Intelligence software to optimise Nissan plants

A GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms UK product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 2, 2006

Nissan North America has chosen an enterprise manufacturing intelligence solution that will ultimately help Nissan reduce downtime at two of its manufacturing plants.

Nissan North America has chosen Proficy Plant Applications Version 4.2 for an enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) solution that will ultimately help Nissan reduce downtime at two of its manufacturing plants.

"GE Fanuc has been Nissan's automation software partner for mission critical applications for more than 15 years", said Jeff Garwood, CEO of GE Fanuc Automation.

"This latest solution leverages our strategic relationship and Nissan's existing software infrastructure to improve their overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)".

The Nissan solution, which includes the downtime, scrap and reject tracking and reporting capabilities found within the efficiency and quality modules, resulted from a need to identify which processes were causing the most downtime and where their bottlenecks were.

The company was looking for a common solution to deploy at both its Smyrna and Canton facilities in all process areas including stamping, body, paint, and assembly, The Nissan/GE Fanuc team conducted a pilot which demonstrated Plant Applications' rapid deployment capability with a three-day "start to live" production system that yielded results such as: easy configurability, ability to clone configurations, variable data in the context of events, statistical analysis to determine "normal" and set limits, ready-to-use web reports with drill down, the ability to leverage Excel for additional analysis and reporting, and automatic detection and interpretation of downtime reasons.

Proficy Plant Applications will allow Nissan to continue to leverage its existing technology investments.

It currently employs hundreds of Proficy Cimplicity HMI stations, which are deployed across their North American plants.

In addition, Proficy Tracker is used as the backbone for Nissan's MES-based integrated production management and control systems.

The large application footprint also allows the IT staff to make use of critical downtime fault codes, triggers and logic already in place.

Proficy Plant Applications is a unique software solution that digitises the collective information being generated throughout production facilities into a "virtual plant" that can be accessed where, when and how it is needed.

It allows measurement and monitoring of performance across key criteria in real-time.

With a core set of scalable modules focused on the most critical aspects of production - efficiency, quality, production and batch analysis - Plant Applications allows users to leverage the specific applications needed to deliver the greatest return on investment in these areas.

And with integrated web-based reports, key performance indicators (KPIs) and notification services available with all Proficy modules, it is the complete solution for making real-time decisions throughout the plant.

"Manufacturers should invest in enterprise performance management (EPM) tools at the plant level to provide an immediate ROI", said Kevin Mixer in the August 2004 AMR Research Report, "Automotive industry outlook: profits and compliance require IT investments to boost vehicle quality".

"By targeting the operations equipment effectiveness (OEE) performance metrics, plants have seen an increase in effectiveness from 55% to 75% in less than six months and ROI in less than 12 months".

"Hard savings have come from expanded capacity, lower premium freight, and reduced overtime".