“We were the Flintstones. Now we’re the Jetsons.” That’s the metaphor Dave Rose, Quality Engineer at Johnson Controls, uses to illustrate the difference Epicor Mattec MES has made in his plant’s production, process and quality monitoring capabilities. Rose is talking specifically about how the process of setting control limits for fill times and cycle times on his plant’s 44 injection molding machines has evolved since Mattec MES’ implementation.

“In the old days we couldn’t do true Statistical Process Control (SPC), because we need material, pressure, heat and mold temperature data from 300 cycles before we can set up the control limits. It’s impossible to do that manually with the amount of equipment we have,” he says. “All we do now is query Mattec MES after 300 cycles and it sets the control limit. I monitor the realtime screen from my desk or at home and I can see how each machine is performing against those control measures.”

Prior to Mattec MES, Rose’s group would collect data only once per shift, requiring three to four shifts before he could perform statistical analyses on the processes.