Mactan Textile Mill Production MES
A 220-machine textile mill in Mactan replaced paper job tickets with a touchscreen manufacturing execution system.
Impact
What changed.
OEE lift
Overall equipment effectiveness rose from 64% baseline to 81% within nine months — driven mostly by faster downtime classification and PM uptake.
Quality discipline
Off-spec production caught at first sample instead of end of run. Customer return rate on dyed lots dropped from 3.1% to 0.6%.
Traceability
When a customer complaint arrives, the team retrieves machine, operator, shift, and quality sample history for any roll within 30 seconds — strengthening the firm's position in export contracts.
The challenge
Before
A Mactan-based textile mill running 220 machines across weaving, dyeing, and finishing was managing production with paper job tickets, a whiteboard in the supervisor office, and a daily 6:00 AM huddle. They knew within a few hours when a machine had stopped, but they did not know why, and downtime root causes were debated in retrospect at week-end. Quality rejects were tallied at the end of the dye run, often after thousands of meters had already been produced off-spec.
- Paper job tickets walked between shop-floor stations by runners
- Whiteboard in supervisor office as the only live production schedule
- Machine downtime causes debated in retrospect at week-end review
- Quality rejects tallied at the end of dye run, after off-spec metres produced
- No live yield, OEE, or throughput visibility for plant management
- Maintenance done reactively when a machine failed mid-shift
- Shift handover by paper logbook with selective attention to detail
- No traceability from finished roll back to specific machine, shift, and operator
The solution
What we built
We built a touchscreen MES for the shop floor with one rugged terminal per work centre. Operators clock onto jobs, log stops with structured reason codes, capture quality samples, and request maintenance from the terminal. Machine PLCs are wired into the platform through Modbus and OPC-UA bridges, so the system knows the moment a loom stops even if the operator has not logged the reason yet — and prompts them to classify it within five minutes. A planning module assigns jobs to machines based on capability and current schedule load. A quality module captures inline samples and triggers a hold on the run if a parameter drifts past tolerance. Maintenance moves from reactive to preventive with PM schedules generated from machine runtime hours. Plant management sees live OEE, yield, and throughput per work centre on a wall screen and per machine on a phone. Every finished roll carries a QR-tagged genealogy back to machine, shift, operator, and quality sample sequence.
Core workflow connections
How the system flows.
- Production PlanMachine AssignmentJob Ticket IssuedOperator Clock-on
- Machine Stop (PLC detected)Operator ClassificationMaintenance Notified
- Inline Quality SampleSpec ComparisonHold or ContinueAudit Log
- Job CompletionYield CaptureGenealogy TagQR Label Printed
- PM ScheduleRuntime Hours ThresholdMaintenance Work OrderSign-off
- Shift HandoverOpen Issues ListOutgoing Sign-offIncoming Acknowledged
- OEE CalculationLive Wall DisplayTrend AnalyticsDaily Review
- Quality RejectRoot Cause WorkflowCAPA OwnerClosure
- Finished Roll QR linking back to machine, shift, operator, and quality samples
- Modbus / OPC-UA bridges connecting machine PLCs to the platform
Process
How we built it.
Production Plan → Machine Assignment → Job Ticket Issued → Operator Clock-on
Machine Stop (PLC detected) → Operator Classification → Maintenance Notified
Inline Quality Sample → Spec Comparison → Hold or Continue → Audit Log
Job Completion → Yield Capture → Genealogy Tag → QR Label Printed
PM Schedule → Runtime Hours Threshold → Maintenance Work Order → Sign-off
Shift Handover → Open Issues List → Outgoing Sign-off → Incoming Acknowledged
OEE Calculation → Live Wall Display → Trend Analytics → Daily Review
Quality Reject → Root Cause Workflow → CAPA Owner → Closure
Finished Roll QR linking back to machine, shift, operator, and quality samples
Modbus / OPC-UA bridges connecting machine PLCs to the platform
Start a project
Running production on paper tickets and whiteboards?
We build MES platforms that meet the shop floor where it is — rugged terminals, PLC integration, and the data discipline export customers ask for.
No retainer lock-in · Month-to-month · Full transparency
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