Improving operational efficiency by cutting manual work by hours per shift while supporting real-time data use

Adapting to global changes

Vivix Vidros Planos (Vivix) produces float, laminated and mirror glass primarily for Brazil and Latin America. With over 350 employees producing 900 tons of float glass per day, it’s the only glass manufacturing plant completely funded by Brazilian capital. The Vivix position as the only glass company in Brazil with their own raw material plant ensures the consistent production of high-quality glass.

In 2021, Vivix formulated a three-year road map to accomplish digital transformation in manufacturing operations. The company focused on digitalization, interconnection, interoperability, data infrastructure, management tools and decision support to reduce operational costs, increase productivity and improve the ability to adapt to global changes by becoming a data-driven organization.

Using Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Mendix™ Low-code platform, Vivix began digitalizing aspects of its glass production processes, including product traceability, production management, statistical process control (SPC), operational shifts checklists and capital expenditure (CAPEX) management.

It also uses Opcenter™ APS software, Industrial Edge, PCS7, SIMATIC WinCC Unified and SIMATIC WinCC Professional, which like Mendix are all part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

“In the past, Vivix didn’t have a solid foundation for its data architecture and information for industrial processes,” says Aristóteles Terceiro Neto, industrial transformation manager at Vivix.

“Almost everything was done in a spreadsheet or on paper. But almost all the information that was fed into it was data we manually consolidated.”

When searching for new development methods, Neto says, “We weren’t necessarily looking for a low-code platform, but rather a solution or partner to fit in our ecosystem to create additional transformation.”

What they needed was a robust platform with enterprise-level capabilities to leverage the team’s engineering expertise throughout the software development lifecycle, eliminate paper processes that interfered with process efficiency, develop an end-to-end system that helped realize digital transformation and ensure compatibility with other systems of record.

After evaluating 18 solutions, they ultimately selected Mendix for its robust platform, market share and scope. They also found Mendix was differentiated by its intuitiveness, enterprise-grade capabilities and capability to build edge and mobile applications deployed in environments without network connectivity, a common scenario on many shop floors. It also stood out due to its product road map and ecosystem of partners to support industrial demands.

“Mendix is a good platform to start small and eventually scale up to what we need,” says Neto. “That’s why we started with it. Other alternatives have expensive licensing costs, and the partners don’t fit with our industry. Those hurdles make it costly for companies like ours to start digital transformation. The Mendix platform is easy to learn and speeds up how quickly you can provide value.

“With the platform’s scalable microservice architecture, Mendix enables us to create several service applications that communicate with one another. Also, the robust cloud offering was a huge benefit for us. The security, ease and accessibility of Mendix Cloud meant we could focus less on deployment and more on our desired outcomes.”

Since Mendix is cloud native, Vivix has the flexibility to adapt their deployment strategy as conditions change. They seamlessly transitioned from one cloud provider to AWS due to the latter’s broader availability of partners and experience with implementing manufacturing data and analytics environments in the region.

They are exploring leveraging Mendix for private cloud on AWS to further simplify setting up new environments and integrating with internal systems.

With a new path forward, Neto and his team began developing solutions to improve their manufacturing delivery and transparency.

Transparency in glass production

After adopting Mendix, engineers from Vivix, Siemens’ partner TrueChange and Siemens integrator Mekatronik began creating applications for the maintenance, quality, environmental health and safety (EHS), logistics and production teams for all stages of manufacturing.

Digitalizing engineering checklists

Prior to adopting Mendix, Vivix faced challenges in effectively monitoring maintenance procedures. To guarantee that all production-related steps are meticulously executed, engineering process checklists are essential.

Raissa Alencar, process and continuous improvement engineer at Vivix, and her team created a checklist application for workers in the field to address workflow inefficiencies. “During each shift, the team would lose four or five hours alone just from manual work,” Neto says.

“They would take data and put it in a spreadsheet that would then generate graphics that visualize our data,” says
Alencar.“ They needed an app that directly tracks the information automatically from a checklist so we don’t lose time doing it manually.”

In just one month, Vivix built an application that streamlines task management, tracks checklist frequency, logs detailed observations, monitors delays, integrates with the Vivix data lake and curates action plans for improvements.

“Without templates, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver so quickly,” says Neto. “The front connectors use MQTT connectors, PDF widgets from the (Mendix) Marketplace, and other widgets for manual signatures. These resources improved our process overall.”

“With Mendix we can be far more detailed than we were before,” says Alencar.

“When the production values weren’t what we wanted, we couldn’t control the follow-up actions. If we wanted to better manage the data, we would have to make another spreadsheet that would be managed by one person. The new system allows us to set a deadline, delegate responsibilities, track the status and more. If any equipment is out of operation and needs maintenance, this is how we keep better track of that.”

The checklist application also provides greater efficiency and transparency across teams. “It can be easily adjusted for different purposes,” says Alencar. “We are using it at the main entrance for the trucks and even chemical analysis.”

Real-time temperature regulation

Consistent glass quality relies on precise temperature regulation to reduce defects. To ensure precision, developers created a solution that visualizes the factory’s furnaces in real time.

“Previously this process was tracked in a spreadsheet,” says Alencar. “We would manually input the data that would generate the regulation curves. In Mendix, we can see the comparisons of the automatic thermocouples because the data is directly extracted from our data unified name-space. It’s much easier for the team and
much more accurate than before.”

Ensuring product quality

Glass quality reports play a crucial role in ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and monitoring overall manufacturing efficiency. By digitalizing this step, Vivix has achieved a higher level of precision in process parameters and quality control.

To analyze batches of glass more accurately for thickness, color and quality, developers created a Digital Glass DNA application. This allows workers to easily monitor quality, promptly address any defects and continuously adapt the product.

Resolving customer complaints with generative AI

To further elevate the customer experience, Vivix is infusing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into its Mendix solutions. A chatbot, dubbed Virtual Engineer, gathers product, production and process data and offers tailored suggestions to the quality and production teams, enabling them to pro-actively address customer complaints.

Rapid development spurs innovation

“In addition to our new rapid development capabilities, we can innovate with Mendix because we don’t need to worry about things like security that are inherent to the platform,” says Neto.

Business engineers at Vivix can become productive Mendix developers in just a few weeks and can easily start contributing to transformation projects.