Top 10 MES Benefits for Metal Fabricators
Customization and complexity are the two major challenges routinely faced by the metal fabrication industry. But maintaining end-to-end precision and efficiency is becoming increasingly difficult with traditional tools, given market pressures. ?With MES benefits ranging from intelligent resource allocation to real-time work-in-process tracking, sheet metal fabricators are fast adopting MES solutions for improved productivity.
In a customized production set up, tasks like managing inventory, matching production schedules with tight timelines, costs and time-taken-to-manufacture are all critical to production efficiencies. But, implementing lean practices can be challenging and this is where MES plays its enabling role. It helps keep production on track with data-backed insights and real-time visibility into operations.
The need for implementation of MES in metal fabrication
MES bridges the gap between the shop floor and managerial levels, creating a cohesive and synergistic workflow across metal fabrication units. In an environment where materials transition through multiple stages, right from material allocation to final finishes, efficiency gains from MES adoption proved an winning edge.
Top 10 MES Benefits for Metal Fabricators
1. Enhanced production efficiencies
With MES, metal fabricators can get opportunities to proactively manage production bottlenecks and handle last-minute changes effectively. MES provides clear visibility of production, enabling quick, informed decision-making.
Some systems incorporate predictive analytics for proactive planning as well. Integration with ERP and SCM systems offers a holistic view of manufacturing, aiding in managing sudden changes. Automated scheduling adjustments to demand shifts or disruptions, and real-time quality control boosts efficiency and product quality. In essence, MES equips manufacturers with the necessary tools for proactive management.
2. Real-time visibility into operations
By continually monitoring and recording data on live and scheduled jobs, machine performance, material usage, and operator productivity, MES provides a clear and up-to-date picture of the plant floor.
Plant heads and supervisors can easily identify bottlenecks, adjust the fabrication sequence, and even re-route jobs to alternative machines. It brings agility to production processes, accommodating last-minute changes in work orders or design modifications without compromising on throughput.
Any issues across the production lines can be tracked and resolved easily. With readily available historic and current data, anomalies can be identified. If there are any process issues, the root causes can be pinpointed and eliminated.
3. Improved productivity
By leveraging automation and improved manufacturing processes with MES smaller players can catch up to their larger peers in the industry. By eliminating manual data entry and providing real-time visibility into operations, MES also frees operators to focus on value-adding tasks. It synchronizes production stages, minimizing delays and ensuring efficient throughput.
Intelligent workflows within MES can analyze machine and user efficiency in real-time by monitoring critical KPIs. They can identify and highlight high-performing machines and operators from low performing ones. This data essentially drives informed decisions for task assignments and machine usage.
Furthermore, MES optimizes production routes by analyzing data to determine the most efficient sequence of operations. This minimizes your total production time, maximizes throughput, and improves lead times.
4. Increased overall efficiency
Enhanced resource efficiencies can be achieved through multiple ways. One way is by ensuring machines, materials, and labor are used optimally, mitigating waste and downtime. With data- backed insights, you can take prompt decisions and prevent wasted time.
Agility, which is one of the core requirements of custom manufacturers in a customer-driven market, you need up-to-the-minute insights. Visibility on a granular level means better and more reliable insights and also higher confidence in decision making. MES drives this confidence across decision makers to ensure that idle time is reduced, changes and reworks are minimized, and safety is prioritized.
5. Intelligent sequencing and scheduling
In custom metal fabrication, where processes are diverse and intricate, MES provides a single point of control. By centralizing tasks like work order release, planning production, and sequencing machine operations, MES optimizes production operations from the initial raw material handling to the final finishing process. It results in a streamlined production with the most economical man-material movement across the shop floor. This reduces time and efforts and over throughput is enhanced.
In a custom job shop, operators often lose parts across the shop floor and face pressures in locating the inventory at the last moment. MES updates and tracks different statuses of inventory like allocated, released, consumed etc. This knowledge helps plan manager know what quantities of raw material is required and can be produced at the right time.
领英推荐
6. Improved quality control
MES provides a comprehensive quality control module that integrates with inspection equipment and incorporates statistical process control (SPC) principles. It gathers historical data and current data to help analyze and spot anomalies, identify patterns and identify root causes of defects. These insights are real-time and reliable to take corrective actions for process quality controls.
Additionally, when the data is gathered for a significant period, it can be used to identify patterns and predict events. In case of a quality issue, this traceability allows manufacturers to quickly identify the source of the problem, whether it's a particular batch of raw material, a specific machine, or an operator.
7. Enhanced compliance management
With increasing regulations like ISO 9001 or ASME standards, maintaining compliance is critical. MES automatically captures and records data related to product quality, equipment calibration, and operator certifications. This data forms a crucial part of the audit trail, ensuring you are ready to trace every bit when a customer raises a query in case of surprise audits and compliance checks.
Many MES systems also have in-built vendor collaboration systems to streamline vendor management for the manufacturers. A centralized platform for all documents offers templates for raising purchase orders (PO), reconciliation of POs, invoices and receipts etc. Additionally, quick notifications and detailed reports help analyze supplier performance and manage relationships.
8. Cost savings
MES brings visibility into the consumption of raw materials like sheets, bars, and tubes, helping to reduce wastage. For instance, a well-integrated MES can optimize the nesting of parts to be cut from a sheet, thereby reducing scrap and saving costs.
With a well-maintained database of all inventories consumed in the production of any product you always know clearly the actual total of production costs. With this, you can adjust the final price and improve the margins to maintain market competitiveness. ?
9. Reduced machine downtime
MES incorporates predictive maintenance capabilities by leveraging IIoT devices, gateways and sensors. It monitors parameters like tooling wear in a punch press or temperature variations in a welding machine. The system sends alerts to the maintenance team when it identifies signs of irregularities or impending wear and tear.
With advanced tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), the data acquired through MES can be leveraged to analyze patterns. These dependencies can essentially track work across centers and help with zero breakdown operations strategy.
Such proactive approach helps in smart scheduling of maintenance activities – which can be conducted during non-productive hours, minimizing disruptions or unexpected breakdowns in the production line. Thus, MES ensures smoother operations and prolongs the life of equipment, significantly reducing machine downtime.
10. Continuous improvement through data-backed insights
An MES is pivotal in driving continuous improvement in shop floors. They gather real-time data, providing visibility into production output, machine performance, and quality metrics. A detailed analysis of this data helps identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and improvement areas. You can essentially compare pre and post implementation data to measure effectiveness and make necessary adjustment.
Furthermore, you can get all key reports and stats like OEE, schedule variance and total production quality. This not only throws insights for current situations, but also help compare key parameters at certain interval of time. You further get to set realistic goals with accurate and reliable insights.
Consequently, data-backed decisions can be made for enhancements, like preventive maintenance or operator training. MES allows measuring the effectiveness of these improvements and encourages a proactive approach by tracking trends and patterns over time. Thus, MES turns insights into actionable strategies, fostering a culture of continuous improvement in your manufacturing process.
A Case in Point: Benefits of implementing HitechDigital MES for a metal fabricator
A US-based metal fabrication company, which focuses on producing millwork items for retail food stores, faced challenges with late deliveries, increased waste, and unexpected machine downtimes. These issues stemmed from unorganized production and inventory planning, coupled with a lack of real-time data on machine efficiency.
The team at HitechDigital assessed the issue and recommended implementing MES. The team would begin engagement by organizing requirement gathering workshop with each stakeholder including plant head, supervisors, operators and the management. This would help the MES team understand the exact needs of the fabricator at each level and tailor their adoption strategy. The MES implementation would deliver:
The fabricator was able to see an improvement of up to 30% in Turnaround Time (TAT) and up to 40% reduction in unexpected machine downtime. This significantly minimized deviations from the planned schedules. Additionally, the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) was enhanced through timely predictive maintenance, preventing unexpected failures.
Conclusion
For metal fabricators aiming to boost operational efficiency, enhance productivity, and carve out a competitive edge, embracing MES is not an option but a necessity. By integrating MES into their manufacturing operations, metal fabricators can look forward to enhancing production efficiencies manifold.