NTN Kugellagerfabrik GmbH

MES GOT THE BALL ROLLING

Competition in the industry is fierce, general quality levels outstanding. Trump cards that can still be played are short delivery times and the ability to react fast to customer requests. NTN Kugellagerfabrik GmbH is in the process of setting new records in these areas through the introduction of a web based MES system.

At NTN Kugellagerfabrik GmbH in Mettmann, situated in Germany’s Lower Bergisch region, they really know how to get things rolling. The company is the German subsidiary of the NTN Corporation, one of the world’s market leaders for bearings, CV joints, linear modules, auxiliary and tensioning idlers, as well as suspension components.

With over 24,000 employees, 73 locations and 118 sales offices worldwide, NTN Corporation is one of the big players in this technology sector. The Group has 14 production sites in Europe.

From bearings to hydraulic and mechanical belt tensioners – the portfolio offers a whole range of products

NTN Kugellagerfabrik GmbH is the production site for the Group’s extremely broad range of bearings, comprising numerous articles with bore diameters spanning 10 to 120 millimeters – one of the largest and most diversified product portfolios on the global market. Their customers primarily come from the automotive industry and from across the entire mechanical engineering sector.

In their SPB division (Super Precision Bearings) at the factory in Mettmann, which has been in existence since 2018, NTN manufactures precision bearings that meet P42 quality requirements (P4 dimensional and P2 running accuracy). This means that they can machine the bores to a micron tolerance, i.e. these are products of the highest dimensional quality.

“But let’s not fool ourselves,” says Andreas Kotulla, Quality Manager at NTN in Mettmann, putting the brakes on the enthusiasm. “When it comes to production quality, there’s not much difference between the premium suppliers in the industry. We are on a par with all the other manufacturers. A competitive edge can be gained through having shorter delivery times and being more flexible than other competitors on the market. And this is where we are currently setting new standards!”

What leaves him looking so calm and cheerful about the distribution of power in the competitive environment are the first productivity and resource utilization evaluations following the successful implementation of a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in the fall of 2019. “Despite the fact that Corona has not exactly made it easy for us – like just about any other company – to evaluate the indicators in the spring and summer of 2020, the trend is more than obvious. Thanks to the introduction of the MES system, I now expect productivity to increase by almost 30 percent,” says Andreas Kotulla with conviction.

Target: Cut delivery times by half

“I even consider it realistic to be able to cut delivery times by half as a result of an optimized resource planning process,” forecasts Andreas Kotulla – a trump card that is difficult to beat in the fierce competition amongst bearing suppliers.

What causes the quality manager at NTN in Mettmann to look ahead with so much confidence is just how effective the selected MES solution actually is. “We decided on an innovative alternative that differs significantly from the concept behind most common MES systems: A completely web-based solution.” Or, to be more precise: MESQ-it, supplied by the German Böhme & Weihs Systemtechnik GmbH & Co. KG company in Wuppertal.

Alexander Harder, departmental Head of MES Sales at Böhme & Weihs, outlines the idea behind the concept: “MESQ-it is the first MES solution to go down a completely different road – moving away from thinking in modules and towards a function-based, integrated workplace – with no toggling or switching between modules. Successive work steps are now processed back-to-back – exactly matching the user’s processes.”

And indeed, the solution presents a highly impressive and intuitive picture. From a programming perspective, this solution includes all the MES functions required by VDI Guideline 5600 in a compact, single-module design, many of which are implemented by NTN. Due to its web-based design, MESQ-it runs without needing to be installed separately on every terminal device: On PCs, tablets, smartphones – and under any web browser. This means that the user can access and use the information and functions anytime and anywhere – be it directly at the workplace, moving around within the company, on a business trip or in the home office – with absolutely no restrictions on functionality whatsoever.

ERP, CAQ and MES wisely connected

Irrespective of these obvious benefits, NTN also had other reasons for deciding on this solution offered by the Wuppertal-based system house. “We have been deploying several CAQ modules from the CASQ-it software package supplied by Böhme & Weihs for a number of years now and have had really great experience with them so far – especially when it comes to flexibility and customer orientation,” explains NTN Quality Manager Andreas Kotulla.

In this service area, it always makes sense to choose just one provider – a solution partner that offers both components – CAQ and MES – from a single source. Such integrated solutions avoid redundancies during the data collection and evaluation processes. When used in combination, MES and CAQ provide an integrated overview of the production and process quality levels. In addition, this provides the users at the company with a consistent and familiar user interface. Last but not least, deploying a one-shop CAQ and MES solution also allows considerable cost savings to be achieved since no extra effort is needed to link up the systems, for example via an individual interface.

Against this backdrop, there was no doubt whatsoever, according to Andreas Kotulla, that NTN would take the next step hand-in-hand with Böhme & Weihs.

And this step was a decisive one with respect to further automating the process steps. “In the previous set-up, there was no connection at all between the CAQ system and our existing ERP system. Neither were the production machines and gauges connected”, summarizes Alexander Harder the original situation. This meant that all the machine data had to be recorded manually in Excel sheets – with readings being manually entered into the ERP system – a procedure which naturally required an enormous amount of time and where the risk of making mistakes was high.

Failure causes drastically reduced

Thanks to being able to link up all three systems – MES, CAQ and ERP – through the implementation of an MES solution, these single points of failure are now past history for NTN. MESQ-it now acts as an interface between the ERP system and the process automation systems. Positioned where it is, MESQ-it ensures, on the one hand, that the huge amount of data from the production processes is assimilated to provide transparent information. On the other hand, it also controls the execution of the processes specified in the current detailed plan whilst taking into account the feedback received from the production processes.
For example, the master data pertaining to the individual articles are now automatically transferred from the ERP to the MES and CAQ systems. This means that master data now only need to be managed in one system, namely ERP. At the end of the day, a significantly reduced failure rate during the data collection process, as well as an enormous time gain due to being able to save on numerous work steps, have been achieved.

For NTN, the connection between the MES system and the SPC module of the CAQ system serves to further accelerate the processes. Apart from being able to statistically control the processes, the information on “OK” and “not OK” parts is automatically recorded in MESQ-it and the respective quantities transferred to the ERP system.

“As a result, MESQ-it automatically provides the company with a wealth of indicators that NTN was previously only able to calculate in an extremely time-consuming fashion via a collection of different Excel tables – or which simply did not exist beforehand,” summarizes Alexander Harder.

Impressive abundance of indicators

MESQ-it consolidates the production data into a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). These include both workplace and machine-related indicators, as well as universal indicators used to evaluate how the production process is organized. These KPIs allow the progress and extent to which the production targets have been fulfilled, as well as critical success factors, to be transparently evaluated.

Based on this information, MESQ-it is able to virtually create a digital image of the whole production process, rendering production events immediately visible and detecting planning errors and optimization potential straight away. For example, this provides NTN with an overview which lets them quickly spot where there are waiting times at machines that would generally allow faster through-times – and whether resources are being optimally utilized.

As a result, response speeds, adherence to deadlines and profitability drastically improved during the first few months following the go-live of the MES system in the fall of 2019. Additionally, delivery times could also be considerably shortened – an important competitive edge going forward.

“So, I can confirm that Boehme & Weihs has really got the ball rolling for us. Just as it should be for a ball bearing manufacturer”, sums up Quality Manager Andreas Kotulla with satisfaction.

Industry 4.0 in its genes

MESQ-it has already got what it takes to internationalize users with a global presence in its programming genes. This is because it operates completely cloud-based, i.e. it can connect up to any machine within a company – at any of its facilities worldwide. And beyond company boundaries, if necessary – in keeping with the digital factory concept. MESQ-it can then take all the resource, order and production event information from the company cloud and consolidate it on a central web server so that it is up-to-date and available at all times. This is also an exciting concept for NTN with respect to the next steps in the Industry 4.0 process.