Our customer Sibelco is an international material solutions company that buys, processes and distributes industrial minerals and a leader in glass recycling. They operate in 30 countries worldwide. From an Industry 4.0 Maturity Assessment, they identified the need to implement an MES system at their sites. Actemium was in charge of consulting and takes care of the global implementation, taking into account the specific needs of each site.
The purpose of this new MES system can be described as ‘integration & intelligence’. In particular, the the integration on the OT level has been strongly pursued but integration with other systems such as ERP and LIMS is also provided for. Automatic data capture provides real-time dashboards, reliable insights and KPIs.
The main modules of this MES system are:
- Production registrations: captures everything within the PLC layer in terms of consumption and yields.
- OEE registration with automatic detection of faults and downtimes
- Energy measurements
- Integration with ERP and LIMS
In 2021 the MES system was implemented worldwide at 4 sites (2 sites in the Netherlands, 1 in Spain and 1 in the US) and the customer wants to upscale in 2022 with 10 additional sites. These projects are largely managed remotely, during implementation we come on site to keep everything on track. A template-based approach is used to ensure smooth integration across the various sites. For each new site we start from a template with a list of all the use cases of the other sites. From there, an MES gap analysis is carried out which, in consultation with the customer, examines which use cases do not apply or what the needs of this specific site are. If necessary, this may lead to an expansion of the use cases.
For Sibelco, Actemium was the ideal partner in this story because of its multidisciplinary approach (knowledge of IT, OT, MES, automation), international network and product independence.
Advantages for the customer:
- Automatic data capture reduces manual work in data collection and reporting. This frees up more time for analyzing the data.
- Keep ERP stocks up-to-date
- Increase data accuracy and quality
- Automatic detection of failures including microstops (< 15 min)
- Standardize data capture resulting in reliable KPIs (OEE, PEER, …).
- Add real-time insights/dashboards (performance, energy, maintenance, inventory, quality, …)
- One central, accessible interface for operators with mobile apps where needed
- Creates a digital shadow of operations
- Provides the basis for advanced process control (APC) and advanced analytics (Machine Learning, Predictive Maintenance)