As automotive makers get ready to roll the 2008 models off their lines, Tier 1 suppliers, such as Martinrea International Inc., are pushing the pedal to the metal in their own factories to keep pace with their customers. It's difficult to drive production, however, when you don't have a clear view of data traffic moving through the factory.
Martinrea, a maker of metal parts and assemblies, such as engine chassis, was always able to meet its customers' needs, even when their product volumes increased unexpectedly. But doing so often meant overtime and sometimes downtime, if production systems were pushed too hard. These inefficiencies, resulting from a lack of data to measure overall equipment efficiency (OEE), cost money.
To offset that trend, the engineering department at Martinrea's Hopkinsville, KY, facility (formerly ThyssenKrupp Budd) in 2002 went looking for a solution. They needed a way to consolidate manual processes and paperwork. What they quickly realized was that the project, which would automate and capture all the data related to machinery failure, faults, and downtime events, would impact much more than just the factory floor, as the data collected could be used to send electronic reports to the ERP system or to keep track of historical information to improve Six Sigma projects, and it could even help manage workforce schedules.
So what started five years ago as a simple project to get a better handle on factory floor inefficiencies quickly morphed into a mandate to gather data for better decision-making. "This is a progressive, continuous improvement of systems to make them more efficient," says Darren Allison, IT manager at the Martinrea plant who led the data integration effort.
Martinrea used technology from Rockwell Automation and Microsoft to build a system that could not only collect OEE information, but also deliver it to engineers and business managers alike in an easy-to-understand format. The payoff came in the form of the ability to execute more than 11.5 million data collection transactions per day — with an extremely small IT team — and a 50% increase in factory productivity. The bigger-picture benefit, however, was that the company could easily respond to the demands of large automakers.
This project to transform factory reports from a manual, paper-pushing process to an electronic automated data collection system that empowers the company to make better business decisions gained Martinrea recognition as Managing Automation's Progressive Manufacturing High Achiever in the category of Data & Integration Mastery.
According to PM judge Paul Martin, group CIO at Rexam plc, the project ranked high because Martinrea deployed technology that helps the business and executed the project within the confines of a high-speed production environment that leaves little room for error. "I liked the Martinrea program because they face the same type of issues Rexam faces in a high-speed production environment where downtime is not an option," he says. "It is difficult to raise OEE, but to use IT to increase OEE and productivity by 50% is outstanding. That impacts the bottom-line profitability."
One reason Martinrea chose Rockwell is that it offered support on top of the technology. "We have a small shop as far as IT goes," Allison says, noting that at the time of the deployment, he was the only person managing the data collection process for 50 to 100 machines. "We wanted a self-sufficient system that, once in place, did not require a lot of hands-on from IT."
Rockwell's FactoryMetrics software was installed to collect the OEE data, including production counts and event-based reporting. And a Web-based reporting system built on Microsoft SQL Server translates to the corporate side of the business. "Ninety percent of users utilizing the system are office personnel and management who are used to the Microsoft world," Allison says. The SQL Server engine pulls information from FactoryTalk Metrics and uses the SQL Server Reporting Services to report the data "so users can be in that Microsoft comfort zone."
The technology is tied tightly to Martinrea's Six Sigma methodology, Allison says, enabling engineers to resolve problems more quickly by giving them immediate access to historical data about each machine. "If a customer request comes in to increase production by 50%, we are able to look at the machinery and determine if it is feasible," Allison explains.
By bringing the machines up to their highest efficiency, operators don't have to work overtime. As work flexibility and workflow increase, Martinrea can start to think about the next step. At the Hopkinsville facility, where volume averages from 10,000 to 13,000 parts per day, Martinrea is evaluating Rockwell's Production Centre MES product, which will add shop floor genealogy and product traceability, from raw materials to finished goods.
The technology was the easy part of the project, Allison says. The more difficult part was getting buy-in from managers who have to "agree that data is a value-add that, when utilized to make business decisions, will improve processes," he says. For success, at least 85% of the management must be on board.
Once Allison got the go-ahead he needed from upper management, he was unprepared for the culture clash that ensued between the engineering and IT groups. To offset the potential problems associated with territorial ownership, Allison created common ground by building a converged IT/engineering group working specifically on the shop floor. It's a matter of defining roles and ensuring that everyone understands their job, he says.
But the biggest takeaway from this project is to think outside the box. "Never underestimate the flexibility of a system just because of what a sales brochure shows you," Allison says. Martinrea pushed the FactoryTalk Metrics application beyond what people expected it to do. "The perception is that it does OEE data collection, but we collected everything from repairs to operator log-on."
But that is not as easy as it sounds. "To standardize reporting, provide a real-time common view into the plant floor operations, and manage 11.5 million transactions per day is not easy," Rexam's Martin says.