Zühlke help Clients Succeed with Real-Time Test Data from WATS

Zühlke is a global engineering and innovation service provider focused on helping clients on everything from data consultancy to systems testing and manufacturing. Essentially, they help companies improve their processes and get as near to zero errors as possible.

As a consulting business, Zühlke help their clients by developing services and products based on new technologies – from the initial vision through development to deployment, production and operation.

This consulting and working environment, from high level strategy to manufacturing operations, provides a unique perspective on how data can assist or hinder a client’s business. We spoke to Christian Berger, Zurich-based Project Lead at Zühlke.

Data: Help Or Hindrance?

Zühlke was founded in Switzerland in 1968 and is owned by its partners – with its 1,900 employees operating from offices in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland, Vietnam and the United Kingdom, serving clients from a wide range of industries.

Christian Berger works with a Swiss client-base – including a high number of medical device manufacturers – the highly-regulated protocols demand a process that provides transparency, efficiency, and above all, consistent quality.

Christian has seen a shift in how companies approaches data and especially the digitization of data.

The Challenge

For years Christian and his team have been creating test-system software for customers – generating data that is all too often siloed – forgotten or deleted when the drive reaches its capacity limit.

Zühlke used to program its own statistical data and developed its own analysis tool for production data. So, whenever the company created test systems for its clients, that usually required Christian to produce bespoke logic for every customer: meaning his team would have to put significant effort into creating whatever the client needed.

For some companies the team developed applications to run certain data analysis to answer key questions. But doing so took significant effort and therefore costs.

Along with a number of other data specialists, Christian fount that using customized data parsers and Excel sheets to keep track of products leaving the production floor was outdated.

The Solution

Advancements in technologies have brought to life several cloud-based services that are far more capable than most existing, fully customized solutions. One of those services is WATS.

When Christian first came into contact with WATS he realized the benefits of the solution’s off-the-shelf functionality.

As a general practice, we usually tailor programmes for each customer, manipulate data and integrate into WATS and use the tools already available within WATS, Christian explains.

Now WATS is deployed in the ecosystems of tools for a customer. The excellent feedback with subsequent clients has given us the confidence to roll out WATS integration in our methodology and problem solving solutions.

In one example, a customer had a production issue and within just a couple of hours WATS enabled the customer to see the drop in yield very early on the dashboard. With a few clicks, the test-step causing the drop was identified.

Interestingly, during all those discussions it was always the R&D team which pointed the finger at the operations team and suggested something was wrong with the testing infrastructure. But investigation through WATS revealed that in fact it was an issue at the R&D stage, based on the bill of materials – not a production issue.

From an engineering point of view the main benefit of using commercial off-the-shelf software is that it can be very quickly integrated into existing production workflows and demonstrate at a glance the advantages of a real-time data or process capability analysis tool.

For customers, another key benefit of WATS is the immediate access to processes and overall visibility. This means access to not only the production floor but importantly to management and the entire team. So for instance, many customers rely on monthly or weekly reporting integrated into, for example, how well a production line is running to its KPIs through user-friendly traffic light dashboards.

Making All The Difference

In Switzerland, WATS is primarily deployed by Zühlke for clients in the medical devices sector. This highly regulated industry places burdens on companies to get tools to help with quality process and transparency.

Standards needed by compliance are key drivers and WATS can play a pivotal role in assurance and governance by identifying gaps and any issues in the production process.

Flexible deployment to support from global Six Sigma processes through to localized support for engineers in a specific location or department function means that WATS is truly scalable. Sensitive to user feedback, enhancements have included developments in the dashboard and sharing.

As Christian puts it: “Here’s the bottom line: In a fast-changing world, where time is always of the essence, a powerful tool to visualize what usually is hidden on hard-drives can make the difference between having stable COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and therefore profit or losing money by simply not knowing what the current status on the production floor is both in terms of yield and quality.”