Most of the manufacturing companies are driving rapid digital transformation. This has given a very positive direction to manufacturers. In this scenario, Manufacturing Execution System (MES) has become an integrated part by helping companies transform digitally. Manufacturing Execution System serves as a single platform for the entire factory. MES comes with different modules like Production, Quality, Maintenance, etc. The advantage of having different modules is that it gives unique value to the customer, further helping manufacturers to achieve the goal of digital transformation.

This module allows Users to optimize production quality through strategic planning and monitoring and Maintenance Personnel to maintain critical assets based on real-time data. By keeping it modular, deployment of MES can be customized as per requirement and executed easily in phases. Further, it lets the company test the waters with low investment, thereby realizing ROI within months from the deployment of the first phase of the project, while the other modules are still under development. Our experience shows that the customers are more focused towards deploying the Production module. While this might work for few industries, having a healthy equipment is equally important to drive the efficiency in any manufacturing set up. Over 75% of the industries are taking more than 20 months to breakeven (BEP) and one of the reasons for the delay is low prioritization of maintenance module.

We are seeing a shift in the approach of deployment post-Covid pandemic. Now industries are inclined to give equal importance towards maintenance related activities. We are seeing many industries are specifically asking for Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Basically, this shift is because of the long pause of all the equipmentā€™s due to pandemic. After the relaxation of the lockdown, most of the companies are facing challenges in using the assets efficiently. Hence Maintenance in MES has become a driving force for many industries to be flexible and at the same time effective and efficient.

Once the production started post lockdown, many challenges were faced by companies- few of them are equipment health status, estimating the effort in identifying the problem and fixing it. Usually, most of the effort invested by the maintenance team member was on what the problem is and what tool to be used to fix it. Few companies also have an issue on the prioritization of the problem. This challenge is leading to the realization of maintenance module within MES. Value of Maintenance Module is taking heights due to many reasons, listed below are few:

• Clear visibility on the downtime with reason code: Line operators will have a provision to register the downtime with small description along with specific reason code. This helps maintenance personnel understand and get prepared to solve the problem before coming to line. This has helped industries to minimize the response time leading to improved productivity. Maintenance personnel will also be able to put details of the defect steps taken which will help in keeping the record of health of the equipment.
• Real-time visibility of the downtime: Andon System will help the maintenance team to easily identify the station which is under breakdown. Further, the supervisor will also know in real time the time spent to make the station up and running.
• Analysis on the equipment downtime to show trend: MES can give out the data for each equipment, data like Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), Asset utilization for each equipment. This data will help to analyze the severity and will also lead to proactive approach in solving the repeated issues.
• Predictive Maintenance: Moving towards the predictive maintenance has become very important. MES provides predictive maintenance capability, when configured it can monitor machines and trigger alerts so that work is only done when necessary.
• Autonomous Maintenance: A very critical step towards achieving Total Productive maintenance (TPM). Itā€™s an activity which operator does before starting the production in that station/equipment. Operator will go through each checkpoint of the checklist to check if values are within limits. This ensures the equipment availability thereby helping to reduce the downtime within the shifts. MES provides this functionality in more simplified way, which can be traced in real time.

Today’s fast-paced manufacturing environment demands complete, accurate and accessible data from the shop floor at the equipment level. Maintenance module within MES system will provide effective monitoring and synchronization throughout the factory to achieve high productivity and ensure responsiveness to market demand. To know more on the product please fill free to connect with us, we can guide you towards your digital transformation.

Author:

Vishal S. Arya
Principal Consultant
BCG, 91¶¶Ņõ

Nishant Jain
Associate Consultant

The post Leveraging MES Maintenance Module for higher productivity appeared first on 91¶¶Ņõ.

Imagine you are buying a few bags of potato chips to snack on. One bag has fewer chips than expected; the chips do not match the weight mentioned on the package. You will be disappointed. You will either complain to the manufacturer or simply stop trusting the brand. Worse, you could take to social media to express your anger, affecting the broader reputation of the brand. If there are a few extra chips in the bag, you will not mind it. But those extra chips can quickly add up to massive losses for the manufacturer. Either way, not controlling the grammage of products leads to unwelcome outcomes. This is not a new problem for the F&B industry. But new solutions are now available to contain and practically eliminate-the problem.

Variances in packaged food products is expected. The manufacturer of a 78 g bag of potato chips can perhaps tolerate a variance of +/- 2 grams. But by identifying the actual variance and tracking trends, upstream and downstream systems can be improved, costs can be lowered, compliance norms can be met, waste reduced and customers kept happy by offering a more consistent product. However, usually individual checkweigher or multi head weighers and baggers are used at the packaging stage to accept/reject products for the marketā€”when it can be too late. To overcome this, the science of Extra Grammage (EGA) Optimization needs to be mastered.

The weight of packaged food products is a tricky affair. Something as simple as extra moisture in the chips or extra oil can increase the weight. The thickness of input materials (for example, potato slices, masala or salt deposition etc. ) or even the temperature of the cooking oil or frying time can cause higher or lower weights, or the vibratory nature of the manufacturing equipment can lead to variances.Ā Ā Ā 

Often the selling price of a product cannot be changed. In such cases the manufacturer must resort to controlling the weight.

EGA optimization is a latest Industry 4.0 solution integrates all weigher ā€œMachine Dataā€ & ā€œProcess Parametersā€ and where continuously monitors the trend of Underweight & Overweight Rejections and Extra Give Away of Materials.Ā  Then Auto-Insights are generated basis factual data at frequent intervals, minute level & KPIs are measured EGA%, rejections% etc. and any deviations beyond acceptable limits are alerted to respective operators to fix the production parameters causing the variance immediately, minimizing the volume of rejected products at the end of the line. The solution works for both linear and vertical manufacturing and packaging processes.Ā 

Vertical manufacturing and packaging processes need to be dealt with a little differently from linear processes (example: potato chips versus cookies). In a vertical process, the product drop happens to multiple buckets during production. The weight may vary because of product breakage or due to residual recipe material, accumulated in the assembly line, sticking to the product.

In current practice, many CPG companies have not integrated their Machine data. Right set of Analytics not used to create meaningful alerts for operators and to improve output quality. Our implementation of this solution in a large food production plant has shown significant results, that even a 1% impact is saving thousands of dollars. But this is what production plant managers will like to hear the most: ROI in our implementation was less than six months. This is a high-impact, quick-return intervention that every manufacturer must consider.

Author:

Siddaraju G,
Senior Principal Consultant,
Business Consulting Group,
91¶¶Ņõ

The post A ā€œmust-haveā€ packing weight variation control technique appeared first on 91¶¶Ņõ.