CPT International 4/2019
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DIGITALIZATION<br />
Group production site.<br />
Foundry Group pioneers<br />
data-driven productivity project<br />
Partnership sees foundry business make multi-site monitoring a reality.<br />
Work in progress in the<br />
melting shop of a MAT Foundry<br />
Rudi Riedel, President Norican Digital GmbH, Munich<br />
Photo: Norican<br />
What if retrospective analysis<br />
of casting production could<br />
be replaced by real-time<br />
process awareness? If reactive, afterthe-fact<br />
responses to sub-optimal output<br />
could be replaced by proactive<br />
foundry management? What if we<br />
could see at any time, not just how one<br />
site is performing, but how multiple<br />
global sites are performing in relation<br />
to each other?<br />
These are all questions MAT Foundry<br />
Group, Poole, United Kingdom, were<br />
asking. They were approached by longterm<br />
supplier Norican Group with a proposition<br />
– one solution that would answer<br />
all their questions, boost<br />
productivity and make the need to<br />
wonder ‘what if’, redundant.<br />
Unifying the equipment and extensive<br />
foundry solutions expertise of DISA<br />
and Wheelabrator, and the digital<br />
know-how of Norican Digital, an IIoT<br />
solution built around Norican’s Monitizer<br />
platform is now in place. This will<br />
allow MAT Foundry Group to collect,<br />
monitor and analyze complete foundry<br />
data – initially from two of its key<br />
EURAC sites, Poole (UK) and Hradec<br />
(Czech Republic) – to fulfil its productivity<br />
ambitions.<br />
Kick-starting a pioneering<br />
digital collaboration<br />
Comprizing 7 foundries and 8 businesses<br />
located across three continents, MAT<br />
Foundry Group is a world-renowned<br />
specialist in the engineering and manufacture<br />
of cast and machined parts for<br />
the automotive sector.<br />
Prior to the Group’s formation in<br />
2015, the separate companies and respective<br />
foundries were run as standalone<br />
businesses. On bringing the different<br />
entities together under one roof,<br />
the need to identify shared operating<br />
threads and strategic partnerships<br />
became clear. For Shaun Lindfield, Head<br />
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