Datamiser Case Study | ACH Saline – Quality Efficiency

The Automotive Components Holding (ACH) Saline Plastics Plant located in Saline, Michigan produces finished product including automobile door panels, center consoles, and instrument panels. They employ around 1900 people and produced 1.1 billion in annual sales in 2012.

The Problem

ACH acquired Visteon and committed to investing 32 million in technology investments in 2010 to make the plant look attractive to buyers. As part of that investment, quality and efficiency was a huge initiative. One of those initiatives involved three completely new lines to handle adhering the vinyl to the door panel and assembling many of the components that go into the door. They needed to be able to reliably print a customizable label with a barcode identifier and part traceability info in human-readable format. In addition, they wanted to be able to have history information about each component, color, and other parameters that they could pull up on-demand.

The Solution

Savance and Frimo teamed up to solve their needs. Frimo created the new lines for them and utilized Savance’s consulting services along with Savance’s Datamiser product to retrieve the necessary data from the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller – the brains of the line) at a certain step in the process. That in turn, would trigger a label printing process for a custom-designed label that included everything that was required. A serial number was generated for each new part and that data was encoded in the barcode printed on the label. That info was also the unique identifier that allowed for manufacturing details for that given part.

The End Result

ACH was able to produce more parts with higher efficiency and better overall quality. It’s production for door panels increased ten fold. Overall quality improved dropping the rework and scrap down by 40%. Even when there was scrap, the barcode was integrated into rework allowing them to confidently and expeditiously address the quality issue. In addition, the new barcoded information was used further in the process for an additional quality check when other parts were added to the door. “The system paid for itself, in more ways than one”, states Steve Walker, the lead engineer for Frimo.

Barcode Label Samples

Customer Requirements / Original Design

Easily-Updated to Proposed New Format using Customizable Template

Actual Label