In many manufacturing companies today, heterogeneous machine parks can be found. Due to the mix of new and existing equipment from various manufacturers, there are often a multitude of different controls, regulators, sensors, and other systems. Rarely are all these systems interconnected or connected to other corporate levels, so potentially available data ends up in separate archives or is never collected at all. Thus, the comprehensive overview of all influences on the production process is missing, and optimization potentials remain undiscovered.

For this reason, we at ENLYZE have developed a solution that allows for the collection, aggregation, and evaluation of all data sources in the shop-floor environment. From machine control to external plant peripherals to ERP/MES/BDE systems, we integrate all your systems into our platform. With our analysis tools, you will be able to derive targeted action recommendations and sustainably optimize your production processes.

In the following, we report on the added value of the ENLYZE digitalization solution at our customer mk Plast, where we were able to achieve significant improvements in process stabilization together.

The Company

mk Plast is a medium-sized company that operates in the field of manufacturing and processing of film products. For over 10 years, mk Plast has been digitally mapping its production through a proprietary ERP system developed for film production.

The issue: Fluctuating production processes lead to losses

At mk Plast, the following issue arises:

As in many manufacturing companies, productivity losses due to unstable processes are a daily challenge. Especially at mk Plast, this is noticeable due to the wide variety of products and the associated changeover work. Particularly affected are the complex blown film systems with a multitude of influencing factors that complicate robust operation.

With the help of our technologies, we were able to observe the complex production process at mk Plast in detail for the first time and to document all relevant process parameters from the extruder, gravimetry, and plant peripherals in the long term and in high resolution.

One of the first results was an unexpectedly high variation in production performance and product quality. These performance factors are influenced by external factors such as weather conditions, raw material usage, and worker experience. Specifically, a production performance of about 93.7% was achieved on average per month. In terms of product quality, it was noted that approximately 2 tons of film were separated for manual re-inspection each month. Overall, this resulted in an initial situation that needed improvement through targeted measures.

The Solution: Transparency of process knowledge through digital preparation for all employees

The exchange between mk Plast and ENLYZE quickly revealed that the concrete approach to improved process stability should be the supported selection of setting parameters for future production orders.

Accordingly, from the production history, the setting parameters should be derived for each produced item in the product portfolio that demonstrably lead to stable and optimal production processes. A non-trivial task that could be partially automated through ENLYZE and mk Plast.

Today, structured evaluations support production employees in deriving targeted process specifications, as well as in their implementation at the production machines.

Thus, the process knowledge collected to date is available to all relevant employees throughout the company. While previously the quality of machine setup depended on the experience of the respective worker, ENLYZE now enables consistently high production stability and productivity regardless of the knowledge level of individual employees.

Results: €24,000 additional gross profit per production facility per year

Since the implementation at the end of 2020, the methodology developed by ENLYZE has been used at mk Plast for productivity enhancement in extrusion. All relevant employees have access to the evaluations and coordinate the machine setup amongst themselves.

The goal of process stabilization has been achieved in numerous cases. The improvements are also reflected in objective key figures. Therefore, not only the average production performance but also the product quality has significantly increased compared to previous months.

With the help of the ENLYZE solution, mk Plast was able to achieve an increase in performance of a total of 4.8% in December compared to the performance of previous months. Translated into an average month, this corresponds to a time saving of approximately 25 hours. When extrapolated over a whole production year, this results in potential equivalent to half a month's production. In terms of product quality, interventions in the production process were significantly less frequent, and the efforts of manual re-inspection were reduced by more than half.

Financially, the increase in productivity offers significant advantages: through the increase in production performance, an additional gross profit of €2,000 can be achieved per facility at mk Plast in an average production month. In the indirect area, the project's implementation has significantly improved production planning. Differences between preliminary and post-calculation are smaller, and working hours are saved because sorted and blocked rolls need to be re-checked less frequently.

Conclusion

The results of this case study impressively show what added value can be achieved through data-driven production optimization today.

At ENLYZE, we continuously work on further solutions for digital production. The supported derivation of best-practice parameters is just the beginning. Since this case study, we have expanded our product offering to provide a fully digital and automated solution for the continuous analysis, verification, and specification of best-practice parameters across industries.

💡 mk Plast is a medium-sized company from Monschau in the Eifel region that produces high-quality PE films on 7 blown film extrusion systems and 8 converting systems for the agriculture, automotive, and medical industries. mk Plast is a customer of ENLYZE.

📎 ENLYZE was founded in 2017 as a tech company from RWTH Aachen and focuses on digitalization in continuous manufacturing. Through its own edge device, data from various data sources are extracted. One of the core competencies lies in merging the data so that it can be prepared for analysis.