The manufacturer suffered from a critical operational blind spot due to reliance on paper records, fragmented spreadsheets, and siloed machine data. This lack of a standardized approach made it impossible to establish consistent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across their 100-plus plants. Decisions were often based on lagging financial metrics rather than on real-time shop-floor reality. This quiet chaos hindered their ability to accurately measure productivity, identify bottlenecks, or determine the true cost to serve their customers.
Business Need: The manufacturer suffered from a critical operational blind spot due to reliance on paper records, fragmented spreadsheets, and siloed machine data. This lack of a standardized approach made it impossible to establish consistent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across their 100-plus plants. Decisions were often based on lagging financial metrics rather than on real-time shop-floor reality. This quiet chaos hindered their ability to accurately measure productivity, identify bottlenecks, or determine the true cost to serve their customers.
Solution: Kinetech designed and deployed a custom Mendix-based ecosystem to serve as a strategic single source of truth. The solution focuses on Shop Floor Digitalization by securely aggregating real-time machine telemetry with crucial operator context. This creates a unified data layer that enables plant managers to monitor workcenter performance and downtime in real time. The system was built specifically to fit existing workflows, ensuring high user adoption while providing the objective data needed for proactive decision making and production scheduling.
Results: The digital transformation delivered immediate operational and financial gains. By minimizing downtime and optimizing material flow, the client realized a 20% increase in equipment throughput, essentially gaining new capacity without the cost of new machinery. The elimination of data silos has enabled a transition to a proactive management model. Leadership now utilizes clean, historical data for predictive modeling, accurate job quoting, and targeted capital investment. This project has moved the organization from subjective tracking to a disciplined, data-driven culture of continuous improvement. Full Case Study: https://www.kinetechcloud.com/case-studies/real-time-visibility-to-optimize-production