Client Goal

The system was designed to accomplish the following manufacturing goals:

1. Automate product work order tracking and posting to an existing manufacturing resource planning (MRP) system
2. Replace all paper-based forms used for quality control, production reporting, production procedures, safety management, and work-in-process (WIP) accounting with an electronic system
3. Create a plant wide historian for process production and efficiency data 

Project Overview

Robroy Industries is a world leader in the manufacture of polyvinyl coated electrical equipment.  For more than 100 years, they’ve protected electrical equipment in some of the most challenging environments on earth. They started with a highly labor-intensive production process burdened by redundant data entry, poor visibility into production issues and work in process (WIP) inventory, and inordinately high levels of scrap and rework.  Tegron set out to develop a world class Manufacturing Execution System (MES) that would result in a completely integrated, distributed, flexible and collaborative production system. 

Tegron successfully created a completely web-based MES, consisting of the following:

• Warehouse Managemet System Interface
• Material (WIP) Tracking
• Work Order Processing
• Barcode Generation
• Quality Assurance
• Efficiency Tracking
• Data Historian
• Report Generation
• Plant Monitoring
• Control System Integration
• Timekeeping Software Interface
• Plantwide LCD Based Dashboard Displays

The client’s manufacturing facility uses both automatic and manual production methods for linear and work cell processes.  Because of the mix of production methods the MES required well designed modular human and machine interfaces.  In keeping with Tegron’s core design philosophy, a modular solution architecture was chosen to accomplish the client’s goals.

To accomplish the first manufacturing goal of an automated order tracking system with integration to an existing MRP, a .NET based module was utilized to track plant labor and quantities of good, scrap, and reworked product.  Tegron’s module interfaces with the plant’s manufacturing resource planning system (MRP) and indirectly with the plant’s inventory management system.  Real-time information within the plant’s control system is collected using standard OPC technologies. The selected module included data buffering and data context technologies.  A unified web portal called plantWorkflow was created to allow plant supervisors to view work order postings and the status of all work orders.  Tegron implemented a barcode system for work order generation and product tracking as well. The architecture also included a single uniform data entry portal for use on the plant floor. 

The second manufacturing goal was to eliminate all paperwork and create a web based reporting system.  This portion of the system allows users to create, modify, and submit forms within the functional areas of quality, production reporting, production procedures, safety, and maintenance.  The modules used to accomplish this goal integrate with a supervisory module that provides workflow and work order management for the client.  As a result, the submission, review, and storage of all form-based data is facilitated and controlled to ensure that all areas of the facility operate exactly as commissioned by the client’s management team.
A data historian was created to accomplish manufacturing goal number three.  Tegron’s MES provides a central repository of all process and historical data..  As with the other modules mentioned earlier, the production data modules are tightly integrated with the overall plant workflow management module so that process information is not only collected but acted upon. 

Scope of Supply

Tegron provided full front-end services for this project, which included a full-scale plant audit and functional requirements process to set the goals for the project and critical functionality for the system the project would create. 
 
Tegron provided end-to-end project implementation services, including:

• Project Management
• Functional Requirements Specification (FRS) Development
• Database Design and Optimization
• PC and PLC Software Design and Development
• Network Design and Documentation
• Electrical Systems Design and Documentation
• Network, Control, and Operator Interface Panel Fabrication
• Electrical and Network Installation Supervision and Vendor Management
• System Commissioning and Training
• Remote monitoring and post project support of the MES. 

The Outcome

Tegron’s implementation of this MES has directly impacted the client’s bottom line with the following tangible business results:

1. Supervisory personnel now spend time in direct management of the manufacturing process as opposed to redundant data entry and data validation.
2. Customer support personnel and facility management now have critical, real-time information about customer orders that allows them to make better decisions.
3. Several employees have been redirected from collecting process and personnel efficiency information to improving process and personnel efficiency by using information provided by the new system.
4. Training of new employees has been streamlined by the document management and workflow portions of the new system.
5. The client now employs a single, shared MES platform, including operators, production management, plant management, quality, maintenance and finance.
6. The system has easily expandable functionality for future added business or operations functions.
7. With the new MES in place, the client has streamlined and upgraded its production process to match the level of quality of the product(s) it manufactures, providing the added competitive advantage they desired.