EIS Deployment of Flexxbotics for Factory-Wide Autonomous Process Control

The Problem

Increase production efficiency and uptime

As part of the EIS Industrial Digital Transformation Initiative (IDTI), EIS needed to improve production efficiency, reduce downtime, and achieve real-time tracking of actual manufacturing with greater accuracy in high mix output rates and cycle-times.

The Solution

Flexxbotics used for autonomous process control

“Scalability was a key criteria in our selection process. We rolled-out the solution across more than 100 machines in our factory which Flexxbotics makes possible,” said William Hoose, General Manager of SIS, an EIS company.

Flexxbotics enabled autonomous process control by creating a connected manufacturing environment where order prioritization, margin optimization, and operational decision-making are driven by live production data.

“Flexxbotics deploys quickly so we gain insight accuracy and closed-loop capabilities for autonomous process control at scale,” said William Hoose, General Manager of SIS, an EIS company.

Bringing equipment data together with business systems establishes the closed-loop feedback required for EIS to achieve greater levels of autonomy across the entire plant. With Flexxbotics multiple active production orders are tracked simultaneously across factory workcells with data flowing directly into the ERP system for real-time performance, part rates, and machine data without manual intervention.

“Flexxbotics provides us with better data-driven operations across our manufacturing footprint,” said William Hoose, General Manager of SIS, an EIS company.

Flexxbotics open connectivity to a wide range of IT systems future-proofs the factory for further digitalization initiatives involving other solutions. With Flexxbotics in place, adding new automation becomes straightforward as well, turning automation enablement from a complex leap into a scalable, repeatable step toward greater manufacturing autonomy.

“Flexxbotics enabled us to quickly identify the root cause of our downtime issues and provided effective resolution to maximize our utilization and performance,” explained William Hoose, Plant Manager at EIS.

The intelligent monitoring capabilities included with Flexxbotics identified specific improvement opportunities leading to the elimination of 89% of unplanned downtime and a 12% increase in utilization even with demand fluctuations.

• Autonomous Process Control – Flexxbotics ability to pinpoint performance issues and take action autonomously for precision manufacturing repeatability.
• Rapid Deployment – During the initial rollout, Flexxbotics was installed on six automation cells before lunch avoiding downtime during rollout.
• IT Systems Connectivity – Flexxbotics secure connectivity with EIS’s existing and future enterprise IT systems provides a unified, real-time data flow.
• Controller Interoperability – Seamlessly connects and orchestrates more than 1,000 makes and models of factory machines and automation equipment.
• Automation-Ready Foundation – With Flexxbotics deployed, adding automation becomes a standardized and scalable process toward greater manufacturing autonomy.