The "Big 5" Automotive eXcellence Solutions
Automotive Factory Floor Today
The automotive manufacturing industry proves a challenging environment for the deployment of shop floor software. Data demands are robust, legacy systems must be considered, changes to processes and software interfaces require costly retraining, deadlines are tight and interrupting production efficiency is not an option. Despite these very real challenges, the manufacture and assembly of precision-engineered goods simply cannot happen without the adoption of digital solutions that can facilitate and improve these processes. To help industry leaders meet these demands, Engineering Industries eXcellence presents our “Big 5” Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) solutions to improve product quality, production control and profitability in the automotive sector.
"Big 5" Automotive Solutions
1. Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a software application used to automate the planning, execution and monitoring of processes within a manufacturing environment. Typically, MES applications include a multitude of features related to nearly every facet of the factory context. The main goal of MES for automotive is simple: to improve and optimize the manufacturing and assembly process. To achieve this, MES generally focuses on 3 main areas: production planning, production execution and production monitoring.
2. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
By tracking downtimes, quality loss and productions speeds, one can quickly identify and eliminate bottlenecks that leech the profitability of a production enterprise. In the automotive industry, however, this often means tracking large amounts of data from high-speed machines, enforcing operator data entry and establishing a system of checks and balances to ensure data integrity. Our OEE products and consulting can provide all of this in an integrated solution with thorough analysis capabilities.
3. Material Tracking & Tracing
It is crucial, and indeed difficult, for a large production plant to have accurate visibility on incoming raw materials/purchased parts, intermediate parts in process and finished goods for shipping. Having an accurate count of available goods, as well as an accurate manufacturing history of every assembled part, can save an automotive production plant the high costs of warehousing and recall that can potentially destroy the profitability of an entire fiscal year.
4. Manufacturing Quality Control
Defect and quality tracking in the automotive industry is one of the most demanding fields in enterprise software. A quality suite must be flexible enough to conform to various plant inspection, rework and scrapping procedures, yet remain rigid enough to enforce the process and collect the required data. It is not enough to simply classify, repair and track defects; quality data must be collected and contextualized in a way that allows for the identification of preventable issues.
5. Statistical Process Analysis
Statistical Process Control, or SPC, provides trend analysis tools that can work hand-in-hand with quality control software to detect and classify a drifting process. These tools are by no means new to the automotive industry; however, modern MES software provides advantages with which the statistical analysis of the past cannot contend – real-time drift detection and corrective action. By collecting data from the automation layer at a high speed and plotting data in real time, plants can now detect a process that is drifting out of specification before defective parts are produced. Moreover, corrective action management allows for a systematic handling of these drifts to enable top quality production to continue more quickly.
Starting Your Digital Journey
To remain competitive, automotive enterprises and suppliers must maximize the efficiency and quality of their resources without incurring additional costs. To be sure, success implementing technology solutions in such situations requires careful planning and the contributions of knowledgeable experts with years of experience. Engineering Industries eXcellence employs technical specialists and business process consultants with a wealth of experience designing, implementing and integrating the entire spectrum of digital manufacturing solutions for automotive leaders worldwide. Let us join you on your digital transformation journey to make the future of industry possible.
