MES or production management systems control and monitor complex manufacturing processes. By collecting and processing accurate production and quality data throughout the production cycle, they enable targeted, continuous process improvement. This leads to a significant increase in productivity.

Komax recognized the benefits for wire processing early on and developed Komax MES. This state-of-the-art system can be seamlessly integrated into existing IT systems and allows the manufacture of complex products in any batch size. The end-to-end solution covers the entire supply chain of wire processing companies from goods receipt to goods issue, including all production processes in between.

Komax MES has been in use for around five years. The on-premise version requires its own server infrastructure and is therefore aimed at much larger companies that can afford this investment, that have the appropriate organization and whose costs are spread over a higher number of machines.

Start with what is most important and expand step by step

Thanks to the newly developed Komax Cloud MES, smaller and medium-sized companies can now also benefit from virtually the same range of functions as offered by the on-premise version. We provide the Komax Cloud MES as SaaS (Software as a Service). This eliminates the need for high investments; you only pay for effective operation. Installation, training and operation are simple and cost-effective thanks to cloud technology. Komax Cloud MES works with a wide variety of machines, i.e. with the entire range of Komax fully automatic crimping machines, including the Zeta series.

The individual modules can be used as required and almost independently of each other. Certain customers focus on material consumption feedback, for example. Others want more transparency in production and to optimize their processes. Detailed OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) helps to achieve this goal. Often you start with one or two modules and add to them, step by step, as needed.

We work with you to determine your needs

That’s why we typically start a project by analyzing the production processes. We want to know how your production is organized. We therefore listen to you carefully to find out where and how you can get the maximum benefit from Komax Cloud MES. We are also interested in your peripheral systems and the properties of your data management systems, because the overall benefit is greatest when the Komax Cloud MES can communicate holistically with those peripheral systems.

The Komax Cloud MES is worthwhile even if you only operate a single machine. For example, if you want to optimize your setup time or measure material consumption. Getting started with Cloud MES is easy. All modules or functions are available immediately, as you hardly need to install anything at all. As soon as the master data has been migrated, you can create orders immediately and produce them on your machines.

Various factors increase your productivity

We support you with a generous online help system, where we also provide list templates. You simply edit them in Excel and then upload them to the cloud. If there are already bills of material and sales orders in your ERP or PPS, then data coupling will result in even more efficiency gains.

Thanks to Cloud MES – and only with your consent – our supporters have online access to all relevant data. If there is a problem or a problem is foreseeable, we can support you immediately. Of course, your data is protected – continuous security audits ensure that Komax Cloud MES meets the highest security requirements.

Obviously, customers always ask us how MES can increase their productivity. A wide variety of factors can contribute to this, the most important of which we have listed here: no errors due to incorrect operator input, shorter setup times, less scrap, long machine running times/short interruptions, tips for optimization thanks to information from error logs, and production data collection. These factors come into play for all industries. For the automotive and aerospace sectors in particular, the practical functions for quality assurance are also key.

"The project was completed very quickly and reliably"

Cloud MES has been successfully in use for almost a year and we are also receiving positive feedback from satisfied customers. As an example, here is a quote from Philip Warda, Managing Director of Powertune Spezialkabelsysteme GmbH & Co. KG in the northern Bavarian town of Kitzingen. The company specializes in the development and production of wire adapter systems in the automotive sector.

"As we have a large number of orders for small quantities, we were looking for a way to manufacture these orders more efficiently. Komax had the right solution for this, a cloud MES system that records all orders and combines and produces them depending on the optimal setup sequence and the lowest production time. This has significantly reduced the setup times for our fully automated machine and increased productivity. The project was completed very quickly and reliably thanks to the expert advice and implementation of the entire Komax team. We were able to integrate with our existing system in real time without any errors or issues."

How to get your own MES solution

Have we aroused your interest? Then contact us as soon as possible. The best point of contact for this is your local salesperson. You will benefit from our extensive experience in the development of customized solutions. Together, we will work out what you could start with. Our three-month free trial license will make your excursion into the MES universe particularly easy. You will experience Komax as a partner whose holistic solutions can make you even more successful.

Example of a wire list that you can import into Komax Cloud MES. This works with the same concept of articles and lead sets as WPCS (Wire Processing Communication Standard).

Jobs can be distributed to the machines manually or fully automatically and with optimized setup times. In the image you can see the "Order Distribution Tool". In the example, there are four jobs in the work queue on the first machine, with one already started.

This image shows the result of fully automatic planning in a Gantt plan. In it you can see the different orders on a machine as well as the material changes at the beginning of a shift.

Komax Cloud MES modules 

• Master data management
• Manual or automatic job distribution with APS (Advanced Planning and Scheduling). This helps primarily to minimize throughput times (optimization of setup times).
• Quality data management
• Connection to ERP system (enterprise resource planning) via standard or customized interface
• Dashboarding (merging and creating views of data from multiple sources)
• Reporting and OEE (overall equipment effectiveness)
• Material consumption feedback
• Tool management
• Logging

Komax Cloud MES