Shifting the focus from repetitive work to more value-added tasks
One rewarding topic is Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which relieves us from repetitive, monotonous tasks in our daily work. RPA is an emerging technology which allows software robots to imitate human behavior and interact seamlessly with various systems. The bot can perform various tasks such as extracting data, moving files and logging into applications. In a successful process automation with HRSflow, a bot releases production orders through PLM and ERP applications, saving a significant amount of working time.
Since the start of the pilot in Q1 2023 the automation has saved around 1.050 hours and has an annual saving potential of around 2.000 hours after the successful roll-out in Q2 and Q3 2023. „By automating low-level, rule-based processes, RPA can shift the focus of the workforce from repetitive tasks to a more creative and strategic work that requires human judgement“, emphasizes Gregor Pudenz, Team Lead Process Automation - Digital Hub.
Fostering trend scouting and new ideas to drive digital transformation
AI solutions are an exciting topic for the future, for example for predicting trends such as customer churn. A prototype is already in the development phase, focusing on divergent customer behavior – a valuable sales support tool. Self-learning chatbots such as ChatGPT, which use language models and are interesting for customer and employee interactions, are also being tested.
At Oerlikon, we already have more than 40 AI use cases at various stages of maturity. That's why it's important that we develop an AI strategy and governance model within 2024. This will help us select the most promising initiatives and the technologies that best fit Oerlikon in terms of effectiveness, sustainability and data protection.
We are in the process of defining a single online platform through which all Oerlikon employees can contribute with their ideas or demands for innovation and digitalisation
-Christian Huber, Head of Digital Hub-
The digitalization of our coating service centers is also making progress. A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is being implemented worldwide to digitize manufacturing, soon helping to plan and control it much more efficiently. With plant connectivity, transparency of coating processes is achieved in real-time. 4 coaters and 1 cleaning line have been successfully connected in a plant to use real-time machine data to book batches directly in the MES. The goal for 2024 is to connect 60 coaters and 29 cleaning lines in 20 additional plants to balance the workload. The so-called super production order, which groups individual orders into meaningful sets, also offers benefits. In a one-week test phase at our five sites in Germany, the super production order was used for more than 19 percent of our orders, reducing 1796 individual orders to 234 SPOs. This represents a significant time saving for the staff.
