How does AspectPL MES help manufacturing staff achieve their targets?

Ditch the Excel spreadsheets and create a dynamic, living schedule – in no time.

• Cut scheduling time by up to 65%, or more
• Auto schedule capabilities, allowing a user to schedule a week’s work in a few minutes
• Drag and drop work orders into a schedule that is linked to production machines
• Real time production data allows users to monitor and adjust the schedule on the fly
• Manage complex family tools and product dependencies easily
• Active default dual colour display for products, tools, material classes, tool and colour changes 

Track your production plan progress, proactively respond to operational slowdowns or disruptions, and adjust your plan.

“AspectPL is a visual planning system and for a planner’s mind it fits beautifully.”

Shaun Wallace, Production Manager, Cormack Packaging, Australia

See live data on manufacturing KPI’s like machine availability, performance and product quality.

• Take control of manufacturing and reduce reliance on inaccurate processes like staff data entry
• Know the exact machine status at any time. View machine cycle speed, job completion time, volume of items and reject rate
• Report work order status, yield, performance and completion dates direct from connected machines to the ERP
• Quality issues can be traced to (what) job it is, (when) was it produced and (who) packed it
• Documents such as SOP’s, CAD drawings and maintenance records can be linked to production for a paperless environment
• Data availability empowers personnel to collaborate for better production optimisation and efficiencies
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) measurement is an automated process and report
• A graphical summary of labour resource requirements can be viewed based on scheduled jobs. Historical and current labour quantities can be saved to the database for reporting
• Reports (e.g. capacity, production status, material requirements) and data extracts (e.g. yield, production, usage, rules) are available
• Multiple schedule reports for material picking, tool change preparation, schedule status, resource and material planning

Visibility and traceability enable a regular critique of manufacturing processes, benchmarking progress and measurement of improvements.

“Implementing AspectPL MES software has been an absolutely huge positive change for our business. Previously calculating OEE was a significant task. It took a week and a half to download and analyse a month’s production – now with AspectPL it takes 20 seconds. Because analysing OEE was so difficult, it wasn’t one of our focusses – we operated about 50% which was very poor. Now it’s easy to calculate, we constantly review it and our OEE is between 70 and 80%. This means we are supplying more product; production is on time and our labour costs have reduced.”

Luke Sutherland, Operations Manager, Cromford Pipe, Australia

Maintenance module allows users to plan, monitor and record required maintenance of their machines.

• Because AspectPL can track off machine cycle times, maintenance is based on the actual working rate of the machine – not estimated
• AspectPL machine maintenance module generates an action and informs the staff member who needs to respond
• AspectPL enables a ‘preventative machine maintenance block’ to be inserted into the production schedule
• Mould numbers are included in the production plan so die setters know what and when tool changes are required 

Staff simply look at their tablet to see what job and requirements are next.

“AspectPL has given the setters a greater understanding of what we require – it’s visual, there is nowhere to hide. Now our setters know what tool change they have to do in what order for us to achieve the plan.”

Jon Kirby, Manufacturing Manager, Hansen Products, NZ

Know what happens between work orders and dispatch. 

• AspectPL can integrate with any ERP software
• The ERP becomes live by easily configuring specific data fields to link under different export/import scenarios from the ERP. This means work orders are automatically extracted from the ERP and dropped into AspectPL for production. At completion, production data is automatically integrated back into the ERP
• Reliable metrics assist with capacity analysis, costing, machine and plant purchasing decisions and planning
• Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) help companies embed the inherent, tribal knowledge of manufacturing teams into digital technology, converting that knowledge into company intellectual property
• More visibility for your business means more easily available information for your customers. Your sales team can access manufacturing plans, answer customer queries in real time and better anticipate actual delivery dates, not estimates 

Aligns with and supports company industry 4.0 strategies. 

“Our customers are blown away when they see AspectPL on the big screen in our Production Manager’s office showing all the running jobs. The traceability AspectPL provides gives our customers confidence that we can meet their quality, capacity and delivery requirements. We can show them data that demonstrates we offer less waste, good cycle times, better quality and superior service.”

Brett Hopwood, General Manager, Pharmapac, NZ