A Comprehensive Plant Solution for the Production of Coated Abrasives
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- Switzerland
Product
- Wonderware ActiveFactory
- Wonderware Development Studio
- Wonderware Historian
- Wonderware Information Server
- Wonderware Manufacturing Execution Module
Tech Stack
- Wonderware Software
- Automation Solution
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Chemicals
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Manufacturing System Automation
- Predictive Quality Analytics
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
sia Abrasives Industries AG is one of the world's leading manufacturers of coated abrasives. The company offers a product range of several thousand items that are subject to continuous improvement. The coated abrasives produced at Frauenfeld are made up of a carrier material, such as paper, tissue, vulcanized fiber or plastic film. Through a continuous process, abrasive grains are applied to the backing and anchored by bonding adhesives. sia Abrasives products are distributed worldwide and are used in metalworking, woodworking, automotive bodywork and panel production. The company employs approximately 1,100 people worldwide, 690 of which work in Frauenfeld. In 2007, the business volume reached 298 million CHF, and great attention is being paid to the performance and efficiency of the enterprise.
The Challenge
sia Abrasives Industries AG, one of the world's leading manufacturers of coated abrasives, was facing challenges with its outdated and inconsistent systems. The lack of connection between the controls of the individual production units made the planning of various production processes and the management of the machines' setup highly laborious and inefficient. Moreover, manufacturing data was administered via different, non-compatible systems, leading to errors caused by media conversions. As process data accumulated locally, significant efforts had to be made for consistent quality control due to the lack of a common database. The company decided to introduce an extensive automation solution that facilitates production control and reporting.
The Solution
sia Abrasives decided to entrust the challenge to Wonderware software and acs ag, a system integrator from Wil, Switzerland. The implementation began in 2003 with the final goal of creating a paperless solution that connected the plant floor to the production planning and control (PPC) system. All plant information is now stored centrally through a Wonderware Historian. Thanks to this high-performance real-time database, the information from the control system used for planning and reporting is available to all work stations, based on the different roles and authorization of the personnel. The Wonderware Manufacturing Execution Module and the open interfaces provided by Wonderware software enables the standardization of data flow. The solution enables production orders to be centrally dispatched via a PPC work station. At any time, it is possible to check and supervise the status of batches in the various process steps and the plant floor is constantly updated with real-time production order information.
Operational Impact
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