Monitoring of reporting with real-time data from all production plants summarized and evaluated. © P3

In the first step, the various stations (quality gates, systems and logistics) of the value stream were recorded in an as-is analysis. NeXonic offers the advantage of generating real-time data from a wide range of control systems and system sensors, regardless of the system manufacturer. The systems are tapped directly. The real-time data provides operations management with the previously missing KPIs in a dashboard to support production control. Due to the large number of different players, a pure monitoring solution without direct intervention in the value stream was expedient here, as it is not desirable for the plants to be controlled by a single system. In view of the conglomerate of several companies, there were also legal aspects. An NDA agreement and special visibility profiles were used to set up the software and the KPI dashboard in such a way that internal production data is not visible outside the company, but the transparency of the current value stream and the current products provides the necessary information for all parties at all times.

Additional camera solutions

However, the existing systems, plant data and infrastructure sensors were not sufficient to generate the quality KPIs. Up to now, the existing KPIs were evaluated by the visual inspection of the operators in various Q-gates of the individual production steps. Additional camera solutions with tablets have now been implemented for systematic quality reporting. These real-time images supplement the performance indicators and enable the supplier's quality department to systematically process defects. The identification of causes and processing could now be carried out agilely and quickly across all plants and boundaries. The visual images of the defective parts were supplemented by headmaps in the software. This makes it possible to identify system errors. The elimination of these errors was then also visible in the same dashboard through the improvement in production performance.

P3 NeXonic automatically creates heat maps and clusters the findings for systematic error evaluation and processing. © P3

The dashboard in conjunction with the automatic monitoring of the NeXonic Suite also significantly reduced the reporting effort for the quality and production departments, as the dashboard functions as real-time reporting. The Q personnel were supported by the P3 consultants. Through training and corresponding standards, more agile quality work was rolled out and gradually handed over to the existing Q organization. Operational production improvements according to lean standards were introduced and implemented by the consultants. The new control loops were also able to access NeXonic as an interface. Furthermore, the use of a single reporting source from real-time data led to faster communication channels and less effort in various management committees. NeXonic is a standard solution that is adapted through individual customizing scopes during implementation. During the course of the project, additional scopes were implemented in the software in weekly feedback loops in an agile manner in line with the value stream. One advantage of this approach is the high speed of implementation and the low training and integration costs.

Automatic evaluations of the quality KPIs over time in the NeXonic dashboard. © P3

The implementation from the start of the project to the commissioning of the KPI dashboards on real-time data took two weeks. The three main production processes were prioritized for implementation. Further peripheral production processes were integrated into the Business Intelligence Cockpit during the remaining three months of the project. This was accompanied by the adaptation of the corresponding quality work. The reject rate was reduced from around 10 percent at the start of the project to 3 percent in the fourth week of the project. Three months after the start of the project, the reject rate was kept constant at around 1.5 percent. Production capacities and cycle time improvements increased by 34 percent after two months. The optimizations are primarily due to the ability to intervene quickly thanks to real-time data, simpler and more agile production and accompanied logistics planning thanks to greater transparency across all plants and suppliers. Through the operational use of NeXonic, the supplier independently maintains the production and quality level at the same level as at the end of the project without P3 support.
Jan Hinrichs, Managing Director P3 Automotive; Sebastian Weber, Head of Digital Operations; Niklas Broch, Senior Consultant Operations & Supply Chain