Multi-machine continuous production lines are very common in factories that base their activity on bottling or packaging of finished products. To enhance their management and obtain an accurate calculation of indicators such as OEE, Mapex has created a new package. Discover it in this article.
At Mapex we know that having reliable and detailed information about the performance and efficiency of a factory is essential to drive continuous improvement.
We are also aware that certain industrial companies find it a little more difficult to monitor their production processes accurately and to calculate important indicators such as OEE and the productivity of their workers.
We are thinking, for example, of bottling factories, which have very complete production lines involving a set of sequentially ordered machines: unscramblers, fillers, labelers, case packers, etc.
For this type of manufacturer, we have developed a new solution, now available on the Mapex MES platform. Below, we explain the main functionalities of the package for the management of continuous flow production on multi-machine lines.
How does the management of multi-machine continuous production lines work at Mapex?
Our MES system allows the configuration of multi-machine continuous production lines, in which the different work centers are defined (main machine, initial, final, etc.), routes (depending on the product, a production order can go through different machines) and productivity according to line, route and product.
From here, the plant operator can visualize on the same screen all the work centers that make up the line and see their status in real time: production, setup, stoppage, maintenance, etc.
This provides immediate visibility of the status of the production line and each of its stations without having to move around the line, and allows decisions to be made more quickly and with reliable information.
In addition, the operator can also open the details of each of the machines and perform quality controls, allocate consumption and production, etc.
Finally, the Mapex MES system is able to provide real-time KPIs at two levels: for the production line as a whole, and also for each of its stations or machines (OK units, scrap, operator times, etc.).
Data to drive continuous improvement
Thanks to the Mapex solution, companies that work with continuous multi-machine production lines have the possibility of implementing logic to justify the stoppages detected at the stations, based on signals obtained at each station that feed a logic algorithm that learns from the different cases detected.
On the other hand, our MES platform provides other very important indicators such as OEE. In this case, the system offers manufacturers:
- OEE for each machine: all work centers have their own OEE.
- OEE of the line: is the OEE defined by the main machine while the production order is in production.
- Consolidated OEE: once the production order has been closed, Mapex calculates and displays this percentage.
The consolidated OEE can be viewed in the work center reports generated by the MES software. These also show the consolidated operator time, which is the sum of the times of all the workers who have participated in the process.
If you would like more information about this package or about our solutions for the bottling or packaging of processed products, please do not hesitate to contact us by filling out this form.
