We know the challenges faced by many companies and various industries from our daily experience. Efficient use of resources is essential nowadays. Digitalization can make a major contribution to increasing material efficiency – both directly during production, during packaging or simply through paperless production.
Many customers wished they had taken the path to digital production years ago.
In individual sectors such as plastics, metal processing or the chemical and electrical industries, the savings potential was already estimated to be between five and eleven billion euros per year a few years ago (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy*) – unfortunately, this will not be much better today. According to a study* published in 2019, the food industry generates 2.2 million tons of waste per year from food processing in Germany alone. In times of Fridays for Future, constant global warming and the *Agenda 2030, this is too much and must be improved.
With rising prices and the finite availability of raw materials, waste avoidance is increasingly becoming a key issue for our customers – and for industry in general.
Step by Step to Digital, Sustainable Production
Where does production come to a standstill? How can processes be made more efficient, the material flow improved and waste reduced? Unfortunately, many companies do not recognize the potential for optimization in their production. Manual data acquisition is error-prone, incomplete and non-transparent – so troubleshooting is like finding a needle in a haystack.
It is easier to digitalize production step by step on the way to the smart factory and thus gradually increase the OEE. When I explain this approach to interested parties, I often encounter a lack of understanding at first. High investment costs and difficulties in connecting machines are common arguments. I don’t find it difficult to refute these.
Some of our customers achieve a return on investment in less than 12 months. The resource savings achieved are good for the company, society and the environment. And of course we can bind machines with AND without digital machine control.
Reports Possible Far Beyond Resource Efficiency
Once implemented, an MES provides all the necessary facts for process optimization. MESs record PDA/MDA data and visualize it in real-time. Sources of error in the production process and the need for action can thus be identified at an early stage. Production management can take targeted countermeasures and completely avoid or significantly reduce rejects.
As the machine data is continuously recorded in terms of quantity and quality produced, quality management has transparent data that contributes to compliance with defined quantity and quality parameters and thus reduces material waste.
Based on my experience, I can say that there is potential for optimization in every company once the causes of waste have been identified.
Digitalized production can make a major contribution to increasing material efficiency and thus to more sustainable production. Our modular MES software solution FASTEC 4 PRO is the right tool for this.