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Creating Smarter Factories with Production & Material Flow Management
Our partner supplies mechanical products and services in several industries, with business locations in over 32 countries. One of their primary areas is the automotive industry.
Industry
Manufacturing
Service
Custom Product Development
Company Size
18.000+ employees
Duration
2018 - present
Challenge
Our partner wanted a way to find and resolve issues on the production line as quickly as possible. Another important objective was to develop a way to ensure that order information is properly applied to the production process. Both goals focus on reducing production losses and optimizing the manufacturing process.
Solution
The software solution enables employees to evaluate performance by monitoring the progress of materials in their production line and by monitoring the orders execution process. The application accounts for the many specifications an order may include and helps the manufacturer ensure they are applied in production.
Impact
With an overview of individual production lines and the whole factory, managers and operators can quickly and effectively detect production issues. Furthermore, the software ensures that order-specific requirements are respected. The solution has lowered costs, increased production stability and enabled further production line optimization.
Project Overview
We started our partnership by offering consultation in the planning phase and were actively involved in the requirements analysis and in user stories definition. Through several workshops and close collaboration, we contributed to defining the project's scope. Additionally, the team defined and implemented the automatization of several processes, such as automation testing.
As we went through the software development life cycle (Design, Development, Deployment, Quality Management, and Support), we applied an Agile methodology and constantly improved our Way of Working. We collaborated with cross-functional teams in several countries, so maintaining strong communication and coordination was a priority from the beginning.
The developed solution provides staff with the necessary tools to check the progress of various components on the production line. This enables them to monitor performance, identify fault scenarios, and have a historical overview of production performance and optimization opportunities. Moreover, we’ve implemented a simplified configuration mechanism for users to reduce system setup for products made to order.
Results
During our collaboration, we have registered close to 100 product innovations within our partner’s R&D division, including solutions to monitor production lines, factories, and the order fulfilment process. As a result, the company can now identify production issues faster and with more accuracy. As errors during production became rarer and less severe.
We also contributed to our partner winning three awards for their comprehensive software portfolio for intelligent production and digitalization of the industrial production process:
"Industry 4.0 Innovation Award" 2021
"Excellent Supplier of Intelligent Equipment Management Solutions for China's Automobile Industry" 2021
“The Automotive News PACE Award” 2022