Automotive suppliers are implementing cloud-based data software to increase efficiencies and decrease waste amid heightened lead times and a less predictable supply chain.

Livonia, Mich.-based automotive supplier NYX LLC is using M-Powered, a cloudbased AI software developed by ei3 and paired with Milacron machines, to help the company improve its manufacturing
efficiency. The company, which makes automotive interiors, including door panels, center and overhead consoles and glove boxes, was able to drop its scrap rate by 23 percent, using the program, bringing it to below 1 percent.

Data analysis from the technology “is endless,” Todd McCaig, plant manager at NYX’s Linden facility, told Plastics News in an interview. “You can go back and see every parameter or setup for any part you produce at any time. “Our customers like it from the standpoint that the data accuracy is better than the manual method of collecting data at different intervals throughout the day,” McCaig said.

For machinery companies, cloud softwares are an opportunity to become a better partner for the industry, said Eddie Jump, IIoT digital analytics leader at Milacron. The software helps Milacron towork “with our connected base to give our customers and partners enough lead time to be able to see that things are coming and plan for it accurately,” Jump said. It also tracks machine energy consumption, he said, and helps suppliers “plan around efficiency and energy in an asset.”

“We take common best practices and package them into applications,” said Spencer Cramer, CEO of ei3. “We have apps that help find and catalog down times and put analysis together so customers can be guided toward finding the largest contributors of unplanned downtime.”