Tier 1 automotive system of a global group, with four plants in Brazil and production and logistics operating on the same platform.

The Brazilian operation of a global Tier 1 automotive systems group has four plants in four states. The relationship with Sequor began with a project structured by the client for three fronts at the same time: two factories in one city and a line in another. The company delivered its own specification and survey of equipment for each factory, with a defined objective: collecting the signal from the machines, controlling production and stops and calculating OEE on a common basis for the plants.

Sequor implemented MES Sequor with factory floor collection. The model developed in one of the plants became the client's standard, and that plant later hired LES Sequor, which uses the same platform for logistics, from reception to packing slip. Subsequently, the client contracted for the replication of the standard in a third plant, integrated with another ERP. The solution is in production and continues to expand, with new lines in the three plants that use MES, internal traffic control contracted for two other plants and a support contract that currently covers the four units. On the factory floor, it is the system that records what each machine produces, when it stops and why, and that reports this production to the plant's ERP.

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The starting point was to give management a common reading of production in different factories. The client needed to calculate OEE, control production and downtime and generate reports and dashboards from two sources: the signal from the machines and the notes made by the operators. The design also provided for collection to continue functioning when the corporate network or station computer became unavailable, so that production and stops would not go unrecorded in the meantime.

The second challenge was one of scale. Each plant has its own machine park and ERP, and two of the plants use different ERPs. Taking the MES to a new unit without rebuilding the system required a standard capable of accepting another ERP and another set of machines while maintaining the same production, downtime and quality logic. In the third plant, the terminal still needed to report intermediate and final production to the ERP, print labels and record the weight of the scales.

In the logistics of the plant that served as a model, there are two operations, After Market and Factory, which involve physical and fiscal receipt, storage, production, shipping and packing slip. Before contracting the system, the client carried out a 30-day requirements and business analysis, with interviews with Process Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, IT, supervisors, leaders and operators, to define how MES and LES would be implemented. The improvements mapped in this analysis changed the scope of the LES. With the system present in four plants, support also needed to cover all of them.

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Sequor organized the delivery on four fronts on the same platform.

Collection and execution. A PLC installed next to each machine reads the operating states: manual, automatic, stop, in cycle, in alarm, OK part and NOK part. The PLC stores up to a day of data, so the collection is not lost if the network or computer goes down. At the collection terminal, the operator logs in, consumes the production order, justifies stoppages hour by hour and reports quality. The MES Sequor modules run on this basis: production and stoppage control, OEE, quality checklist, CEP, tool control, GED, skills matrix with PPE and TPM checklist. The TPM has an interlock: the equipment does not come into operation if the checklist is not executed. Andon shows indicators and calls from the help chain on TVs on the factory floor, and the person responsible receives each call by email. The initial scope included 60 collection terminals and 61 Andons on the three fronts, with separate data, application and service servers at each site.

Replicable standard. In the third plant, MES was introduced as a roll-out of the model plant standard, including reports and dashboards. The only new development was the integration with the local ERP, which now delivers to the MES the same information that the other plants' ERP delivers. The scope included 23 collection terminals with badge reader and scanner, 25 machines integrated by PLC, 19 of them in high-level communication via Ethernet via a proprietary integration component from Sequor, 10 Andons, label printers and scales, with production reported to the ERP directly from the terminal. More recently, the client contracted the extension of the same system to five stations on other lines of the plant.

Logistics on the same platform. In the model plant, LES Sequor covers After Market and Factory operations: concierge, physical and tax receipt, WMS, sales forecast, planning, production, shipping and packing slip. The scope, with an execution period of 18 months, included 121 terminals, including Android and Windows industrial tablets with barcode reader that serve both the LES and MES, 13 Andons, label printers and the integration of 42 PLCs supplied by the customer. MES and LES run on the same platform and exchange data via an integration API. Afterwards, the client hired the LES Internal Traffic Control module for two other plants, which records the entry and exit of vehicles, makes the vehicle checklist with photos in a mobile application and supports the launch of invoices in the ERP.

Support. Support follows an SLA contract structured in ITIL practices, with a ticket system to which the customer has viewing access, monthly incident reports and root cause analysis of critical incidents when requested. A development technician resides at the model plant and the other plants are serviced remotely, with an emergency response time defined per plant. The contract currently covers all four units.

Each profile uses a part of the same base. The operator points out production, stops and quality at the terminal and runs the TPM checklist, and at the third plant he enters with the badge and prints the product label at the station itself. Key users and managers have reports, Andon web and dashboards on the web and mobile phones. In logistics, concierge, receiving and shipping operate with tablets and barcode readers. The system was expanded in waves, and each expansion included its own scope on the already installed system, with new casting, painting, assembly, machining, alternators, connectors, injection molding and HVAC lines, in addition to the After Market warehouse.

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• Unique MES standard between plants: the third plant received the model plant system, with reports and dashboards, and the only new development was the integration with the local ERP.
• Integration with different ERPs, with intermediate and final production reported directly from the terminal in the plant that uses a different ERP from the others.
• Automatic collection of the state of the machine and the OK or NOK part by the PLC, with a one-day buffer that prevents data loss when the network or computer becomes unavailable.
• Justified stops at the station, hour by hour, and help chain with a call on Andon and an email to the person responsible, which leaves the recorded reason for the stops with management.
• Maintenance and qualification within the workflow: the TPM prevents the machine from operating without a checklist, and the skills matrix is accompanied by the PPE checklist.
• Production and logistics on the same platform, with LES covering everything from concierge to packing slip in two operations and exchanging data with MES via API.
• Growth without changing systems, with new lines in three plants coming into scope on the already installed platform.
• Unique support for the four plants, with a resident technician in one of them, remote support in the others, monthly incident report and root cause analysis of critical incidents.

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Collection by the PLC, with the buffer against network outages, supports OEE and stop control on each line. The standard built in the model plant made it possible to take the same system to another unit, changing only the integration with the ERP, and the same platform received the logistics of the model plant and the new lines of the three plants with MES. With a single support contract covering the four units, the customer's production and logistics operate on a common basis between plants, expanded scope by scope.