When It’s 30°C Outside and… 1500°C in the Hall. MES in an Extreme Environment

Summer heat can take its toll, as we have recently experienced firsthand. But what about people working physically in a production hall where machines can heat up to over a thousand degrees Celsius? One of the largest iron foundries in Europe – Vald. Birn – operates in such conditions.

Vald. Birn is a Danish company with a century-old tradition; its origins date back to 1893. Currently, the enterprise employs 1,000 workers across four factories, producing up to 3,000 different assortment items in the field of metal castings. Their clients include key automotive brands such as Volvo and Mercedes.

The metal products themselves – often critical from a safety point of view – must absolutely meet rigorous quality requirements. In such a demanding and (especially during the summer) extreme environment, there is no room for errors. That is why the digitalization of production turned out to be crucial.

For many years, production management at Vald. Birn relied on sheets of paper. Leif Jensen, the company's Financial Director, admits that "sticky notes and kilometers of binders" piled up everywhere on the desks. This significantly slowed down the documentation process and also caused limitations in data access.

Furthermore, the company made the decision to completely overhaul its ERP system. However, it turned out that the previous program was too much of a challenge for the operators working directly on the foundry floor, who were not accustomed to handling complex IT interfaces. Therefore, they needed something more intuitive to use.

To solve this problem, in parallel with the implementation of the main ERP system, the company launched the Operator MES software. Currently, it acts as an agile extension of the Infor M3 business system in a harsh production environment.

The implementation itself was a massive logistical undertaking. Inside the foundry, among crucibles heated to 1500°C and heavy machinery, a staggering 170 terminals were successfully deployed.

The analysis department, located directly on the production hall, became the central point to which samples flow continuously via a special pneumatic tube system. In the laboratory, the composition of 20 different alloys is verified (including the content of elements such as titanium, lead, copper, and zinc). All results of these measurements immediately go to the Operator Platform, where they are automatically linked to specific customer orders.

The management of Vald. Birn considers the implementation of the Operator system a "great success from day one". The project brought results that permanently revolutionized the daily functioning of the foundry. Among the greatest benefits the company noticed were:

• Paperless approach – the paper documentation system was completely eliminated. Instead, the registration of orders, processes, and quality measurements was automated.
• Full Traceability – by ensuring strict quality control, the defect rate (scrap rate) was maintained at a level below 2%.
• Error identification – this process was significantly simplified and accelerated, facilitating an immediate reaction to irregularities.
• Audits – the company reached a completely new level of process documentation. This resulted in an official commendation from the Bureau Veritas auditors during certification.

Importantly, the success of the project was determined not only by the technology itself, but by its reception by the employees – including those who were not previously used to IT solutions. Vald. Birn operators received a precisely personalized interface. Only data and registration options strictly corresponding to their current tasks appear on their screens.

The system gained tremendous appreciation, and today the employees themselves actively submit requests for new improvements and shortcuts. They understood how important correct documentation is, which translated into tremendous discipline in entering information into the Operator Platform. This is also proven by the implementations carried out in other plants of the group, including Kockums.

Thanks to the combination of advanced MES technology with intuitive operation, Vald. Birn proves that full quality control is possible even in the hottest industrial environment.