Halewood has been selected as the first Jaguar Land Rover site to completely revolutionise its ways of working this year, with the introduction of three pioneering IT systems that will transform the quality and efficiency of our manufacturing operations through new digital technology.
These three new systems will be the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and the System Analysis Program Development (SAP), which will be introduced throughout 2023.
The first, MES, will be rolled out in South Works from April and replace the existing Plant Vehicle Scheduling System (PVS). MES has already been deployed in Halewood North Works and parts of Nitra and Solihull's FA3.
Tim Preston, IT and Digital Senior Manager at Halewood, said: "MES will provide some world-class features and give us greater control over our production lines. It will allow our associates to be able to see the part numbers and steps to build the vehicle on a screen. It will also help our teams solve problems with improved traceability data so our production teams will have much better downtime information.”
He added: “This is a significant digital investment for Halewood and is helping to futureproof our plant as we strive forward with our exciting, electrified future under EMA."
MES training for South Works employees will start in April, targeting different production groups for the rest of 2023. Training schedules will be communicated via email to all Production Leaders, Group Leaders and Line Managers.
Key benefits of MES
MES is a comprehensive dynamic software that monitors, tracks, documents and controls the entire production cycle of manufacturing goods, from raw materials to finished products.
It will bring many benefits to our daily production tasks, such as:
• A database that allows the management of infinite vehicle derivatives - legacy systems have limited data string length and currently store a fixed amount of data due to the limited number of characters allowed.
• MES ensures appropriate procedures are in place during production and documented, so that the product can be easily recalled if necessary.
• A digital replica of the factory, lines and stations. The information is transmitted in real time, so problems can be quickly identified. As a result, scrap and rework will be reduced. Quality control / line-linked control stops the line when defects occur, which are automatically written to FLAGS.
• Balance of personnel, material and equipment with detailed production schedules. Labour is managed in detail, by tracking working schedules, qualifications and authorisations.
• Inventory can also be updated in real time, so you will know exactly about new production, scrapping and non-conforming materials. The purchasing, shipping and scheduling department will have updated details of what material is available at any time. This reduces WIP inventory, saves money, and simplifies monitoring transport, storage and inventory.
