The global manufacturing sector has grown rapidly over the past two decades with increased data usage and analytics. According to Eric Macy, Founder and President, Nonik Technologies, the core aspect of manufacturing involves utilizing data to drive productivity and efficiency. In such a scenario, companies need to be agile and efficient, while ensuring compliance, security and quality to achieve business goals. Moreover, connectivity is another impediment in the manufacturing landscape, since it includes a major part of fieldwork and collecting field data from disparate systems or siloed data hubs.

In order to fulfill this requisite, manufacturers today are in search of new and disruptive technologies to support their mission and maintain a competitive advantage. Well positioned to tackle the challenges is Hillsdale, MI based Nonik Technologies. The full service Information Technology (IT) firm’s wide array of cost-effective IT solutions for manufacturers helps in keeping business’ IT operations secure, while ensuring productivity on the floor.

The firm’s manufacturing execution system helps in making informed decisions on disparate data sets, configuration of products, optimizing schedules and minimizing changes. “In automotive, one needs to build in the same sequence as the car plant. By enabling data transfer to the PLCs, the right configuration to build the right product ensures this sequence is followed without error,” Macy explains.Concentrating on their solutions and building the execution system in conjunction with systems that are in use, the product also ensures minimization of duplicate entry and products.

Macy further illuminates that the manufacturing execution system’s back-end is completely standardized and can handle any type of data set or process related to it. “What gets customized is the manufacturing system’s displays on the production floor and provides a simplified user interface.”

Over the years, the company has helped numerous clients to overcome their challenges and boost their ROIs. For instance, a client was keen on building one-piece batches to meet the frequency requirements in the automotive industry. The customer had never sequenced parts before and optimizing and building batches for the following day was often a time consuming process. The client had to break the parts into containers and accept those in inventory, and had a second group to check the sequence of the packaging. The client used Nonik’s solution to automate the process and do error proofing to ensure that it is built in the right order, without errors.

The core aspect of manufacturing involves utilizing data to drive productivity and efficiency

“We set up the software to communicate with their PLC in real-time to feed in the part numbers and convey the required order,” adds Macy. The client also faced impediments building multiple batches of front and rear assemblies. Nonik assisted the client by using a similar method of feeding the EDI requirements from the customers electronically and then married the label and part information in real-time to build the shipments accurately in the correct order.

Moving ahead, “We will focus on connecting technology and using the analytics side of our product. We are keen on understanding our customer’s evolving needs, in driving inventory levels and in observing the ways big data can be used to drive better productivity,” Macy concludes.