Location: VA 22603 Winchester, Virginia, United States · Industry: Injection moulding, plastics processing, reusable packaging, logistics · Products: Plastic reusable containers, folding boxes, pallets, bulk containers and logistics packaging · ERP: Proprietary system · Website: https://miworldwide.com/ · S4P modules: KraussMaffei Easytrace powered by 4SPC
Initial situation
Production at Monoflo International is characterised by high volumes, short cycle times and a continuous material flow. Manufacturing is controlled via a proprietary ERP system that has grown over many years and covers commercial and scheduling processes. For gap-free traceability and transparent machine data collection in injection moulding, this system alone was not sufficient. With around 400 employees and a large number of injection moulding machines, a scalable shop-floor solution was needed that integrates without deep intervention in the existing IT landscape.
Challenge
The goal was to capture injection moulding production gap-free and in real time without interfering with the existing proprietary ERP system. The requirements were reliable machine and operating data collection, transparent display of order progress and machine states, and a solid data basis for OEE calculation. In addition, good and scrap quantities per order and machine had to be captured reliably and downtime had to be documented with fault reasons in order to identify targeted optimisation potential.
Solution
The traceability and shop-floor solution Easytrace is deployed, directly connecting the injection moulding machines and automatically capturing production, operating and machine data. The solution integrates into the existing system landscape and makes the captured data available for evaluations and feedback. Machine states, production counters, good and scrap quantities and downtime reasons are captured in real time and prepared for OEE calculation. Traceability of the manufactured containers, pallets and logistics packaging is ensured across the entire production process.
Results and benefits
Monoflo International now has end-to-end transparency in injection moulding production. Machine and operating states are visible in real time, fault reasons are documented and KPIs such as OEE can be determined reliably. This creates the foundation for continuous improvement of equipment efficiency and data-driven decision-making in shop-floor management. Manual records are largely eliminated, and production data is available promptly for evaluations, reports and quality evidence.