Decreasing the number of product nonconformity reports by 70 percent and increasing quality year-over-year

Innovating the Romanian paint industry

Founded in 1991, Köber Industries SRL (Köber) is the main national supplier of paints for the decorative and industrial products market in Romania. For over three decades, the company has continued to expand and innovate via research and development (R&D) efforts and by establishing factories to cater to new product types and industries. To continue this upward momentum of innovation required consistently conforming to increasingly strict regulations, quality standards and specifications. After experiencing successive and frequent nonconformities, they knew they needed to find a solution.

Thus, Köber teamed up with Askom, a Siemens Digital Industries Software partner, and integrated Opcenter™ software, along with their previous use of the SIMATIC® suite, to effectively and efficiently support production processes. Opcenter and SIMATIC are part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Finding an MES solution

At Köber, their production regulators went through three stages. The first stage involved simple temperature regulators, the second stage used a network of temperature regulators integrated with valve actuators and the third stage involved using a programmable logic controller (PLC) in the resin section of production.

“The decision to find a solution came after successive and frequent production nonconformities,” says Manole Apetroaie, information technology (IT) director at Köber. “Although we had older generation production regulators installed, they were completely ineffective.”

Seeing that technology was evolving, coupled with the company’s high number of nonconformities and incomplete reports and other shortcomings like production plan communication via spreadsheets, Köber decided to implement a manufacturing execution system (MES) solution. They evaluated the most promising solutions on the market, including Opcenter since it could integrate with SAP, which they use as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

“After evaluating these solutions, we opted for Siemens because it had a strong market presence and active online communities of collaborators,” says Apetroaie. “The performance of our local partner, Askom, with whom we already had a very good relationship, also played a significant role in our decision.

“When using the previous solution, the quality of stored information left much to be desired. But with the Siemens solution, the result was almost magical. The program responds exceptionally well. You get curves instantaneously, consumption by the hour, dosages – everything is at your fingertips, just a click away.”

Integrating a new solution to overcome previous limitations

The company’s previous solution left much to be desired concerning the quality of stored information since most of it was stored on paper and later moved to SAP manually. However, with Opcenter, Köber can get curves instantaneously and view the consumption of raw materials, semifinished product and packaging materials by the hour as well as dosages with just a click. Additionally, Opcenter natively integrates with other Siemens products, SIMATIC PCS 7 and SIMATIC BATCH.

Since Köber started implementing the Opcenter MES and interfaced it with the SAP system, all definitions and changes made to the master data of materials, bill-of-materials (BOMs), technological operations and quality and inspection plans created in the SAP system transmit to the MES. Also, with this interface, the company can generate consumption documents for materials they use in manufacturing processes in the SAP system and record the deliveries of manufactured products on time. Changes made in SAP and what happens in the manufacturing processes when managing the MES system immediately transmit to the other system. This improves traceability and visualization of Köber’s processes and systems, especially with less paperwork and an online view of stock in the SAP.

With Opcenter and support from Askom, Köber aimed to help its factories bring more competitive and diverse products to market while improving customer satisfaction.

Reducing nonconformities and improving quality

Initially, the staff was hesitant and reluctant to use the solution. However, after working with the product, they could not deny the benefits.

By integrating Opcenter, Köber reduced the number of complaints about noncompliant products, decreasing the reports by 70 percent within the first year of implementation. Additionally, they also reduced manufacturing times and labor by precisely distributing operations among operators.

“With Opcenter, the number of product nonconformity reports decreased by 70 percent,” says Apetroaie. “This happened in the first year. Quality has improved significantly; parameters are met after one or two corrections. Now, in the third year, we can see how quality has increased year-over-year.”

Additionally, with Opcenter, the company improved product quality significantly and could meet parameters after one or two corrections. After three years, they can see how quality has increased year-over-year.

Leveraging Opcenter, they receive production orders with priorities and planned start dates, and the MES presents the data according to planned dates. This provided more precise tracking of manufacturing orders and product completion deadlines (especially for customized products), improving customer relations and compliance with delivery terms and product quality.

Using Opcenter, Köber also eliminated operator errors during technological operations. They could now precisely identify raw materials by scanning equipment with mobile scanners; authenticate operators at the operating console level; record what each operator was doing and who they were and automatically label finished products at the MES level.

The major impact was the ability to precisely track each sample intended for quality control and timely record measured characteristic values according to inspection plans during the manufacturing process. Previously, the company kept the evidence of recording quality results at the paper register level. Since it was important to not mix up the samples, Köber also introduced scanning laboratory sample labels, which led to accurately identifying products.

Additionally, Köber managed to double or triple production in some production departments via better machine and equipment resource planning. In some departments, they reduced manual and time-consuming human activities, which, prior to implementing the MES system, they carried out in three shifts.

“Thanks to integration between Opcenter and SIMATIC, more actions are automatic now,” says Apetroaie.

Overall, there is better visibility over manufacturing from the other departments, including logistics, commercial and research.

Planning for future integration

By implementing Opcenter, Köber managed to form several teams of engineers and technicians within the company in the automation sectors and in the monitoring and controlling of automation processes.

Thanks to Askom’s team of highly qualified professionals and their experience from previous implementations, Köber achieved their desired results and aim to extend this technology to their other factories. After the success of implementing the Siemens solution in the Turturesti factory, Köber has started discussions with Askom to integrate the MES system at Köber’s other factories.