Southco Gets Fit for Growth and Industry 4.0
In the age of the fourth industrial revolution—known as Industry 4.0—digital technologies are linking physical and digital worlds. Southco—an English manufacturer of engineered access hardware solutions, such as entry door latches and locks—began its global digital transformation journey over 10 years ago.
In the age of the fourth industrial revolution—known as Industry 4.0—digital technologies are linking physical and digital worlds. Southco—an English manufacturer of engineered access hardware solutions, such as entry door latches and locks—began its global digital transformation journey over 10 years ago. Epicor Advanced MES manufacturing execution software (MES) is embedded right at the heart of its manufacturing facility, linking with other smart technologies and business systems to exchange information.
Previously, we thought we were more efficient than we actually were. Working with Epicor to integrate Epicor Advanced MES into our whole ecosystem has eliminated human inaccuracies from the manufacturing supply chain and pinpointed inefficiencies.
Operations teams at Southco use Epicor Advanced MES to seamlessly blend data and production, optimizing every machine and production run to deliver superior quality products. Facilities have been transformed into smart factories by connecting software with processes to increase efficiency—all while reducing defects, downtime, and waste.
Epicor Advanced MES is linked to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the tool room, and the maintenance team, as well as the quality, planning, and production teams. It extracts and organizes data from a host of different sources into a simple dashboard that helps to support continual improvement in the manufacturing process. This information is accessible anytime, anywhere, and from any screen—including mobile devices.
By linking to an ERP system, tooling can be allocated almost immediately, meaning new production can start with minimal downtime—there is no human intervention.
By linking operations data with smart manufacturing technologies, Southco is seeing greater productivity, improved utilization of assets, and enhanced decision making.
Tobi Parker, manufacturing services manager for Southco commented, “Previously, we thought we were more efficient than we actually were. Working with Epicor to integrate Epicor Advanced MES into our whole ecosystem has eliminated human inaccuracies from the manufacturing supply chain and pinpointed inefficiencies.”
The assembly line has also been optimized. Intelligence from Epicor Advanced MES demonstrated the business was actually only benefiting from 20 percent utilization of its static assembly lines. For example, many products were previously only assembled on their own “exclusive” assembly benches. Epicor Advanced MES highlighted that in some cases, a bench would only be used for eight hours a month. Southco used this insight and deployed semi-automated plug-and-play assembly machines that are now used for multi-assembly tasks. This has pushed average bench utilization up to 60 percent.
Intelligent scheduling Epicor Advanced MES has allowed Southco to undertake intelligent scheduling in areas of manufacturing such as injection molding. It has reduced machine downtime during tool changes, allowing the lead technicians to adjust the schedule around the material types and associated barrel temperatures. This makes a big difference in shot-to-shot tool change times, as the company no longer has to wait for barrel temperatures to come down—or up—as often as before.
By simultaneously observing both production control and process control, the business can constantly improve the quality of work. For instance, before a plastic injection mold opens, the system alerts the operator as to whether the end product is good or bad. This translates into a better product for the customer, as quality monitoring is built directly into the process—rather than having to manually inspect each batch. Having more efficient production processes has enabled the business to improve all aspects of assembly and has actionable insights from data analytics.
All reporting and analysis is built around data from the Epicor Advanced MES system. Sensors flag potential quality issues before they become a problem, and the system captures, records, and makes accessible very detailed batch information for quality control.
The data Epicor Advanced MES collects enables better and faster decision making. It provides Southco with the information it needs to manage suppliers effectively and to optimize productivity. Epicor Advanced MES works together with other business systems to enable internal teams to identify where operational inefficiencies lie.
“Without Epicor Advanced MES, we’d need to employ an additional three or four manual resources inputting data every day,” Parker continued. “That’s a huge efficiency gain for us as a business, with the added bonus of increased accuracy.”
Southco management can more easily locate and analyze data to develop strategies to continue to meet their Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) standard. With 85 percent OEE being the world-class standard, Southco—which is currently operating at 75 percent OEE—has seen a marked improvement to its performance since implementing the Epicor Advanced MES system.
Epicor Advanced MES is also helping Southco prepare for and manage the growth of the business.
As Southco continues to grow, Epicor Advanced MES is helping management make smarter business decisions. Following the company’s recent acquisition of fastener manufacturer DZUS®, Southco had planned—as part of the merger—to integrate five of DZUS’s existing injection molding machines into its Worcester plant and purchase two more at around £150,000 per machine. However, after looking at the data from Epicor Advanced MES, management realized that with optimization, they would not need to purchase the additional machines—saving the business around £300,000 in capital outlay.
Training staff is also infinitely easier now that processes and guides are accessible digitally, and information sharing and communication between global offices, suppliers, and new facilities is much improved.
“Epicor Advanced MES has improved accessibility to information and training materials. We have over 24,000 individual product components, and now all of the documentation relating to those—including training guides—are digitally embedded at the heart of the business. Epicor Advanced MES makes those processes we need to remain competitive and grow far easier than ever before,” Parker concluded.
