Transforming the global plastics industry with Nexus Connected Worker
Dr Asif Rana – President Nexus Connected Worker, Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division
Nexus Connected Worker
Historically, the company grappled with inefficient, paperbased systems that bogged down its operations. These antiquated processes led to cumbersome work order management, frequent human errors in data entry, and a glaring lack of real-time insight into operations. With more than 70 facilities scattered across North America, the disjointed data collection and management practices hindered not only productivity but also the strategic and timely decision-making capabilities essential for growth.
Enter Nexus Connected Worker—a beacon of digital transformation tailored for high-demand manufacturing environments. The company launched an ambitious revamp of its operational model, incorporating sensor hardware and the Nexus Connected Worker platform. Crucially, the integration of these components transformed the company’s stagnant, error-prone data landscape into a dynamic, insight-rich operational powerhouse.
The core of this transformation lies in strategically integrated sensor technology. These sensors, capable of real-time data integration, were deployed across production lines to monitor various metrics such as machine uptime, cycle counts, production KPIs, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). The real-time data gleaned from these sensors provide more than mere statistics; they offer a constant flow of actionable insights, encouraging immediate adjustments and predictive maintenance strategies that far outpace traditional reactive models.
Moreover, the Nexus Connected Worker digital workflows harness this sensor data to empower employees. Workers now have mobile access to real-time operational data, drastically reducing the time spent on administrative tasks like downtime tagging—from two hours per shift to less than ten minutes. This newfound efficiency has boosted productivity and significantly cut down the mean time to repair by empowering maintenance technicians with instant notifications and comprehensive machine health data.
The results speak for themselves. Since implementing Hexagon’s solutions, the company has seen a substantial reduction in scrap rates by 25% and has improved OEE scores significantly across its production lines, not to mention the immediate and real-time availability of this OEE data. The strategic integration of sensor technology with Nexus workflows has not only streamlined operations but also fostered a culture of proactive maintenance and efficiency.
This case study exemplifies how embracing modern technology and integrating comprehensive sensor systems with intelligent workflows can transform manufacturing operations. The journey of this global plastics company with Hexagon’s technology illustrates a successful marriage of innovation and practical application, setting a benchmark for others in the industry to follow.
For a deep dive into the details and transformative impact of the Nexus Connected Worker system, visit nexus.hexagon.com.
The table shows the results of a benchmark running scFLOW Aircraft model with 14 million elements, demonstrating the scalability of the run time of Nexus Compute with one of typical desktop hardware for the same model.
Nexus Compute does not only give users access to more cores, more memory, and super-fast local storage (all ultimately contributing to positively impact compute performance for large models) but also provides infinitely elastic capacity allowing users to run as many jobs as needed at a time. This is especially useful when engineers will want to compare design alternatives or explore an entire design space and need to grab a large amount of compute resources at once. Of course, this use case is not even at all possible on the desktop.
The process is straightforward with an intuitive user interface. Users simply upload input files required to run the simulation, Nexus Compute automatically detects the input file format and suggests a set of recommended machine configurations and typical execution settings. A job submission is only one click away. Engineers can then monitor the execution of the simulation in real-time, review, and download the output file after completion for analysis.
Data managed on Nexus is organised in projects and documents to which access can be shared with other members of the same organisation. This allows multiple stakeholders and colleagues to share simulation models and results and collaborate on data that is centralised. We have enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive response from our Nexus Compute pilot programme participants. Some see the potential to run much larger models at a moderate cost. Others envision scaling to many design variations and optimisation runs. Many are now looking into Nexus Compute as their solution to burst to cloud when in-house compute capacity is tapped out. What will you do with it?
Nexus Compute is available for use in Q4, 2023.