IMES Intelligent Manufacturing Execution System

Intelligent Manufacturing Execution System

Intelligent Manufacturing Execution System (IMES) is the core function of Fangtian T-ONE 2025 version. It fully integrates APS, LP, MES, WIP, AGV, SPC, LoT, OEE, and EPM into one IMES system. It is an application software used to assist the factory's manufacturing, production management, material management, quality control, and engineering personnel to collect on-site data and track and control on-site manufacturing processes. The application areas include mold, plastic, hardware, machinery, electronics and other industry processes, providing enterprises with enterprise information infrastructure to improve processes and increase production efficiency.

1. Product Features

Fangtian IMES is for tracking and controlling the automation and process of manufacturing sites. The system collects various information from the production site in real time, provides managers with accurate real-time information, and organizes and analyzes data to assist managers in making correct management decisions. In order to solve the related needs of production process variation, process flexibility, tight delivery and delivery control at the manufacturing site and effectively improve the utilization rate of high-value equipment, IMES effectively tracks, manages and controls the work-in-progress, process parameters, raw materials, machine conditions, process scheduled production conditions and actual production results in manufacturing activities, and meets the needs of customers and manufacturing sites in real time, helping management units make correct decisions to enhance corporate competitiveness. The MES system functional architecture diagram and system component diagram of IMES are shown below.

2. Function Introduction

Work in Process (WIP) Tracking and Control

The "Work in Process (WIP) System" is a major application system in the IMES integrated solution. Its main purpose is to control the production process, equipment and process parameters of the factory's work orders, production lots or components, and track the production process so that the on-site data can be recorded in real time and accurately, providing accurate and real-time production information to on-site supervisors and business units, in order to achieve the goal of accurate and rapid on-site and business decision-making.

The online execution module is responsible for processing work order opening, production batch opening (or component offline), process card (RunCard) printing, inbound and outbound processing operations, and also performs posting data input processing (such as: Check-In, Check-Out) of each operation station according to the production line control logic set in the engineering data module. In addition, it also includes exception processing, exception processing, batch splitting, batch merging and outsourcing functions. In order to meet the changing production characteristics of the target industry, in addition to logging the necessary defective product categories and quantities, abnormal batch processing can also perform batch splitting, batch merging, rework, station skipping, process skipping, temporary outsourcing and other processing capabilities. In addition, considering the possibility of operator data input errors, production management personnel or authorized foremen can perform unlimited station backtracking (Undo) functions and return to the appropriate station to modify the data.

Statistical Process Control (SPC)

The SPC system is a quality control (Statistical Process Control) solution in IMES. By collecting various counting or measurement quality information in the process in real time, and setting warnings and control rules through statistical control methods, the abnormalities or trends of the process can be known in real time, and improvement actions can be taken in real time. The goal is to quickly restore the normal process and reduce the product defect rate.

Quality control project parameter setting

Quality control items (measurement/counting) and control conditions can be customized according to actual needs; different control conditions (such as customers, products, equipment, molds, etc.) form each control chart. Users can customize control specification limits (USL, LSL, UCL, CL, LCL), group sampling numbers, and control rules (West Electric Rules and custom rules), or sampling levels, acceptance levels (AQL) as a judgment for online control and analysis. It has complete and good system flexibility and scalability.

Information Collection and Control

The collection of counting and measuring quality data provides three collection methods: machine connection, manual input and file transfer. During the inspection process, the system will actively obtain WIP production data, related control settings and test samples to provide appropriate input interfaces, and draw control charts (Xbar-R, Xbar-S, X-Rm) based on the acceptance and rejection standards of the control settings or sampling plans, determine the inspection results in real time, generate quality exception orders, and trigger exception notifications.

Quality Analysis

Provides statistical analysis and processing of multiple levels (such as customers, products, equipment, molds, etc.), including inspection batch quality status query, analysis of various related control charts (Xbar-R, Xbar-S, X-Rm, histogram, Pareto chart, etc.), statistical reports, control chart browsing, etc. Through the results of various statistical analyses, the relevant control settings can be revised, and can be provided to quality control, engineering, manufacturing, etc. related personnel as the main basis for the process to immediately set product quality goals, handle abnormal causes, or improve the process.

Equipment utilization efficiency (OEE)

There are many types and numbers of production equipment in the factory. Effective tracking and management of the status of production equipment is important for mastering on-site equipment, improving equipment utilization, equipment scheduling and dispatching, which are important bases for enterprises to improve machine utilization, increase production capacity and reduce process cycle time. The IMES EMS system is a dedicated equipment control solution that can accurately and real-timely record all useful information of the machine, improve machine utilization, and also help to quickly adjust the production line in response to market demand.

Equipment Preventive Maintenance (EPM)

The EPM system in IMES provides complete equipment maintenance functions, which can notify engineers in real time when equipment fails, and can also perform maintenance tasks under scheduled, quantitative or real-time requirements. Its functions include equipment inspection, failure, maintenance, etc., covering most equipment quality requirements.

EPM's equipment failure call repair function provides real-time fault notification and maintenance resource management. In terms of equipment maintenance, the EPM system formulates the entire maintenance plan in multiple modes such as scheduled, quantitative and demand maintenance. When a maintenance work order is offline, the equipment management personnel will be notified in advance, so that the equipment's operating status can be better controlled. During maintenance, the relevant spare parts and tools will be listed in the maintenance work order, and even the standard operating procedures for maintenance will be presented in the system interface. All kinds of information are for better service quality, so that users can obtain sufficient resources.

3. Application Value of IMES

The IMES system must be able to connect with existing equipment: The company hopes to integrate the IMES system with automation equipment through equipment networking, and to collect real-time data such as equipment process parameters, output, and production speed for analysis and assessment. The IMES system can meet the key needs of injection molding workshops, stamping workshops, etc. in equipment networking, work order dispatching, drawing SOP release, mold collection, quality inspection, etc. Through the SCADA data acquisition platform, core data such as real-time machine tool parameters, set parameters, real-time status, production counts, etc. can be collected, laying a solid foundation for the company to achieve intelligent transformation.

Production Scheduling

When formulating production schedules, factors such as the shelf life of materials, semi-finished product inventory, combined production of products with the same mold, priority capacity constraints, delivery constraints, and day and night shift priorities need to be considered. When scheduling, the Fangtian IMES system first schedules production for the key processes of each section, and schedules the process accurately to the minute according to the constraints. Other processes are executed in accordance with the key processes. When an abnormality occurs in the production process, the production scheduling module can automatically identify it based on the data collected by the equipment and quickly adjust the production capacity.

Feeding management

Feeding management can scan the code to identify logistics and batches, and prevent errors and fools. In specific applications, due to the large packaging of materials and the difficulty in handling, all raw materials are affixed with barcodes when they are received, including material code, batch, quantity and other information. Fangtian IMES system scans the material barcode through a wireless serial port scanner, and automatically identifies the material specifications based on the barcode and feeding specification requirements, and determines whether the feeding is correct based on the material batch and first-in-first-out rules, thereby meeting the requirements of foolproofing.

Production monitoring

Through scientific scheduling and real-time monitoring, Fangtian IMES system can effectively manage shift handover, waste collection, production machine allocation, and machine material return and other workshop sites, achieving management goals that cannot be achieved by scheduling based on experience. The system provides real-time feedback on production status, and implements on-site process control and monitoring of material information, process information, equipment information, and defective rate in the production process. Through production visualization interface, visualization, and electronic kanban management, it displays production site status information in real time, improves equipment energy efficiency, and ensures that production progress is carried out as planned.

Equipment Monitoring

Fangtian IMES system collects equipment operating status, automatically records equipment startup and shutdown time, calculates equipment utilization, and provides complete detailed classification of the location and cause of shutdown events. It calculates and generates equipment production utilization rate and mechanical efficiency in real time, performs predictive maintenance, inspection, maintenance, and repair, and forms reports on equipment maintenance status, realizes automatic maintenance reminders and performance evaluations of equipment, provides equipment maintenance and maintenance plan arrangements, manages equipment health, and provides a basis for production scheduling, thereby greatly improving the comprehensive utilization of equipment and promoting continuous improvement of production efficiency.

Quality Inspection

After the Fangtian IMES system is launched, the corresponding material batches and semi-finished product batches are input during the inspection process, and the system automatically captures the inspection data. It also supports mobile quality inspection, and the results can be uploaded at any time. The quality inspection report can be scanned and bound to the production batch. The production quality can be remotely monitored, the source of quality can be quickly traced, defects can be warned in real time, quality can be strictly controlled, the quality inspection process is fully managed, and the data is more accurate.

Traceability Management

Fangtian IMES system collects, counts, tracks, warns, and analyzes various data throughout the production process of parts, and records the data of each initial inspection and random inspection in the system. When a part has a quality problem, it can be traced back to detailed parameters, which is convenient for staff to check, analyze and solve problems in a timely manner. Each component product is equipped with a unique barcode or number, which effectively establishes a product quality traceability system.

Mold Management

The mold history is generated online, and idle, offline, and scrapped are visible. The inventory ledger manages the inventory status, life span, etc., with automatic early warning, timely reminder of scrapping, maintenance early warning, real-time status tracking, and can be combined with positioning intelligent hardware to achieve seamless mold production process status control.

Inventory Management

Warehouse management involves the control of raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products. Through the implementation of the IMES system, warehouse goods can be controlled by box, and in and out of the warehouse can be managed by scanning the PDA code. At the same time, ERP documents are automatically generated to complete the accounting work. In order to further improve efficiency, the RFID product automatic identification system and LED lighting system can also be enabled to replace PDA operations, realize non-sensing in and out of the warehouse, and automatically generate ERP documents.

Faced with the new business model changes brought about by digitalization, ERP subverts the positioning of past enterprise management software, takes the "IMES" solution as the core, fills the gap between factory equipment and digital operation layer, and through a certain middle platform function, connects to the equipment layer of the enterprise to implement data-driven. Effectively improving manufacturing delivery capabilities and cost control capabilities, it lays a solid foundation for enterprises to achieve intelligent transformation. No matter what stage the technology evolves to, no matter what challenges the industry faces, ERP's core position as an enterprise operation will not change. In the future, ERP will continue to accumulate wisdom and data assets, release data value, and create winners who grasp the first opportunity to win.

At present, Fangtian Software has launched the new IMES intelligentManufacturing Execution System, through automatic scheduling, the reliance on personnel is reduced, and work efficiency is greatly improved. Through equipment status monitoring, working time assessment such as mixing, mold adjustment, and maintenance, working time is effectively shortened, and equipment utilization and output are improved. Through mold management, mold maintenance and repair are tracked to reduce abnormal downtime caused by mold failure. The warehouse operation efficiency and inventory accuracy are greatly improved through QR code or RFID access.