The sound of success

A digital platform for production is an important piece of the puzzle and a tool on the journey towards Industry 4.0 and 5.0 for manufacturing companies.

MES systems are at the heart of production and are central to enabling Industry 4.0 by integrating and automating production processes. As a tool for digital transformation towards the smart factory, this type of system helps to connect machines, people and peripheral systems. By collecting and analyzing real-time data, they improve the productivity, quality and flexibility of manufacturing processes. They also enable predictive maintenance and resource optimization, reducing downtime and increasing efficiency.

For companies aiming for Industry 5.0, MES systems play an important role by supporting and coordinating human-machine collaboration. They also facilitate sustainability monitoring and reporting under the CSRD directive, for example, and help companies to monitor their use of resources and reduce their energy consumption and environmental impact. Digital production platforms and MES/MOM solutions integrate automation with human expertise, making companies better equipped to innovate, focus on customers, and address new challenges and rapid changes towards smarter and more sustainable production.

When it comes to the digitization of business functions in manufacturing companies, the main focus is on these four areas: quality, production, inventory and maintenance.

Digging deeper into the production perspective, these are: Production planning (planning and scheduling), Material flows and manufacturing flows (routing), Resource management (personnel, authorizations, etc.), equipment and machine status, product information, release, quality management (quality checks, SPC, yield, rejects, rework), production follow-up (stop motion analysis, equipment availability, OEE), data collection (machine hook-ups, manual input, sensor, IIOT, etc.), inventory (warehouse, truck transportation, material buffers, inventory, QR and barcode counting), automation and control systems.

Some key technologies include:

• Production planning and scheduling from customer order to delivery (meeting delivery dates, managing changes in production based on material and machine availability and actual outcome per operation).
• MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems): For real-time monitoring and control of production processes.
• IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things): to connect machines and collect data.
• Big Data and AI: To collect and analyze large amounts of data and improve production processes and decision-making (e.g. quality checks with AI or analysis of large amounts of process data)
• Automation and Robotics: To automate manual processes.
• Digital Twins: To quickly create digital copies of the production process and see the impact of changes digitally before they are introduced in reality.

In order to have traceability throughout production and the possibility to act and coordinate production in real time, the following data is in focus:

• Production data: Data on production speed, cycle times, and machine performance.
• Quality data: Data on defects, recalls and quality checks.
• Maintenance data: Data on machine maintenance and downtime.
• Sales data: Data on orders, sales trends and customer feedback.

OEE, which stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness, is a key performance indicator used to measure and improve the efficiency of manufacturing processes. In Swedish, the term TAK is used, which stands for Availability, Plant Utilization and Quality. OEE takes into account different types of production losses and divides them into three categories:

• Availability: Measures losses that occur due to downtime.
• Performance (Plant Utilization): Measures losses due to machines or processes running slower than the maximum speed.
• Quality: Measures losses of products that do not meet quality standards.

By combining these three factors, OEE provides an overall picture of how efficiently a manufacturing process is working. A high OEE value indicates an efficient and optimized production with minimal losses.

A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a system that monitors, controls and collects information about production processes in real time. MES systems help ensure efficiency and quality by integrating and optimizing both processes and information from all areas of production. This type of system becomes the heart of production, helping to coordinate and optimize production activities to improve quality, efficiency and profitability.

• Production planning and scheduling
• Resource and material management
• Production monitoring and control
• Quality management
• Traceability
• Work order management
• Operator management and digital work instructions
• Performance analysis and production monitoring
• Reports and dashboards with real-time production data
• Integration with ERP and peripheral systems