Lighthouse Systems is one of the world’s leading developers of factory information systems known as manufacturing execution systems. MES is configurable software that helps manufacturing companies achieve measurable improvements in efficiency, output, compliance, quality and customer satisfaction. Implementing MES also greatly assists in the drive for LEAN manufacturing.

You are no doubt working hard to get your manufacturing operations working towards world-class standards. Finding ways of making even the smallest improvements in performance and quality becomes an increasingly difficult and expensive challenge, yet this is the reality faced by most companies. The demands of customers and the pressures from competitors and shareholders are a constant force for change.

By focusing on the practical issues faced by manufacturers, we have devised powerful applications that are highly configurable and economical to run and support. They are readily understood and used at all levels from the shop floor to operational management through to group-wide management and executives.

Lighthouse factory information systems target the area that even the most sophisticated enterprise resources planning systems (ERP) are incapable of addressing – the availability of consistent production data that’s essential to pinpointing problems in your production processes, identifying opportunities, effecting change or meeting regulatory requirements e.g. traceability data.

Most manufacturing operations record lots of operational data. The problem is that it is invariably locked up in a variety of different systems ranging from computer applications to spreadsheets and paper records with the ever-present possibility of human error. It’s not accessible to everyone who might benefit from it, it’s not consistent, it’s rarely available when needed and it has to be reprocessed before it can be presented to management.

Our MES solution – the Shopfloor-Online MES Factory Information System – provides real-time visibility of the entire manufacturing environment. Being web based, the information it collects can be accessed by anyone who needs it – the operator of a particular machine, a colleague on another part of the line or the shift manager. It also makes it available to support functions: production engineering, maintenance, engineering, quality and, of course, operational management.

And the view is not just plant-wide: it can be used to see what’s happening in any of your production units anywhere in the world. It can aggregate data from across plants to provide plant-by-plant performance metrics. The same data is a valuable repository for engineering functions that need to plan new product introductions.

Shopfloor-Online MES is also scalable; you can introduce in one part of the factory, then when proven extend it to other areas and expand the scope. The software is internationalised so can be deployed across all your plants across the world backed up with support from Lighthouse offices in Europe, USA or Asia.

It is based on the latest web-based architectures, it is certified by Microsoft, it slots in with your existing IT infrastructure and integrates with existing IT applications such as ERP.

The gains that come from such an integrated and systematic approach can be dramatic. By concentrating on the very heart of your manufacturing operations Shopfloor-Online MESgives you the means to reduce spoilage and downtime and improve quality, performance and on-time delivery. The companies that have adopted MES have demonstrated a payback that is typically measured in months.

Lighthouse MES systems are being used in a wide range of industries such as medical devices, packaging, pharmaceuticals, automotive, aerospace, plastics and electronics. We work in partnership with corporate giants such as Rexam, Crown, Nissan, Toyota, BD and GE, and numerous smaller but highly progressive manufacturing companies.

A Lighthouse MES factory information system enables you to transform your manufacturing culture from one where operational and investment decisions rely on intuition and experience to one where they are based on accurate and consistent real-time information.