Since 1981, Stihl Tirol - formerly known as Viking - has been producing lawn mowers, robotic lawn mowers, ride-on mowers and garden shredders in Langkampfen against a picturesque mountain backdrop. The production facility has 23 assembly lines and around 600 employees.

The search for the right MES

Harald Ganster, Departmental Consultant for Shopfloor IT at Stihl Tirol, is responsible for all production-related hardware and software systems, among other things. He describes his company's core requirements for a new MES, as they were when selecting a new system in 2016: "The aim was to optimize our production processes so that extensive information on the devices produced is automatically recorded. We also wanted to achieve greater transparency for further optimization measures. With 23 assembly lines and a high degree of product diversification, it is also necessary for an MES to be flexibly adaptable to the conditions in production. At the time, we were relying on a solution that did not meet these and other requirements, so we started looking for one." Stihl opted for the MES Cronetwork from Industrie Informatik.

According to Ganster, the decision criteria were "unrestricted connectivity within the system landscape, a certified SAP standard interface and the QlikView connector. We also liked the comprehensive parameterization options within the Cronetwork MES standard."

First step: Process data acquisition

In 2016, pilot operation with Cronetwork began on the first two of 23 assembly lines. The complete upgrade was then carried out step by step. During practical operation, there was still a need for optimization, which could be implemented during the roll-out. "We assemble our devices from several components in groups on the assembly lines. The MES supports us here in recording and processing important process data," says Ganster. One example of this is the torque values used to attach a blade to the lawnmower. "On the one hand, we check the correct assembly at the workplace and, on the other, we can provide our customers with information on important production parameters at any time," says Ganster, describing the added value of process data acquisition. Over the course of time, further possible applications have emerged from this and the associated individual part traceability. Today, for example, the serial numbers of the battery, charger and machine are linked together for battery-powered tools. This gives Stihl full transparency of its products from a wide variety of perspectives.

The classic advantages of the MES's integrated machine and operating data acquisition are almost a matter of course. Automatic quantity counting, including feedback to SAP, gives the foreman and employees on the assembly line the necessary foresight for a wide range of optimization measures. The interim storage system within production has been improved so that stocks on the lines can now be kept as low as possible, but the required material is still available at the right place at all times.

Automated messages

Harald Ganster, Shopfloor IT Department Manager at Stihl.

© Stihl Tyrol

Harald Ganster continues: "It was also important for us to largely relieve our foremen of manual terminal operation and create time and space for their core tasks. Today, for example, if a fault occurs on a line, the system recognizes this and automatically goes into fault mode. In the past, this notification had to be made manually by the foreman. Today, he can take care of the basic fault rectification during this time. The same applies to the notification of follow-up orders. As soon as the current order has been delivered, the follow-up order is reported automatically, the line switches to set-up and only changes status again when the first appliance of the follow-up order has been packed. During this time, the employee can concentrate fully on their core tasks, such as setting up and continuing the assembly work."

Transparency for employees and management

However, the newly gained transparency through machine, operating data and process data acquisition is not only available to the management, but also benefits the employees on the store floor. Screens - known as Andon boards - on each assembly line serve as a source of information.

"Whereas the information used to consist of a conglomerate of six different sources with outdated data, we can now generate individual dashboards thanks to the portal technology of the MES and provide information collected almost in real time," says Ganster, who continues: "Thanks to information on order progress, follow-up orders, hourly output, target and actual quantities, our employees can better prepare for set-up work and material procurement, which results in shorter set-up times, among other things. In addition, the assembly staff can also keep an eye on their current key performance indicator for each assembly line. This is one of the factors influencing the bonus calculation, which is carried out 100% with data from the MES. Consequently, the employees also look at good output and quality." The management uses the MES primarily for evaluations and regular reports over a wide range of time horizons.

Quality data acquisition in the production process

Comprehensive recording of quality data was another requirement for the new MES. "The degree to which our requirements were covered by the Cronetwork standard was already very high. In the area of quality data acquisition, however, we still had to put work into its further development. We ourselves have already benefited from developments by other industrial IT customers, as these have been incorporated into the standard. This give-and-take principle of the Cronetwork user community convinced us," says Harald Ganster, describing the decision to invest in development here.

The creation and processing of the test specifications is now 100% integrated in the MES. For each order and shift, a device is randomly selected and tested in Stihl's internal product audit. Functional, visual, safety and other factors are taken into account and result in a uniform quality indicator across the Group.

Author:
Tino M. Böhler is a freelance journalist and owner of the Dresden editorial office.

MES - the key to IIoT?

© Industry Informatics

After Industry 4.0, another term is becoming firmly established in people's minds: the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). What role can MES solutions play in this? Bernhard Falkner, CTO at Industrie Informatik, describes his view of things.

Data collection and processing from production has always been the sovereign task of the MES. "An efficient IIoT has the best chances if an MES system can fully exploit its flexibility in data collection and information processing and at the same time harmonize with the commercially leading ERP system," says Bernhard Falkner, CTO at Industrie Informatik. Standards such as OPC UA and web services provide an important basis for this. According to him, comprehensive interaction with the automation level is also crucial for success: "An MES like Cronetwork is made for such architectures, as it maps the semantic background and turns difficult-to-understand data into valuable information for companies, thus contributing to the success of the IIoT."

Digital manufacturing processes in the IIoT

Bernhard Falkner.

© Industry Informatics

An MES can therefore already help companies today to digitally network production in the IIoT - taking all production processes into account. All production data, such as measurement and process data, can be recorded, merged, linked, stored and validated with an MES.

"In this context, it also has a very positive effect that communication-capable sensors are becoming cheaper and cheaper and are therefore increasingly being installed as standard in machines and systems, which in turn makes access to data and information much easier," says Falkner. Complete production plants can thus communicate with each other permanently via M2M communication, which is one of the most important success factors of the IIoT. It is essential here that parts of the automation technology migrate to the MES. The automation world must grow together with the existing software systems.

A higher-level MES that is networked with the automation level becomes the central data hub of every production facility thanks to compliance with standards, redundancy-free master data management and the lowest possible number of interfaces. MES solutions are much more flexible during operation than individual solutions at the automation level, as they can rely on data-driven, flexible processes in line with the IIoT. Fixed programmed functions are therefore a thing of the past. An MES enables highly flexible production, in which workstations are aligned based on the recognized serial number and the requirements of the individual product, for example - provided that the machine changeover is fully automated. This makes batch size 1 a reality in digitalized production.

Keep processes fast and efficient

"The real strength of an MES - even in the IIoT world - lies in the connection and linking of data from the store floor - keyword: PDC and MDC - with the master data management and commercial ERP system," says Falkner. "The newly acquired information can be used to automatically record commercially relevant facts." Based on this recorded detailed data, companies receive highly valid information directly from production and uncover new optimization potential along the entire value chain.

In general, the collaboration of MES with ERP or cloud and automation solutions in an IIoT environment should be characterized by standards and the openness of the individual systems to the entire system landscape. According to Falkner, the best-of-breed approach is a recommendable and absolutely promising option! This means that companies configure an optimal, individually orchestrated solution from all providers and systems using the Lego principle. Industry 4.0, smart factory and IIoT initiatives have been aiming for such developments for a long time. However, the most important task of an MES must always be to correctly evaluate the data collected from planning and production in order to keep all processes transparent, efficient and cost-effective.