building this functionality under the overall process spectrum.

With our solution you can track teams and enable them or single operators to do only certain operations. You can associate job execution to teams. You can assign them tasks or ask for approval or signature in doing specific activities.

If needed, the logon of an operator can enable him to gain access only to assigned lines, equipment and reports. The level of shown data can change according to user credentials. This helps to control what every user can do and avoid mistakes and confusion.

Workflow management

By defining workflows and tasks, you can guarantee assignments execution and gain visibility into your process improvement opportunities. Real-time workflow management and task capabilities drive product quality and business profitability, dramatically impacting productivity. The system helps to:

• Reduce wait time
• Communicate tasks
• Automate information
• Lower production costs
• Decrease waste and rework
• Improve customer satisfaction

Workflow management digitizes, automates and enforces standard operating procedures. It maintains records for compliance purposes and improvement initiatives. The web-based user interface can be accessed on mobile and desktop devices eliminating paper usage, reducing errors and inefficiencies.

Document and revision control

A Document Revision Control system is fundamental for the Quality Assurance Program. The system let you finely track who made changes and what and when were made. It provides users quick access to standardize procedures in required formats reinforcing Best Practices.

You can track all the revisions and manage employee training, skill sets, certifications, authorization, and security clearance.

SOPs can be recorded in a centralized system and all the users can access them easily.

Track and manage scrap & product defects

Scrap and rework costs are impacting an organization both in terms of time and money. The amount of scrap and rework can be reduced optimizing how you document product data, reviewing manufacturing processes, engaging operators to detail specific root causes or corrective actions, to leverage their knowledge. The system allows you to monitor real-time data to have a clear view of what is happening on your plant floor and be promptly informed about events requiring attention.

Using the system to track and manage scrap and product defects can help identifying improvement for SOPs, reducing the costs that the company is facing and improving the overall quality of finished good.

Real-time SPC

Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a method using statistical tools, like frequency distribution, scatter diagrams, histograms and Pareto charts, to improve or achieve quality control in a manufacturing process reducing process variation, thereby reducing defects and waste from the production line.

SPC can be used to control production filling machines with automatic adjustment of fill volumes minimizing the costs of product give-away or to control pasteurizing temperatures or to monitor pieces size or other process key values. Data can be gathered manually or automatically connecting to in-line or offline measurement equipment. Activating real-time alerts and notifications, adjustments can be quickly made to improve process capabilities and minimize the costs of poor quality or product give-away.

Customer complaint management

Customer complaints can be recorded, tracked and analyzed. With this traceability system it become possible to identify if complaints are originating from specific production dates, shifts, products, batch numbers, lot numbers, and production lines. You can simply identify root causes, monitor eliminated reoccurring issues, and determine if corrective and preventive actions are effective.

Non-conformance / Corrective And Preventive Action management

Corrective And Preventive Actions (CAPA) should be constantly performed to eliminate non-conformances or other undesirable situations. A corrective and preventive action management system is recording, tracking, and documenting non-conformances through to resolution helping to rectify and eliminate recurring non-conformances, driving greater supplier performance, improving customer satisfaction, and speeding up resolution of non-conformances.

Corrective actions can be implemented in response to unacceptable levels of product non-conformance, customer complaints, issues identified during an internal audit, as well as adverse or unstable trends in product and process monitoring such as would be identified by statistical process control (SPC). Preventive actions can be implemented in response to the identification of potential sources of non-conformity.

Asset register

The possibility to connect assets and acquire information from them automatically requires managing all the data collected. Our MES solution could provide any information, instruction, mechanical or electrical draw. The information can be accessed from mobile devices close to the asset under maintenance. Spare parts are identified as well as their location, and stocks are managed accordingly in real time. Production asset downtime is reduced because of the prompt response of maintenance operators as soon as any abnormal situation triggers an activity. Using an automated solution to manage assets you can plan, optimize, execute, and track the needed maintenance activities with the associated priorities, skills, materials, tools, and information.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is a planned maintenance on a piece of equipment that is usually based on a time or usage trigger to lessen the likelihood of the asset failing. The maintenance is performed when the equipment is still working to avoid any unexpected breakdown. This kind of maintenance program costs three to nine times less than the unplanned reactive maintenance because planning maintenance helps reduce costs:

• The shutdown of equipment can be scheduled to coincide with production downtime.
• Before any intervention, any required parts, supplies and personnel can be gathered to minimize the time taken for a repair.

Predictive Maintenance

Predictive maintenance aim to predict failures before they happen and to prevent failures by performing maintenance. When monitoring for future failures it is possible to plan maintenance before the failure occurs. You can reduce the maintenance frequency as low as possible to prevent unplanned reactive maintenance without incurring the costs of doing too much preventive maintenance. You can predict failures applying advanced statistical techniques like machine learning to the data collected from process and production data and integrate the resulting information into the MES system.

With this maintenance you can minimize the time equipment is being maintained, the production hours lost to perform maintenance and the cost of spare parts and supplies. The asset is shutdown just before imminent failure.

Repairs and work orders

Managing repair and work orders you can:

• Communicate work requests and prioritization to the maintenance department.
• Maintain records of work completed, labor utilized, and material cost.
• Provide maintenance technicians work instructions, equipment manuals, and spare part locations for quick reference.
• Optimize the use of existing assets and resources, with comprehensive scheduling.
• Cross reference production schedules, labor schedules, and work order schedules to take advantage of optimal conditions for maintenance activities.
• Gain visibility into maintenance operations, including status of work orders, on-time completion, and Response and Wrench-time to return equipment to a good running state.
• Quickly identify which equipment and root causes require corrective actions to improve equipment performance.