Aquacolor buys manufacturing IT systems

Preactor has revealed how its Preactor APS solution has enabled Aquacolor to experience operational improvement at recipe management, operations information and traceability levels.

Aquacolor is a Portuguese textile service company specialising in finishing tasks, including dyeing, washing, laser, spray, brushing, sand projection and cutting.

While fashion is continually changing, the ability to respond to this depends on a flexible manufacturing approach.

Aquacolor operates on a make-to-order (MTO) basis.

Almost every new works-order results in a modified series of processes based on standard operations: it starts with a sample in Aquacolor's laboratories, which allows the customer to check the colour and final effect and serves as a development model on which any new or amended processes can be tested before confirming operations parameters for the actual job.

This is essential because consistency of finish is only possible by closely controlling each process step and the timing and sequence of each step.

However, this makes it difficult to estimate process-times, which causes further problems as many finishing machines require orders to be batched to maintain resource and capacity optimisation.

Varying levels of sequence dependency give another headache, for example different sequences of colours require different cleaning times.

Even when an order is complete, the final quality inspection may necessitate further work which then must be scheduled into the overall working plan.

This is why Aquacolor had to contend with major planning and scheduling issues resulting from a lack of accurate work flow information, a lack of overall visibility about what was happening and where and an inability to respond quickly to production changes.

Aquacolor's existing vertical software relied on manual data inputs and focused on the recipe-management aspect of production.

It was also a standalone system that couldn't be integrated with the company's main Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System or with its shop floor automation capabilities.

The company required a configurable and flexible solution and one that would integrate with the rest of its IT systems.

Sysmaker recommended a modular approach comprising a MES solution called Factelligence from Wonderware and an APS solution called Preactor APS from Preactor International.

Sysmaker integrated the Preactor/ Factelligence solution with the real-time Shop Floor Data Capture (SFDC) system already in place to ensure it worked with the most up-to-date data.

Aquacolor began to implement the system by replacing the legacy system that controlled recipe- and works-order management with Factelligence.

This automated the sending of works-order information and collected production, consumption and utilisation data.

Factelligence was then extended to cover manual operations within the production process, which was achieved by customising user interfaces to manage the execution of orders and to collect production and inspection data.

The system was already providing full shop-floor visibility, allowing a deep analysis of production data and delivering key performance indicators (KPIs) including OEE.

The final phase was to integrate Preactor with Factelligence to allow production management to simulate scenarios according to shop-floor current status, choose the best among them and analyse the impact of potential new orders.

To achieve this, a specific customised rule was developed, incorporating a preferred sequence regarding the colours, capacity constraints and business priorities.

This rule allowed sizeable efficiency gains through its quick execution time and its ability to be fine-tuned with manual adjustments by the planner.

The Preactor/Factelligence solution has also brought a range of additional benefits to Aquacolor.

The company now has more flexibility in terms of its manufacturing and production control, much of which is now automated.

The combination of real-time data and control has brought powerful analysis capabilities which can be fed back into the system in terms of ongoing refinements.

This provides Preactor with the information required to deliver improved production schedules that make best use of the company's resource and capacity while also enabling it to respond to last minute customer changes.

Being able to see the impact of any particular change on the entire schedule also brings added degrees of control and efficiency.

Cristina Assis, chief executive officer at Aquacolor, said: 'The software implementation brought operational improvement at recipe management, operations information and traceability levels, with a direct impact on costs.

'Building a work order and defining all the operations to perform became a quick and easy task once we could obtain all the operation information.

'We have estimated a 50 per cent reduction in the time spent to build a new work order.

'Regarding scheduling, the biggest advantage is the ability to be able to forecast the load on each machine and therefore to predict production lead times and have reliable delivery dates.

'Now it is easy to tell our customers when deliveries will be made.

'It saves 70 per cent of the time previously required to do this.'.

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