In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses across various industries are embracing digital transformation to optimize their operations and gain a competitive edge. This case study sheds light on the success story of a global food company and its partnership with Omnicon’s Digital Transformation (DT) Consulting team. Together, they embarked on a transformative journey to implement a Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM)/Manufacturing Execution System (MES) program, which included an integration with control and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems aimed at streamlining processes, enhancing operational excellence, and achieving standardized operation across multiple sites in North America.
The client, a renowned industry leader, is involved in a diverse range of activities, including trading, purchasing, and distributing agricultural commodities, livestock production, and manufacturing food ingredients such as corn syrup (sweeteners), ethanol, starches, etc. This company pursued optimizing its operations by implementing a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) through the digitalization of its operations resulting in a significant reduction of manual activities within more than ten different sites in North America.
Key drivers in this case study food Industry:
Omnicon’s DT consulting team provided support with the following key drivers identified by the customer for the MES/ERP integration program:
- Providing common tools for operational excellence: To foster manufacturing operational excellence, the client aimed to establish a standardized framework and common set of tools across all sites, ensuring streamlined processes and facilitating seamless collaboration.
- Reducing previously time-consuming manual tasks such as data entry, documentation, and reporting by digitalization, allowing employees to focus on more value-added activities. This efficiency gain not only accelerated decision-making processes by having relevant information available but also improved overall productivity, contributing to a more agile and competitive operation.
- Incorporating best practices into future plant builds: By identifying existing MOM processes within operational sites, the client sought to capture valuable insights and incorporate best practices into future plant builds, promoting continuous improvement and optimization.
- Facilitating continuous improvement initiatives: The client aimed to leverage the MES/ERP program to identify non-value-added activities and streamline production processes. The program aimed to provide visual information to empower discussions and drive potential changes or improvements.
- Enabling standardized representation and comparison: Standardizing processes and activities across multiple sites would enable the business to perform meaningful comparisons, identify best practices, and drive consistency in performance, ensuring optimal utilization of resources.
Omnicon’s role in achieving success:
Omnicon’s DT Consulting team played an important role in supporting the MES/ERP integration program, leveraging their expertise to address the program’s goals effectively. The team used their own consulting methodology, combined with the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard for the activities workflow representation, and adhered to the ISA 95 standard for the process modeling to support the program prior to an implementation phase. This approach enabled Omnicon’s DT Consulting team to view the end-to-end manufacturing process, identify opportunities for optimization, and ensure efficient operations. The following highlights Omnicon’s contributions:
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Information gathering and analysis:
Omnicon’s consultants collaborated closely with the client’s subject matter experts (SMEs), conducting in-depth interviews and workshops to gain a comprehensive understanding of the existing business activities. By engaging with key stakeholders and gathering pertinent information, Omnicon’s DT Consulting team meticulously assessed the client’s unique requirements and challenges. This allowed them to devise tailored solutions that aligned with the client’s vision, objectives, and operational landscape.
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Designing and implementing a solution:
Drawing upon their expertise in MOM/MES systems, Omnicon’s consultants worked hand in hand with the client and the Smart Manufacturing team to design and implement a standardized solution that encompassed key manufacturing processes. This solution was initially implemented in 10 different sites across North America, and then it was used as a reference for the solution built in other countries such as Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, China, and Russia. This solution enabled seamless integration, data orchestration, and process optimization across all sites.
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Change management and support:
During the change management phase, Omnicon diligently captured and understood the various change requests that arose throughout the implementation process and even after the go-live stage. Recognizing the importance of accommodating these requests and facilitating continuous improvement, Omnicon’s team gathered and documented the requirements. This allowed them to design and reflect the necessary changes in the documentation, ensuring that the information was readily available for developers and stakeholders. By seamlessly incorporating these changes, Omnicon enabled the client to adapt and evolve their MES/ERP integration program to meet dynamic business needs while maintaining operational excellence.
If you are interested in learning more about how Omnicon’s DT Consulting team can help your organization embark on a transformative journey, we invite you to visit our webpage.