OEE Triples in 12 Months — From 20% to 58%
From paper records to real-time production intelligence
This aluminum extrusion facility serves demanding industrial customers in the metals processing sector, where raw material costs are significant and quality compliance is non-negotiable. With multiple production lines running across shifts and a continuous drive to reduce scrap and improve yield, the plant needed a real-time production intelligence platform that could integrate into the existing floor without disruption.
The implementation of 10in6 was driven by a plant-wide modernization initiative with two clear mandates: reduce costly metal waste to near-zero, and give management and engineering teams the data they needed to make faster, more confident decisions. 10in6 was deployed across multiple production lines with full PLC integration — no equipment replacement required.
Improve efficiency and reduce raw material waste
Prior to 10in6, both production management and quality teams were operating without reliable, real-time data. All reporting was manual, decisions were reactive, and the cost of scrap was difficult to quantify — let alone control.
Production & Efficiency
- No historical performance data for management or improvement staff
- No factual basis for prioritizing where to focus limited engineering resources
- Production issues discovered a shift or more after they occurred
- Improvement efforts directed by instinct, not data
- Aggressive goal to reduce costly metal waste to 0%
Quality & Compliance
- All quality checks performed on paper with no searchable history
- No real-time alerting when process variables drifted out of spec
- Customer audits were stressful — unable to answer questions about trends
- No way to flag specific billets at risk from process data
- Traceability relied on manual records that were incomplete and hard to find
10in6 modules deployed
The customer implemented a multi-module 10in6 deployment targeting both production efficiency and quality management in a single integrated platform. All data flows automatically into SQL Server and is immediately accessible to operators, engineers, and management — with no manual entry and no disruption to existing PLC infrastructure.
Production & Efficiency Reporting
- Automated shift, daily, and weekly production reports delivered by email
- Loss analysis by machine, shift, and part number
- Pareto charts automatically rank top downtime causes
- Improvement efforts focused on the highest-impact issues first
Scheduled Checks — Paperless Quality
- Eliminates paper check sheets across all production processes
- Automated alerting for missed checks and out-of-spec conditions
- Fully searchable quality history available in seconds
- Audit-ready data accessible to any authorized user at any time
SPC — Statistical Process Control
- Real-time tracking of density, dimensions, temperature, and pressure
- Automated control charts for all critical process variables
- Immediate alerting when results approach or breach spec limits
- Identifies specific billets at risk before scrap is produced
Real-Time Displays, Andon & Issues Tracker
- Live production status on shop-floor monitors, desktop, and mobile
- Real-time OEE and shift targets visible to operators at all times
- One-touch operator calls routed to Maintenance, Engineering, or Supervisor
- Long-term issues and resolutions tracked in a searchable knowledge base
The OEE trend — first 12 months with 10in6
Actual OEE data from the customer's Press 4 area shows the upward trend beginning immediately after go-live and stabilizing well above the 50% mark — a near tripling of where the plant started. From a 20% starting point in April 2020, OEE peaked at 60% in February 2021 and ended the first year at 58% — a 38-point improvement in 12 months.
- Real-time visibility into production pace, downtime, and quality issues across all lines and shifts
- Improvement teams focused on highest-impact opportunities using objective, ranked data — not instinct
- Automated shift, daily, and weekly production reports with zero manual effort
- Specific billets flagged for quality testing based on changing pressure and temperature trends
- Customer audit preparation reduced from days of file-searching to minutes of searchable history
- SPC alerting enables immediate process adjustments to prevent scrap before it occurs
A platform built for continuous improvement
By deploying 10in6 across its production facility, this aluminum extrusion plant replaced guesswork with data, paper with automation, and reactive firefighting with proactive improvement. Every level of the organization — from line operators to senior management — gained immediate access to the information they needed, in the format they needed it.
The result was one of the most significant OEE improvements in 10in6's customer history — achieved not through a single large capital project, but through visibility, accountability, and the ability to act on accurate data in real time.
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