Success Story Automotive Intrack, Intouch
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Success Story Automotive InTrack, InTouch Delta Motor Corp. Uses InTrackTM System and InTouch® HMI in New World-Class Assembly Plant Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Delta Motor Corporation (DMC) meets the “We are pleased with the challenges of vehicle manufacturing in the context of a small assembly plant. The management team at DMC acquired the operations from General Motors Corporation InTrack system and in a leveraged buyout in the 1980s and recently had the opportunity to start fresh with InTouch HMI for many enterprise-wide computing systems. many reasons, but primarily These systems have allowed DMC to link their corporate business and financial systems because of the tremendous to real-time production operations on the plant floor DMC can now also link to outside ease of development suppliers of components and sub-assemblies used in the Opel Astra and Corsa car lines and Isuzu commercial vehicles. they provided.” - Gavin Allen The latest enhancement to their corporate systems is a company-wide SAP R/3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This included an upgrade of some existing MES Specialist R/2 applications to R/3, which works in concert with their plant-floor vehicle tracking system (VTS) to achieve high levels of productivity and lower cost by implementing low-level planning and shop floor production optimization. The end result is that DMC can offer accurate, integrated real-time information to all relevant areas of the company's business with as little human intervention and paperwork as possible. This approach, deployed intially in the Struandale plant, is now being extended to a brownfield assembly plant in South Africa, and is expected to lead to new sets of common practices in both plants. The VTS system that completes the link is based on the InTrack™ resource management and work-in-process (WIP) tracking system from Wonderware, a business unit of Invensys Systems, Inc. The VTS system was developed and installed in just nine months by DMC's internal staff at the greenfield plant, headed by Michael Pearton, Struandale plant manager, and Gavin Allen, manufacturing execution systems (MES) specialist, with outside support from system integrators ISIS (Pty) Ltd., based near Johannesburg. Delta Motor's new enterprise-wide production system: * Improved manufacturing productivity and efficiency; * Reduced both work-in-process and stock holding; * Decreased vehicle incompletes and rework volume; * Reduced production costs, thus improving the corporate bottom line; * Enhanced the plant's data integrity; * Simplified communications with outside suppliers and also improved the suppliers' efficiency. New Company & Systems Delta Motor Corporation was created in 1987 via a management buyout of the former General Motors oper- ations in Port Elizabeth. In late 1994, DMC purchased a former Ford Motor Company plant in Struandale, stripped it to its bare bones and began constructing a completely new assembly plant. The plant was designed to produce All the PCs used to implement the VTS system have Pentium® about 30,000 Opel Corsas each year with one-shift oper- processors running on Windows NT (Server) and Windows 95 ations and up to 85,000 on three-shift operations. The (client nodes), and are of a high quality for maximum availability. company now produces three primary vehicle body styles, The database server is a Compaq dual-Pentium Pro using RAID with up to 17 different model derivatives, all with a capacity 5 technology running Microsoft SQL Server. The system runs on of nearly 30,000 cars per year. both 10baseT Ethernet (3Com cards) and BitBus networks. DataLogic scanners are linked to the system via Broderson FEDs and documentation is printed using HP LaserJet printers. The initial system used SAP's R/2 business system, including Barcode labels are produced using Novexx thermal transfer the Shop Floor Control module. It was subsequently printers. All planning-office and shop-floor systems are backed determined that the latter couldn't provide all of the function- up with UPS units that are sized for driving all critical equipment ality required. So the system integration specialists from ISIS for 20 minutes in the event of a power failure. recommended the addition of Wonderware's InTrack system for tracking plant-floor production, from raw materials to The InTrack module is part of Wonderware's FactorySuite® finished cars. The intent was to develop low-cost but powerful automation application development tools. The FactorySuite hard- computing capabilities using off-the-shelf PCs, network products include tools for configuring applications for supervisory ware and application software based on the Microsoft® control and data acquisition, PC-based machine and process Windows NT® operating system. The upgrade to SAP's control, a real-time relational database, a flexible batch R/3 system was complete by January 1999. management system, the InTrack WIP tracking system, and integral Internet/intranet remote viewing systems. DMC also uses Wonderware's InTouch® human-machine interface (HMI) "We determined that our existing computer systems were software for operator interface stations throughout the plant. not capable of handling multiple plants and that we absolutely required a link between our SAP system and shop-floor control systems, because we have to be able to As the basis of the VTS, the InTrack system communicates track upwards of 4,000 components and every vehicle we with Delta's mainframe computer system at the head office, produce has to consume all 4,000 components," explained nearly four miles away at the Kempston Road plant. The VTS Michael Pearton, Struandale plant manager. receives work orders from and provides regular feedback to both the SAP R/3 business system and the DMC vehicle distri- bution system to handle material-consumption data, manage "In addition to the SAP and shop-floor interfaces, the InTrack dealer notification and provide after-sales support. system has allowed us to set up our own parameters for level scheduling algorithms. So we can now maintain differ- ent and more efficient schedules for the body shop, the paint DMC dealers from around the country place orders for the Corsa shop and the trim-and-assembly line," Pearton said. "It also vehicles on the Vehicle Distribution System (VDS) mainframe. allowed us to streamline our broadcasting procedures to Production planning takes place in a multi-level system, from 12- lean suppliers that deliver components and sub-assemblies, month forecasts down to four-day production schedules on the such as seats or wheel assemblies, in the proper sequence SAP R/3 business system. The SAP system downloads the prod- to match the vehicles coming down the line. In the new uction order data to the InTrack VTS on a daily basis. Since the system, all suppliers deliver their components directly to the InTrack VTS is mission critical and cannot be out of commission production line and our team members install them. This for more than a few minutes, the link between it and the SAP all works together to ensure that we are able to make R/3 mainframe is redundant. In addition, data can be handled every variation of our vehicles all the time, as needed." electronically or manually, using electronic media. The InTrack VTS tracks the production of each vehicle in detail, as well as the critical components and resources used to manufacture each vehicle. This information is then returned to the SAP R/3 system and vehicle distribution systems for further business requirements, such as material consumption & production information for dealers, and ERP functions. All production reporting and analysis is conducted directly on the InTrack system. Extensive Bar Code Feedback Each vehicle is assigned a unique ID by means of a bar code label that is attached to the vehicle body. This bar code is read at nine monitor points (MPs) at strategic places throughout the plant, from the body shop all the way to final inspection. As it passes each MP, the bar code is scanned either manually or by and the data is transmitted back to Planners first analyze production orders received from a fixed overhead scanner, the InTrack system, where it is compared, checked and SAP R/3 on the VTS production planning interface. They validated against the schedule. Any problems, such as the are able to scroll through all orders in the system, including vehicle being in the wrong place or taking too long to pass those which have not been scheduled by the balancing through a workstation, are immediately highlighted for corrective algorithm, which enables them to re-sequence production action. orders manually if required. Planners can place production orders on hold (usually only for a material shortage) and release them at any time. The system automatically triggers orders to various just-in- time suppliers, advising them to deliver particular components or sub-assemblies to specific points along the A vehicle is manufactured every three minutes at the production line. It also interfaces with three shop-floor Struandale plant. The production of discrete units is machines for specific tasks. The VTS feeds the vehicle continuous, and production documentation is broken down identification number (VIN) to a machine in the body shop, into half-hour batches of 10 vehicles each. Every half-hour, which then engraves the VIN on the chassis. It also the planner releases a batch of 10 production orders, which transmits a message to the body-plate machine, which are initiated from the InTrack system to the shop floor for prints the unique body plate fitted to each vehicle. At the start of production. After production orders for the the end of the line, it conveys data on the engine, gearbox, batch of 10 have been initiated, the InTrack system VIN number and ignition key number to the engine automatically prints build and broadcast documents and computer operating system (ECOS) machine, which their accompanying bar-code labels.