Organization/Business: Current client is having multiple plants at different locations. He manufactures plastic parts for white goods i.e. AC, TV, Fridge and washing machine industry. His customerwhich is an OEM needs him to be within 20Km radius.

Business challenge: Monitoring of outputs of multiple plants has become a key challenge for many manufacturers in India and China.Machine utilization is the key factor while monitoring plant KPI. It is directly related P & L i.e. profit and loss accounting. Manually calculated machine utilization expressed in terms of OEE are not accurate due to human errors. This data is not real time and not trustworthy to make decision of new machine investment. In case of machine-centric production units like the production of injection moulding parts, it is important to have machine utilization above 85%. Recently our team implemented Industry 4.0 based OEE measurement system at one of our customers.Customer have 15 moulding machines. The calculated OEE was always a debate point. It always created a conflict between shop floor teams and planning teams. Plant profitability was low but exact root was difficult to identify. Manually calculated OEE was high and monthly sale was enough to sustain operations on paper. In reality, the operation was not close to break even. It needed constant external pumping of funds.

Consulting solution from Odyssey Consulting: After cost deployment analysis, we identified that machine utilizationi.e. OEE is the key factor. We evaluated various Industry 4.0 solutions and selected a suitable solution provided by India based software company. Accurate and real time OEE measurement was possible through sensors attached to machine output. This Output was fed to remote desktop and mobile devices. Such data was analysed by the corporate teams located in the Pune city centre.

Results: Productivity meetings were held every day at the end of shift with remote video conference call. Top 3 losses were identified. Root case of low OEE was identified and corrective actions were taken. OEE was improved and spare capacity in machines was created. Spare capacity of machines were utilized for the business opportunity. This resulted in improved revenue and hence profits.

One of salient features of this activity was corporate team was able control and improve plant operations of multiple plants remotely from the same corporate office. Machine dashboard of such system is shown below.

This improved control-method enhanced confidence of investors. Additional 5 machines were purchased within 6 months. This contributed revenue growth by 45% in one year since Industry 4.0 and IoT was implemented. 4th industrial revolution is here to stay and it will be effectively implemented in countries like India and China as profit margins are very thin in these countries.