Rexam focuses on quality at all European production plants with Lighthouse Systems MES software

Challenges

Like all can makers, Rexam (now Ball) must continuously improve the yield from raw materials (steel and aluminium coils) without affecting quality.

The manufacturer needed a Manufacturing Execution System that would enable them to standardise quality procedures and compare performance and production issues across all 19 factories. Rexam chose Shopfloor-Online MES for its extensive functionality to help them to improve process capability and achieve these objectives.

Shopfloor-Online^TM MOM Software

Number of manufacturing plants: 19

Shopfloor-Online interfaces with the ERP and all plant equipment and applications across 19 European plants. It brings production statistics, information from individual machines, stock data, maintenance records, staff levels and workflow schedules into one place that is accessible to all.

Quality Control & SPC (Statistical Process Control)

Shopfloor-Online implements the quality control plan. Operators perform quality checks as defined in the MES system for each production order in progress, automatically downloaded from the ERP.

The system detects trends and alerts operators and quality managers of out of specification / out of control measurements detected by the SPC module.

Conformance certificates are easily produced on demand.

Product Traceability

Shopfloor-Online provides traceability software that tracks inventory and usage from raw materials to finished goods on pallets.

Downtime monitoring

Downtime events are recorded directly from the each machine into ShopfloorOnline MES, providing a complete picture of the prodution process and enabling improved downtime analysis.

Key Benefits

• Real-time visibility across all 19 plants: quality, stock, production and performance data is consistent and available in one place accessible via a web-based application
• Reporting: role-based views are available to executives, managers and operators
• Compliance: the ability to instantly produce conformance certificates for customers on request (a task that previously took 30 minutes), and provide rigorous audit trails in under 2 hours
• Capability: key process parameters are known and can be compared across plants, helping to drive improvement initiatives

About Rexam

Rexam (now Ball) is a leading global beverage can maker.