How to Digitize Manufacturing with the Apvine MTS built on Mendix

Apvine MTS: The best of custom and OOB MES software solutions

Choosing the right digitization strategy for manufacturers is often perceived as choosing between an out-of-the-box (OOB) digital manufacturing execution system and a custom build.

An OOB manufacturing execution system is fast to deploy, but a one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t always work for tailored workflows or non-traditional business models. Disconnected toolkit customizations that approximate MES functionality often devolve into technical debt before revealing substantive quality improvements. This is especially true when systems don’t naturally communicate with each other.

How MTS accelerates digital manufacturing initiatives

Improving operations with purpose-built tools for manufacturing and digital transformation means your enterprise doesn’t have to compromise.

• Optimized collaboration and communication between business and IT units reduces thrash and dev backlogs
• Low-code application development means each manufacturer can mold module operations to their business model in less time, with fewer resources
• Dynamic starting points let manufacturers build their digital transformation and prioritize plans based on their business needs instead of a prescribed workflow
• Manufacturing-specific MTS modules provide an alternative to the traditional digitization dilemma of either a tailored performance or a fast deployment time

MTS delivers process optimization in manufacturing at the pace of an OOB solution without sacrificing customization.

Connect your tools, systems, and people

Dashboard controls make incorporating data sources easier and more actionable than available ready-made products, and generic manufacturer toolkits and MES integrations.

Integrated data sources lead to better metrics visibility and can help with crucial modern manufacturing deliverables such as traceability. Communication across modules is baked into the Apvine MTS, reducing operational bottlenecks.

Cloud-ready and easy to migrate

All applications built on Mendix, including the Apvine MTS, are cloud-native, containerized, and portable by default. Manufacturers can customize, grow, and scale their applications beyond the capabilities of traditional MES solution, without rearchitecting or redesigning.

Migrating from one environment to another and incorporating custom governance frameworks are easy and fast to implement using the Apvine low-code app suite.

Sustainable, cost-effective, and governable

With the MTS, your enterprise can eliminate paperwork while reducing human touchpoints and manual errors. Your enterprise can create automated governance checkpoints, reports, and warnings for any manufacturing need — from warehouse temperatures to recipe management.

MTS modules were built to ensure process efficiency, resource optimization, and regulations compliance.

Apvine’s low-code MTS: Optimized for Digital Manufacturers

There are a lot of tools out there that can help your cloud migration, build your enterprise dashboard, and automate your business processes.

The ease of implementation, future-proof flexibility, and unlimited scalability of the Mendix low-code templates make Apvine’s MTS different. Further, Apvine’s deep knowledge of low-code application development and manufacturing workflows help organizations build an appropriate digital execution plan. Apvine even hosts workshops and builds roadmaps to support enterprises’ rapid transition past traditional MES software solutions.

Get the most out of your manufacturing efficiency software

Pre-built, reusable components within the MTS suite combine to build limitless solutions. These composable components are quickly assembled and can be implemented from any starting point. Using the Mendix model-driven development framework, developers of all skill levels can leverage their industry knowledge to customize MTS modules. There’s even an extensive library of pre-built, reusable components in the Mendix Marketplace to accelerate projects.

Empower your team to build better manufacturing processes together

With the MTS, enterprises can assign user roles with appropriate access to views and create permissions for different business processes.

For instance, users on the shop floor have mobile access to the tools they need for the production job at hand, eliminating the need for paperwork and reducing human touchpoints.

Additional robust collaboration tools make communicating across modules and developing business process solutions easier. Pre-built components deemphasize coding and can also reduce development timelines.

With shorter implementation cycles, clear communication channels, and lower operational costs, manufacturing enterprises have more bandwidth for technology-related improvements.

Apvine MTS has the modules and collaboration tools manufacturers need

Each MTS module focuses on a different area of the digital manufacturing process, from quality and recipe management to visibility into downtime causes and order-related metrics. The Apvine user-centered approach to the MTS is designed to help enterprises collaborate easier and build faster.

Apvine fosters co-creation by leveraging low-code development so that business users do not need to code to build solutions. Better communication between business and IT leads to shorter development cycles, rapid innovation prototyping, and more tailored solutions. Business managers and domain experts can apply their knowledge to expedite the deployment of low-code apps.

The composable Mendix apps come grouped to maximize each module’s benefit. But unlike a ready-made OOB product, the MTS is built to be tailored and easily adapted to each manufacturer’s needs. The following modules are included in the Apvine MTS and are ready to be molded to your specific processes.

Downtimes module

You can reduce your production interruptions and improve operational efficiency when you better understand the problems of your manufacturing hardware.

The Downtimes module allows your enterprise to record and monitor the causes, durations, and impacts of machine and equipment hindrances, breakdowns, and hold-ups.

With a comprehensive view of downtime incidents, you can better identify patterns, predict trends, and take preventative action.

Lists (SOP) module

Create hassle-free registration and management processes for manufacturing standard operating procedures (SOPs). The Lists module combines user management, approval workflows, and version control to manage SOP complexity, ensure compliance, and optimize traceability. Lists are also easy to build and update as your enterprise adapts to new business requirements and operating procedures.

Quality Management module

Quality Management makes accessing, combining, and responding to data from several quality sources easier. With this module, your enterprise can enforce standards and identify risks before they become more significant issues. Exploring long-term trends with the Quality Management module can help an enterprise identify new areas of improvement. Quality Management can also ensure product standards and help manufacturers keep operations running smoothly.

Order Cockpit module

The Order Cockpit is an all-inclusive dashboard for production and processing order-related information. The cockpit offers real-time status updates that help manufacturing enterprises make informed decisions and respond quicker. The user-friendly and intuitive interface helps manufacturers manage material consumption, waste reporting, operator time tracking, and other order-related tasks.

Manufacturing enterprises also use the Order Cockpit to track a product from raw material to a finished state, improving traceability and mitigating any recall or inventory issues as they happen. Finally, the cockpit makes monitoring and reducing costs and waste easier to manage.

Recipe Management module

Recipe Management provides manufacturers with an efficient way of cataloging and storing settings and other information to optimize machine operations for product consistency.

This module gives manufacturing enterprises a holistic look at every parameter influencing production, from speed to temperature to pressure. With an intuitive, easy-to-use dashboard, your enterprise can update, apply, and share the ideal settings for each end product.

Insights module

Insights access data points from every module to better understand business operations. This module uncovers valuable business intelligence and aids in keeping the other operational module cores clean through programmable, efficient archiving.

The Insights module can create templatized interactive reports out of the box, including Overall Operations Effectiveness (OOE), Downtimes, Scrap, and many other report templates.

Digitize your MES with Tools Built for Manufacturing

It’s easy to see the best-of-both-worlds value in the MTS approach. Customizations are modular and easy to implement. Manufacturers don’t have to sacrifice the quick-to-launch appeal of an OOB solution.

But, over time, the real benefits start to add up:

• Increased visibility from the Order Cockpit informs long-term supply strategy
• Efficiency gains discovered while tracking machine downtimes can improve the overall bottom line
• Low-code makes it easier to integrate new technology and maintain a long-term competitive advantage

Reach out to learn more about Apvine’s Manufacturing Template Suite built on the Mendix platform and see how your enterprise can benefit from incorporating low-code technology into your business processes.