Paragon Medical is a medical device manufacturer based out of Pierceton, Indiana. The organization has 15 sites across four countries and manages a diverse range of over 1,000 pieces of equipment, including grinders, mills, lathes, coilers, thermoforming machines, and extruders.
Paragon’s multiple machine assets made understanding its true machining capability and capacity challenging. This challenge was amplified by the company’s wide geographic footprint and manual data tracking strategies.
After a rigorous assessment process, Paragon chose to roll out MachineMetrics across its enterprise. One year later, MachineMetrics reviewed the rollout’s progress with Matt Townsend, Paragon’s Senior Director of Manufacturing Strategy. The goal was to learn how MachineMetrics changed day-to-day operations at Paragon and enabled deep production visibility, significant increases in machine capacity, greater OEE, and an improved bottom line.
The Challenge
Paragon’s biggest challenge was the number and diversity of OEM equipment types across its enterprise. The company utilized grinders, mills, lathes, and other standard machining equipment. It also had many legacy assets and specialty equipment, such as brake press turrets, water jets, extruders, and thermoforming machines.
Before MachineMetrics, Paragon utilized manual data tracking to manage processes and understand OEE. Compiling and analyzing this machine and performance data was complex, time-consuming, and error-prone. This process resulted in delayed data that lacked actionability.
Staff couldn't act quickly enough to events because they were unaware of them. Facility managers also relied on operators to track machine downtime, removing them from value-added tasks at machines. The volume and diversity of different types of equipment and the high number of processes meant teams had little to no standardization. And without accurate machine data, measuring capacity on the shop floor and across other sites was difficult.
The Solution
Matt Townsend, Senior Director of Manufacturing Strategy, had prior experience with MachineMetrics and was impressed with the service, communication, and support. Because of Matt’s experience with the platform and its ease of implementation, Paragon Medical chose MachineMetrics as its solution.
MachineMetrics was the only provider that offered a machine-agnostic platform and superior customer service and support. It also provided ease of implementation across Paragon’s facilities, making it the clear choice.
The Paragon team began with a six-month pilot across three different facilities. This timeline allowed them to try MachineMetrics on various pieces of equipment crucial to the company’s success.
After self-installing an edge device, machine connectivity to the network averaged one hour per machine. The pilot resulted in a wealth of accurate data and justified the program and ROI. The improvements allowed Paragon to make decisions quickly, proving the system in significantly less time than the allotted six months.
The Results
Paragon now reviews real-time dashboards, utilization reports, and downtime Pareto charts as part of its daily Gemba walks. This process validates operator feedback and provides a holistic picture of operational KPIs.
Data standardization across machines and processes has significantly improved communication across the shop floor. This visibility and standardization mean everyone speaks the same language across the enterprise. The organization also uses actionable insights to look at bottlenecks at the machine, facility, and enterprise levels.
Implementing the MachineMetrics Machine Connectivity Platform has generated significant results for the entire enterprise. There has been a 100% increase in production in previously bottlenecked areas and an overall increase of 5,800 good parts.
Facilities also achieved a 140% increase in machine utilization. This led to a 49% increase in OEE, which significantly impacted its contribution margin and led to tremendous gains on its EBIDTA.
Client:
Paragon Medical
Interviewee:
Matt Townsend, Senior Director of Manufacturing Strategy
Industries:
Medical Device
Equipment:
Grinders, Mills, Lathes, Brake Presses, Turrets, Water Jets, Extruders, Thermoforming Machines, Coilers
Locations:
Pierceton, IN
Smithfield, UT
Holyoke, MA
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