The plastics industry relies on sophisticated and complex manufacturing processes to meet the ever-growing demand for plastic goods globally. To scale effectively, many plastic manufacturing companies are looking for a fully automated operation. That aim often means no manual user intervention in the production of finished goods is required in order to run a 24/7 manufacturing operation, with manual labor limited to only being needed for the shipping operation.
This is where the Clients First Sensor Integration solution comes in: Manufacturing Execution System (MES) sensor technology built for SAP Business One.
The solution is a state-of-the-art integration for processes and data between the SAP Business One ERP and TIG, the leading software supplier for the plastics manufacturing sector. The systems seamlessly combine to allow centralized management and data across the entire plastics operation, from financial management to inventory and on-demand production.
The Sensor Integration works like this: as inventory levels go down in the warehouse, the system generates a production order to restock the warehouse. This production order triggers a vacuum system to pull pounds of plastic pellets from a container. The container sits on top of a scale that is also communicating with the vacuum. The vacuum will stop the pull task once it has reached the weight as requested by the production order.
The pellets travel into a plastic injection mold, where the finished goods get made. As the finished goods are “dumped” into a conveyer for final packaging, the machine sensor counts how many finished goods were created and automatically pushes that information back into the SAP Business One ERP for completion of the production order.
The Sensor Integration automation creates a goods issue for the raw material and a goods receipt for the finished product and enables plastic manufacturers to:
- Improve Data Accuracy: The manufacturing software automatically reports the number of units produced and pounds consumed during the production process directly to SAP Business One. Users do not have to key anything into an ERP or financial management system.
- Refine Precision and Reduce Waste: Vacuum machines can pull exactly the number of pounds needed by the production order without any scrap material.
- Save Labor Cost: Only labor needed is for packaging the shipping box.
- Become Proactive: The business can now connect the current stock level with the procurement process to have the inventory level needed to run the operation.
- Increase Safety: The production floor is clear of any hazards.
Clients First customer Linx Global has employed the plastics manufacturing integration to automate production and greatly improve reporting and data.
With its incredible capability to automate and centralize operational management for plastic manufacturers, Sensor Technology has been recognized in SAP’s Intelligent Enterprise Program.
Contact us today to discuss your specific manufacturing needs and get a live demo.
