Case Study: Strategic Materials

Описание: Strategic Materials: Real-Time Data Visibility Across the Recycling Enterprise

Manufacturers need real-time data. It isn’t useful to learn days—or even weeks—later that a process was out of specification.

That was the problem facing Strategic Materials, the largest glass recycler in North America. The company has 50 plants that supply recycled glass to manufacturers so they can create products like glass containers, fiberglass insulation, and other specialty glass items.

While quality is a top priority company wide, Strategic Materials struggled to maintain consistent quality data between their plants. Each plant had their own methods and conventions for collecting quality and process data. Then, operators entered that data in spreadsheets—so it was difficult to compare information with other sites.

Strategic Materials needed a way to unify data from all their plants. They chose Enact by InfinityQS—our cloud-native quality management solution—because it would enable an easy implementation and rapid rollout and expansion.

Within three months, they were using Enact to collect and analyze data at 12 glass recycling plants and seeing immediate value. Before, their quality director compiled quality data monthly by pulling data from every plant into a single format. Now, they have total visibility into all their operations, and they can see process capability and performance data in real time. This powers immediate process corrections and spurs continuous improvement initiatives.

Standardization is no longer an issue. Plants use a consistent nomenclature. And data collection is completed the same way, across all plants. And when differentiation between plants is required, those configurations are easy to add as needed.

By unifying and centralizing important quality data, plants are aligned and unprecedented collaboration is taking place. Ultimately, this unity benefits Strategic Materials customers, who know they can count on high-quality, consistent products.