One screen runs the whole production floor, instead of an ERP and several tools
- Sector
- Surface treatment (luxury watchmaking, medical, leather goods)
- Size
- SME, around 50 people
- Region
- Swiss Jura Arc
What we delivered : A locally hosted web application, screens driven by Raspberry Pi, per-user access rights
The challenge
Coordination between logistics, production, quality and maintenance used to run through the ERP and several separate tools. Every piece of information sat somewhere different, nobody had a live overview, and people often had to pick up the phone to find out where a batch stood or whether a machine had a problem. A lot of wasted time, mostly in communication.
The solution
We built a custom web application, hosted locally on their site. Each batch shows up on screen as a sticky note holding all of its details. For every machine and every program we set a cycle time, so the application works out on its own when a treatment will finish. Production starts a batch with one click and flags an issue with a right click. Planned maintenance is visible to everyone. Each screen is driven by a Raspberry Pi controlled from the interface, and shows the view that fits its station. On top of that there are per-user access rights, a live view of who is doing what and who is logged in, and an internal chat for sensitive information.
The result
The clearest change is in communication. What used to cost the most time, the back-and-forth and the phone calls between teams, can now be read at a glance on the screen. The ERP and the various tools are gone, replaced by a single interface, and all four departments work from the same real-time view. The display was tuned station by station, exactly the way they wanted it.
In their words
"I can see at a glance which batches are running and when they finish. No more back-and-forth and phone calls."
"Maintenance work is shown to everyone, nobody gets caught off guard anymore."
"Our teams used to juggle the ERP and several tools. Now everything is in one place and visible in real time. If we had to do it again, we would, without hesitation."
"The display is set up for my station, it really makes the day easier."
We work for luxury watchmaking and medical clients, fields where discretion is a given. So we don't share our clients' names: confidentiality is part of our craft.