Among industrial companies, the competition for the “Factory of the Year/Global Excellence in Operations” award is considered one of the toughest benchmark competitions in Europe.
Manufacturing companies from all sectors often work towards this prize, which has been awarded by A. T. Kearney, a leading international management consultancy, since 1991, for years. Diehl Controls in Wangen can now call itself the 2015 overall winner. The company impressed the jury with its transparent and fully automated production line. The FASTEC 4 PRO MES system made a decisive contribution to this success.
Diehl Controls is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electronic components for the household appliance industry (appliances) and hardware and software as well as backend solutions for intelligent energy management systems in buildings.
Decision in Favour of FASTEC Due to the High Flexibility of the MES
The go-ahead for the introduction of an MES system at Diehl Controls in Wangen was given in 2009, when the in-house developed system “My MDA”, which had been used until then, was to be replaced by a commercial MES system due to the high costs and personnel required to operate the system. The main reason for choosing FASTEC was the high flexibility of FASTEC 4 PRO.
The in-house developed solution meant that high-quality data was available right from the start of the project. The aim was to replace the old online monitoring system in production, which displayed cycle times and reasons for rejects. Stefan Wespel, Plant Process Manager at DCW, recalls: “Basically, we were very satisfied with our monitoring view at the time and acceptance among employees was also high. We therefore had very specific requirements that FASTEC had to implement. Although the new monitoring view now looks almost identical, it offers us significantly more options.” Thomas Schelke adds: “It should also be mentioned that the online monitoring was ready for use on the first line after the first week that FASTEC was with us.”
Stefan Wespel continues: “At the beginning, we didn’t use the FASTEC system as intensively as we do today – partly because we weren’t yet fully aware of FASTEC’s potential. The endeavour to continue developing our production in the direction of Industry 4.0 led us to take a close look at this tool. We have used it to make production more transparent and the preparation of data easier and more comprehensible for everyone, so that everyone can work with it without any problems. The system has paid off for us, especially in recent years, because we can use it in a large number of departments and adapt it flexibly to the requirements of the departments. Monitoring has become indispensable for our production today.”
Hard work wins awards: “Factory of the Year 2015”
Karl-Heinz Gerdes, Managing Director at FASTEC, congratulates the Diehl Controls team on winning the award: “When it comes to the benefits of MES systems, there’s one thing you can’t lose sight of: Productivity does not improve by itself just because you now measure the OEE value. The basic prerequisite for the successful introduction of an MES system and the profitability of the investment are committed employees who deal intensively and regularly with the data supplied and thus continuously improve performance. There is no doubt that Diehl Controls in Wangen would not have made it to Factory of the Year 2015 without the strong commitment, perseverance and hard work. We sincerely congratulate everyone involved for this diligence and extraordinary achievement and are proud to have played a small part in it.”
Full User Report
Find out more about the use of our MES system FASTEC 4 PRO by the overall winner of the “Factory of the Year 2015” competition Diehl Controls in our case study.