Cincinnati, Ohio, June 16, 2009 - Mattec Corporation, the world's leading supplier of real-time production and process monitoring systems, announced today that Rexam PLC has fully implemented ProHelp® EPM in its Berlin, Ohio plant.

The Berlin facility, one of approximately 100 Rexam plants worldwide, manufactures prescription containers for the United States’ pharmaceutical market and completed an extensive Mattec implementation in Q1 2009. The ProHelp® EPM solution, which replaced a 20-year old solution, is now fully operational throughout the facility, monitoring machines and external systems.

“The previous system was older technology with less flexibility. It was only a monitoring system; nothing more,” said Mitch Stein, Plant Manager. “With Mattec we’ve taken it to the next level, not only monitoring presses and ancillary equipment, but monitoring the level of resin, the colors in the hoppers and the oil and water temps – all in real-time.” According to Stein, other critical factors in the switch to Mattec were its ability to integrate with Rexam’s SAP solution and its utility as a tool for helping the company achieve its Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) initiatives.

In short, OEE analyzes the performance of a specific work center or department in three measurable areas: Availability, Performance, and Quality. By enabling a company to measure each production unit on the basis of these components, managers can then identify under-performing processes and target improvement efforts.

Stein points to Mattec’s Auto-Accept feature as an example of the bottom-line impact of real-time information. Within the time it takes to make a part - Mattec determines whether or not the part meets Rexam’s quality standards. If it does not, Mattec instructs the machine to divert that part upon completion, ensuring 100% part qualification, a critical requirement for the pharmaceutical industry’s stringent quality standards. “If the water temperature for a given unit falls outside of variance, we know immediately and are able to respond within a minute, without having to shut anything down; which, ultimately, saves the company money.”

With the Mattec implementation, Rexam can improve its ability to track OEE, a critical measure in gauging the status of the company’s lean efforts. Mattec has the ability to monitor values like scrap and machine/process performance for each cycle, and alerts managers instantly to under-performing resources.

According to Stein, Mattec is already improving process efficiencies and OEE; a metric he expects to show even greater improvement once the integration of ProHelp EPM with SAP is completed. “We have lot of parts going through machines - millions of pieces per shift – with tight tolerances, but with Mattec we can run more efficiently because the machine does 100% inspections every cycle,” said Stein. “And once we integrate with SAP and use Mattec for production reporting, we can improve our reporting efficiencies as well. Mattec has taken us into the 21st century.”

Press Contacts
Andy Amalfitano C.A.
General Manager
Mattec Corporation
(800) 966-1301
andy@mattec.com

© 2009 Mattec Corporation, Inc. All rights reserved.