Opcenter Execution Process
Integrated quality control has reduced scrap and enables automatic stop of out-of-spec production
What is our primary use case?
I use Siemens Opcenter Quality in automation architectures focused on the concept of closed-loop quality, for example, in projects where we need to collect inspection and failure data directly from HMIs and panels on the shop floor and integrate Siemens Opcenter Quality's statistical process control and FMEA tools directly with SCADA systems such as WinCC Unified, allowing us to automatically block production if a critical quality variable goes out of specification.
How has it helped my organization?
Siemens Opcenter Quality has had a positive impact on our organization. We experienced a reduction in the time needed for root cause traceability. Before the system, the process depended on paper forms and clipboards at the workstations, and when a critical defect was detected in final inspection, the quality team took on average two to three days to manually cross-check the records, review histories, and find the root cause of the line problem. Now, with Siemens Opcenter Quality centralizing data collection, this investigation and traceability time has dropped to a matter of minutes.
What is most valuable?
The best features that Siemens Opcenter Quality offers are the statistical process control modules and the ease of native integration with Siemens' automation portfolio, TIA Portal and WinCC. Having a tool that already supports the PLC data structure of the factory and translates that for quality engineering, without the need to develop complex drivers from scratch, is a major differentiator.
The statistical process control module of Siemens Opcenter Quality helps in my routine as with centralized and integrated data collection, the response to process deviation is immediate, which significantly reduces our scrap costs and saves operators' time.
What needs improvement?
The licensing and architecture of Siemens Opcenter Quality can be heavy for smaller implementations. Additionally, compared to different, more modern web-oriented solutions, the development and customization of reports still requires specific knowledge and can be difficult for those who are used only to traditional industrial automation development. A cleaner HTML5 interface based on the concepts of the ISA-101 standard for visualizing quality data would make a significant difference.
The scalability of Siemens Opcenter Quality is a point to be improved, as the licensing and architecture can be heavy for smaller implementations.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Siemens Opcenter Quality for a little over a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability issues have occurred.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Siemens Opcenter Quality is a point to be improved, as the licensing and architecture can be heavy for smaller implementations.
How are customer service and support?
Siemens' support overall is very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Excel and spreadsheets previously.
How was the initial setup?
Siemens Opcenter Quality is deployed locally on the company's server.
What about the implementation team?
We worked with a partner integrator for implementation.
What was our ROI?
I have already obtained a return on investment. There was a 15% reduction in scrap costs when we implemented the statistical process control module, integrated directly with the equipment. The system began to continuously monitor variables and we configured rules so that if a critical variable started to show a trend of going out of the tolerated specification, the system would issue an immediate alert or even block the machine from continuing, which prevented the production of entire batches out of standard, resulting in a direct reduction of approximately 15% in material waste in the first six months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not from the commercial area, so I did not reach that stage.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not consider alternate solutions.
What other advice do I have?
Other people considering using Siemens Opcenter Quality should use it as it gives very good control of the process and quick integration with the shop-floor PLCs, especially if you use Siemens on the shop floor, as many pieces of equipment today are Siemens, so this integration with the management part is very good. I would rate this product a 10 out of 10.
Integrated shop floor execution has improved traceability but still needs better UX and lower cost
What is our primary use case?
I also work on Siemens Opcenter Quality.
I function as a Tier 1 or Tier 2 supplier. I do subcontracting for Siemens, which has its own partners. From the partners, I become a subcontractor of Siemens.
What is most valuable?
The first thing is that there are not many good softwares for shop floor execution, and Siemens Opcenter Quality is one of the good tools which works on the shop floor. It is an integrated software to capture end-to-end process. I can perform the operation, do quality check and if it fails, I can raise a non-conformance. It directly goes to Teamcenter as a change request. This integration between the systems and automation is the unique selling point of this software. If I buy something from outside, maybe they may not get integrated and all those problems I may get into it. However, here it is a tight integration because it is coming from the same product.
Siemens Opcenter Quality is connected with the edge software on the shop floor machines. Automatically, when it is coming up, all the statistics and real-time information of each and every product being manufactured or assembly being done is getting updated into Siemens Opcenter Quality. Siemens Opcenter Quality has something called Manufacturing Excellence. These are dashboards which will continuously give the OEE and all those information directly to the user. It will also capture complete plant information. This is a good thing for this aspect.
Another valuable feature is the traceability feature.
What needs improvement?
There are a lot of features which are missing in Siemens Opcenter Quality. Something that comes to mind right away is the BOM, the Bill of Material and other things. Usually, from the sender, it is sent as a Bill of Material hierarchy. There, it is treated as a part list only. Even though they have hierarchy, it is not exactly the same hierarchy that I see in Teamcenter. These things they can improve better, and that will be helpful. The user interface should change. It is not user-friendly because it is used by somebody on the shop floor. It should be so intuitive that anybody can just look at it and be able to understand. But right now, the UI looks very busy. I can say it is a complex UI.
It is really expensive, too expensive.
There are no major products in the market which does this. I saw some things in Europe which are open source, but not great softwares. They are open source, so they are almost free with less price, but this runs into millions. I was looking for around 10,000 users and it almost cost me four or five million worth of software.
For how long have I used the solution?
How are customer service and support?
What other advice do I have?
I will give an example from my Indian experience. I went to one of the manufacturing companies and usually the operators are supposed to review the work instructions and implement them. There was a guy with 20 years of experience who was not even looking at the work instructions and was machining the product. I asked him, "What is the problem with you? Why don't you check it?" He replied, "I have been doing this for the last 20 years, the same thing." However, he does not know whether in the last one year or last one month, there may have been a change in shape or a size or a material or something got changed. The process might have improved. He does not know. However, these systems will enforce them to view the work instructions and then only operate it. Without viewing, it will not allow the operation. These types of restrictions on the shop floor are needed, and most of the time shop floor people reinvent the process, which can lead to more scrap. They are not supposed to reinvent. They are supposed to only build what the process planner has designed or the manufacturing engineer has designed. If they are asked to design something and follow the process and these people are creating a new process, maybe experienced people can do a better job on the shop floor, but everybody is not experienced and everybody does not know the complete details that the engineer or the manufacturing engineer or the process planner knows. So these people should not invent anything on the shop floor. If I do not have this type of systems, maybe some companies are running, but they do not understand how much waste they are creating because of this recreation at the shop floor. Those things are what need to be the game changer for everyone.
It is medium complex. Anything involving enterprise products will be a bit complex. However, it is doable.
My overall review rating for this product is 7 out of 10.