Thales Missile Electronics expects fast ROI from MES

£35m Thales Missile Electronics (TME), Europe’s largest independent missile electronics supplier, says it’s electronic production management system, due for go-live in the next few months, will improve productivity and reduce costs. The firm has selected a system from Mestec, following successful implementation of the system at Thales Sensor in Leicester, which is now delivering looked for high returns for that company’s defence systems work. TME says it’s all part of its in its ongoing lean manufacturing initiative. “The decision to deploy Mestec is both tactical and strategic,” says David Barnes, TME’s chief executive. “By getting rid of paperwork at a production level, and increasing our configuration and control capability, the system should provide a return on investment very quickly. “This first phase will provide us with the experience to ensure that further deployment across the business will be able to realise the long term strategic benefits of MES [manufacturing execution systems].” TME is focusing primarily on the shop floor in its efforts to reduce waste and improve quality and productivity, while still remaining responsive to customer needs, but the new system will be used by shop floor, engineering and management staff. At the assembly level, it will provide operators with work instructions, as well as drawings, engineering updates etc on cell displays, while also collecting plant data at source. Here it replaces traditional paper-based systems, and will be connected to TME’s LAN and thus its Oracle 11i ERP system for automatic transaction of materials and assemblies on the line directly into ERP for project accounting. The system will also collect an electronic, as-built record set for all assemblies and sub-assemblies, and it will collate assembly floor quality and performance data. Using real-time reporting, it will also present decision support information for managers, the objective being essentially problem solving and rapid process improvement. “From a management perspective, the Mestec system provides real-time information that will allow us to spot any non conformance early on, thus ensuring the impact is minimised,” says Peter Kipling, TME’s operations director. He says it will allow far greater and quicker trend analysis than has been possible with TME’s paper-based systems, “so that the true nature of any issue can easily and quickly be understood.” “We are in a highly competitive global high tech niche where, in order to succeed, an organisation must be world class,” says Barnes. “We are a volume producer with a powerful track record in successfully applying lean manufacturing techniques and involving our suppliers at all stages of the product lifecycle.” “MES can be seen as the next logical step for us as it creates the kind of visibility, control and discipline we need to continue to be able to demonstrate real production efficiency and manufacturing excellence to our customers,” says Kipling. “ Our previous processes meant that we moved from electronic data to paper, to paper again, then back to electronic. It was easy to see that this was inherently inefficient,” continues Kipling. “MES complements a lean environment because both have a strong process base and both have inherent ‘cell’ structures.” Barnes says TME also knew it needed to focus on reducing variability in its production processes. “We knew that in our increasingly complex production environment, adopting a system and process that could ensure we consistently manufacture to the correct build standard would give us real reductions in materials and rework costs,” he says. Says Kipling: “Not only do we see MES as offering a route to creating real savings on product cost; it will allow us eventually to order direct to line from a far greater proportion of our supply chain, creating greater efficiency and further cost savings. “We assessed various alternatives before deciding on Mestec. We rejected the idea of an in house solution as we felt it would be unlikely to be sufficiently adaptive and scalable.” “In the end, not only did we feel that the Mestec system was right for us but the approach was flexible and the team did the most important thing for us – they listened to the customer need.”