Case Study
The Risks & Costs of Sustaining
Software Engineers–Eliminated!
The Challenge
Bedford Industries wanted to future-proof their manufacturing operation. They needed to replace their homegrown MES system with a cloud-based, secure and mobile-enabled alternative. The existing system had been developed in-house and served the business well for over thirty years. However, it required on-site IT support and a team of programmers proficient in outdated programming languages. Recruiting software engineers with expertise in these languages when possible had become cost prohibitive. Changes to the system required software development skills in legacy languages and took months to implement. It was essential that the new system could be maintained by the production team without the need for software engineers.
Why 42Q
Bedford Industries had conducted a comprehensive evaluation to select a new ERP and MES system. They wanted an industry-leading solution with access to the latest technology and cyber security. 42Q’s simple user interface was attractive. 42Q was also highly recommended by NetSuite, which Bedford had selected as their new ERP. Having successfully conducted a proof of concept with 42Q in only 3 months, Bedford Industries chose 42Q as their MES system.
Results
- 42Q, being cloud-based has eliminated the requirement to recruit software engineers with experience in outdated software languages and on-site IT hardware.
- The production team is now self sufficient in making configuration changes in hours that would previously have taken months.
- Although Bedford Industries never had a product recall, food safety regulations require mock recall testing. The lead-time to identify products which need to be recalled during the test has reduced from 6 hours to under an hour.
- Traceability has significantly improved with real-time data access.
See How Our Customers are
Transforming Their Businesses
Weir Minerals Reduces Manufacturing Lead Times by up to 30%
Weir Minerals, a part of the Weir Group plc, is a global market leader in the supply of engineered solutions and aftermarket products to the mining industry. Their customers require fast order fulfillment lead times, which are met by manufacturing products as quickly as possible within their 12 core manufacturing plants.
42Q Enables Production Readiness to Double the Volume at Comet’s Penang Facility
Comet’s facility in Penang, Malaysia needed to double the production volume of matching networks within a period of six months. While the manufacturing process itself could support the increase, the manual data collection process had reached the limits of its capability. The company needed to increase efficiency, improve quality, enhance traceability and wanted a single source of truth for all manufacturing data. They decided to implement a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and eliminate all spreadsheet and paper based processes. They also wanted the system to seamlessly integrate with their ERP system and a variety of manufacturing equipment.
Cloud MES Supports Sophisticated Automation in a High Speed, Highly-Regulated Manufacturing Environment
A global medical device manufacturer had been producing complex Class II medical devices for years, using 42Q as their MES. Now they faced the challenge of manufacturing high-volume Class III medical devices with complex, fully automated production lines. They feared that implementing advanced, high-volume automation using 42Q MES would require significant factory downtime. The new production lines required a high level of sophisticated automation and a manufacturing execution system that supported and seamlessly integrated with such systems.
Digital Factory Transformation with 35,000 Pieces of Manufacturing Equipment Connected in the Cloud
Sanmina manufactures 250 million products per year. More of a challenge is that there are over 200,000 different top-level assemblies produced each year for 700 different OEM customers with up to 20,000 forecast changes per week. The OEMs operate in diverse industries including telecommunications, enterprise computing & storage, industrial and clean technology. A significant amount of production is for medical, aerospace and automotive products with strict regulatory requirements. The existing on-premise MES required significant maintenance and upgrade effort from the IT and operations teams. It was also limited in its ability to manage supply chains beyond the walls of each factory, and was not well suited for factory automation and other IIoT initiatives.
Values & Capabilities
Delivered by Manufacturing Experts
Cloud-Based Technology
Subscription-Based Pricing
Rapid Implementation
Flexible Configuration
Multi-Plant Visibility
Traceability & Genealogy
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