Our client is a confectionery manufacturer strengthening its presence in the competitive European market. The company operates multiple factories with progressive IT and OT development approaches.
Business Challenge
Our client aimed to build upon their existing Operational Excellence (OPEX) successes to propel their digital transformation. They encountered the challenge of fostering a closer integration between IT and production to cultivate a shared comprehension of both challenges and solutions. To enhance future competitiveness, the company wanted to optimize its production system by implementing digital tools, all while ensuring no disruption to daily operations.
The central objectives were to:
- Promote cultural change, making digitalization an opportunity for the workforce.
- Foster cooperation between IT and production departments.
- Ensure future orientation, allowing the production system to integrate relevant digitalization developments.
Approach
- Use Case-Oriented Methodology: ROI EFESO adopted a use case-oriented approach to identify and implement digital solutions that addressed specific operational challenges in the confectionery manufacturer's facilities.
- Selection of Best-Practice Examples: Leveraging best-practice examples from the food industry and other sectors, ROI EFESO tailored digitalization strategies to the client's unique operational context, ensuring practicality and effectiveness.
- Integration of Digital Tools: They integrated digital tools across three focus areas: improving factory processes, enhancing employee efficiency, and establishing transparency in production system performance.
- Alignment with Industry Standards: Utilizing the "Industry 4.0 pyramid" as a reference model, ROI EFESO ensured that all digitalization initiatives aligned with global industry standards for connectivity, information flow, and predictive capabilities.
Key Success Factors
- A common understanding of the initial situation and requirements; in addition to the IT and production perspective, employees from quality management were also involved.
- The targeted improvement of the OpEx elements and the elimination of losses, for example in the use of additives or the production of base materials.
- A clear elaboration and communication of the "core" of digitalization, in particular through the creation of use cases and their economic benefits.
- Empowering employees to continuously develop the production system. This relates to both the content of the training measures and the training tools used.
- The use of new technologies enhanced, not hinder, daily production. In the project, we promoted solutions that increased the maturity level of digitalization in all areas of activity.
Main Results
Our close collaboration ensured that the digitalization of the shop floor did not slow down the day-to-day business in production. Instead, it accelerated it and transferred it to connected operations fields. As a result, the company now leverages its production system as a catalyst to drive forward the digitalization successes already achieved. The combination of Operational Excellence / Lean and Industry 4.0 elements continues to provide the guiding framework.
- Achieved improvements in OPEX routines through digital tools, enhancing manufacturing and production system performance transparency.
- Implemented digitalization initiatives across 10 operational areas, resulting in significant advancements in factory processes, employee efficiency, and production system transparency.
- Enhanced shift handover effectiveness and root cause analysis with a digital logbook, reduced maintenance lead times through smartwatch documentation, and improved employee training efficiency with web-based modules contributing to overall productivity gains
- A cultural shift within the workforce, encouraging employees to view digitalization as an opportunity to enhance daily operations rather than as an imposition.
