Inergy Automotive Slovakia is a joint venture of the French Plastic Omnium and the Belgian Solvay which has its production plant in the Lozorno industrial zone. Inergy Automotive Slovakia particularly focuses on the production of plastic fuel tanks. The solution on the basis of the InfoPanels system brought the improvement of the presentation of information about production and contributes to the improvement of informing the individual employees of the enterprise.
Situation
Inergy Automotive Slovakia particularly focuses on the production of plastic fuel tanks, mainly for VW models produced in Děvínska Nova Ves (VW Toua reg, VW Polo, Audi Q7, Por sche cayanne) and the Chrysler Voyager model. The manufactur ing processes are per formed in three manufacturing chains. Information about the actual production was displayed on boards which were updated several times during a shift. The main disadvantage of the existing solution was the updating character of the “displays” and the high costs for labour force performing the updating.
Business Objectives
The key requirements were the replacement of the existing displays with an electronic information system. The servicing staff of the system were not to excessively overload the user, but be simple and intuitive. The other requirement was to keep the server part of the existing system where the data about the production was stored. The simple administration of the system had to be kept with respect to the fact that in total, 13 display units were used. These units had to be in a variant to be used for an environment with an increased temperature and occurrence of dust.
Solution
For the solution it was necessary to select such HW and SW which would ensure reliable permanent operation of the application together with the support of standard technologies and data formats. For these types of applications, the InfoPanels from the company ELVAC were used whose HW platform is based on plasma and LCD displays complete with built-in PC, communication is performed through the Ethernet network in whose centre is a high-performance server. SW InfoPanels is developed on the basis of Microsoft Net, the key storage area is Microsoft SQL Server. Built-in PCs for the display units work with the MS Windows XP Embedded operating system.
The main reason for the selection of the Microsoft Windows platform was the wide support for standard data formats and multimedia. The use of Net technology, available components and development tools from the MS Visual Studio package enables the effective development of the application with a standard user environment. A disadvantage of this comfort is the higher demand for performance and memory which must be taken into consideration during HW selection.
The InfoPanels system for visualization of the manufacturing data enables the on-line display of information about the number of produced pieces, plan fulfilment and the status of individual manufacturing units. The display of this data is implemented by means of LCD display units in 17“ and 19“sizes. The installed InfoPanels system which was implemented in accordance with the IPS standard and INERGY visual management rules, enables the display of the following data:
- Name of the workplace
- Production plan
- Number of produced pieces
- Fulfilment of plan (in pieces and %)
- Number of defective pieces
- Status of the device
The visualization system is based on client – server architecture. The main element of the system is the control server which gathers data from the existing production SQL server, where the SW production is running (Production SW and Traceability SW). For the connection of the display units, a data network is used (ETHERNET). The server operating system used is the Windows 2003 server. The SW control is based on the InfoPanels server which ensures:
- Input of data from the Production SW application (source of the planned production programme)
- Input into the traceability application (source of the number of produced and defective pieces in the workplace)
- Inputs of buttons serving for entering the status of individual machines.
- Diagnostics and monitoring of the system
Control units for displays periodically check the requirements and ensure the display according to the adjusted graphic diagrams – layouts. For creation of layouts and the connection of dynamic elements to data sources the LayoutEditor graphic design module is used.
Benefits
With the implementation of the InfoPanels system the stated requirements were met. The highly developed technology and professional appearance of the final solution brought an improvement in the informing of employees. A permanent summary for the status of the individual lines and about the actual number of produced pieces is ensured.
Products and Technologies
Microsoft .Net 2.0
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Microsoft Windows XP Embedded
InfoPanels Server
InfoPanels Player
InfoPanels Explorer
InfoPanels LayoutEditor