Download PDF
North American Lighting Standardizes on WebFOCUS for Business Intelligence
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Automotive
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Manufacturing System Automation
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
North American Lighting (NAL) was using a legacy reporting system to monitor its continuous manufacturing operations. However, when the legacy system was retired, the company saw it as an opportunity to standardize on a more versatile reporting system. The challenge was to consolidate disparate reporting tools to reduce costs and increase the number of report developers. The company needed a system that could deliver real-time data about shop floor operations as the pace of production accelerated. The IT department was tasked with migrating more than 150 legacy reports into the new environment and creating more than 100 new reports.
About The Customer
North American Lighting (NAL) is the largest non-affiliated lighting supplier in North America. The company produces lighting products for many of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. As a Tier 1 automotive supplier, NAL does business with many of the world’s largest automotive companies. The Paris, Illinois-based supplier has been producing lighting products for name brand vehicle manufacturers since 1983. The company runs a continuous manufacturing operation and workers need to ensure that the company can deliver the orders it has committed to, in the right amounts, and at the right times.
The Solution
NAL decided to standardize on Information Builders’ WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform. The IT department migrated more than 150 legacy reports into the WebFOCUS environment and created more than 100 new WebFOCUS reports and InfoApps. The company also integrated WebFOCUS dashboards throughout the company to provide management with consistent data to accurately compare one plant to another. The data for NAL’s reports comes from a DB2 database on an IBM midrange platform that underlies many of NAL’s production applications. WebFOCUS reads the production databases to provide a continual, real-time glimpse of the operation. WebFOCUS also accesses data stored in Microsoft SQL Server as well as from an Oracle data warehouse that is refreshed once per day from the production systems.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Integral Plant Maintenance
Mercedes-Benz and his partner GAZ chose Siemens to be its maintenance partner at a new engine plant in Yaroslavl, Russia. The new plant offers a capacity to manufacture diesel engines for the Russian market, for locally produced Sprinter Classic. In addition to engines for the local market, the Yaroslavl plant will also produce spare parts. Mercedes-Benz Russia and his partner needed a service partner in order to ensure the operation of these lines in a maintenance partnership arrangement. The challenges included coordinating the entire maintenance management operation, in particular inspections, corrective and predictive maintenance activities, and the optimizing spare parts management. Siemens developed a customized maintenance solution that includes all electronic and mechanical maintenance activities (Integral Plant Maintenance).
Case Study
Monitoring of Pressure Pumps in Automotive Industry
A large German/American producer of auto parts uses high-pressure pumps to deburr machined parts as a part of its production and quality check process. They decided to monitor these pumps to make sure they work properly and that they can see any indications leading to a potential failure before it affects their process.
