Insights & Resources: Case Study

Industrial Equipment Producer – Quality Analytics

THE SITUATION: Production environments across plants were highly heterogeneous, with different machines, process controls, and data collection systems. Sensor data lived in historians and PLCs, while MES transactions, QC results, and operator observations were siloed in separate systems. Without a unified view of process behavior, teams struggled to correlate machine parameters with product outcomes. Investigations were slow, inconsistent, and dependent on tribal knowledge—leading to excessive scrap, rework, and material waste.

THE PROBLEM: The manufacturer faced significant visibility and consistency challenges that limited its ability to control quality and reduce scrap, including:

  • Data scattered across historians, PLCs, MES, QC systems, and spreadsheets
  • Limited ability to correlate machine parameters with product defects
  • Slow root-cause analysis due to manual investigations
  • No predictive visibility into process deviations
  • Inconsistent quality practices across shifts and plants
  • High material waste driving up production costs