Many Blackbird customers are using our solution to make continuous improvement on a production line or in the whole factory. But the Blackbird solution can be used in much bigger scale: throughout the whole supply chain of a global company. This includes the solution implementation across suppliers, across countries and across regions.
One of our well-known global customers has been trying to help their suppliers to become more efficient and productive. Their suppliers are spread all around the world and they all use different systems to measure their efficiency such as Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and cycle time, as locally available systems are different from country to country. The customer previously tried to roll out one single system for all their suppliers, but it was too complicated and expensive to integrate a new system to each suppliers’ existing IT system.
But not with Blackbird! The customer started to use the Blackbird solution as a global tool for their improvement activities – without hassle, without making big initial investment – no matter where they are located, no matter what system they are already using. The customer just leaves the existing IT or automation manufacturing system in place, and just added Blackbird as a parallel data collection & analytic tool on the lines at their suppliers’ factories.
Now the customer could measure the cycle time and OEE in the same standard and the same definition throughout the whole supply chain. This was an eye opener – the customer can now compare the productivity among the factories and allocate their resources more efficiently to help their suppliers.
Recently, the customer installed one Factbird at one of their supplier’s factory in South America. The installation was quick and easy. After the quick installation, the customer could see the live data from the production sites on the software, and stated that it is an amazing solution - a really ”plug and play solution”. The live data from South America can be accessed from their office in Europe - and anywhere else.
Summing up, the Plug and Play solution works efficiently and effectively across the whole supply chain in many industries.