Digital Assistance System Sustainably Increases OEE
A leading company in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industry has established itself not only as a pioneer in research and development, but also sets standards in digitalization and process optimization. It has recognized how important it is to integrate innovative technologies in order to remain competitive and meet the constantly growing demands of the market. In an increasingly digital world, the company relies on intelligent, interactive systems that not only increase productivity and maximize OEE in production lines, but also sustainably improve work quality and employee collaboration. These systems promote smooth, transparent communication between teams, reduce information gaps, and make the work environment more structured and pleasant. An outstanding example of this digital transformation is the assistance system MADDOX from Peerox, which not only elevates production processes to a new level, but also actively contributes to a motivating and cooperative work environment.
Identify Typical Production Problems and Increase OEE in a Targeted Manner
In today’s manufacturing industry, production managers and technical directors face a multitude of challenges. One of the central questions is: How can waste in production be identified and minimized in order to increase OEE?
An analysis of production processes at a leading company in the industry has revealed several problems that are typical in many operations across the industry:
· Inefficient processing and errors in production workflows that lead to delays and quality loss.
· Lack of employee involvement and motivation, which negatively impacts team performance.
· Inadequate information interfaces that hinder communication between departments and machines.
These forms of waste directly affect Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)—that is, the actual efficiency of machines and equipment. A low OEE value means not only lower production results, but also higher operating costs and reduced competitiveness.
Transformation in Collaboration with Peerox
When one of the production machines connected to the MADDOX software stops today due to a malfunction, relevant knowledge entries from experienced employees appear on a large touch screen at the line and on mobile tablets within seconds. This allows most malfunctions to be resolved quickly and, above all, at their root cause—a key prerequisite for avoiding production downtime and increasing OEE.
A single click provides feedback to the AI algorithm in MADDOX, enabling it to continuously learn which data patterns from the machines correspond to which malfunctions and solutions. If a malfunction lasts longer than five minutes, the software automatically reminds users to create the necessary SAP notification. This can be generated directly from MADDOX with just five inputs—automatically populating 25 fields in SAP. The remaining 20 pieces of information are generated in the background in a customer-specific and fully automated manner from machine data, knowledge content, and additional sources such as other SAP databases.
This seamless, value-adding integration into existing systems and processes is the result of a comprehensive transformation process—made possible through committed and trusting collaboration.
Before the introduction of digital knowledge management with Peerox, lines sometimes stood idle for multiple shifts because no experienced person was on-site to resolve complex malfunctions. During the COVID pandemic, this problem intensified as teams worked in strict separation and frequently had to switch between different production lines.
The necessary knowledge was almost always available somewhere—either in the minds of experienced employees who were not present, or in documents that could not be found in stressful situations. The self-learning search algorithm of MADDOX solves this problem through pattern recognition in machine data and the automatic assignment of relevant knowledge entries.
System Integration Is Teamwork
Providing data at the necessary quality level was a major practical challenge as a cross-functional task within the overall digitalization strategy. In some cases, machine data interfaces were incompletely or incorrectly documented, load and latency issues occurred, and internal machine states had to be mapped to OEE-relevant states (e.g., PackML standard).
This integration into the complex data and IT landscape was driven primarily by the integration experts at Peerox. They coordinated with six different machine manufacturers and a globally active external IT service provider, significantly relieving the project managers and on-site technical staff.
As a result, MADDOX is integrated as a distributed server application into a complex network structure consisting of four partitions—from the PLC to the cloud server—and captures more than 26,000 variables from over 50 production machines through monitored, fault-tolerant data interfaces.
In addition to being used for internal AI training, MADDOX also makes this data available to other applications within the IT infrastructure (e.g., for production dashboards).
Training Program for Digital Assistance Systems—Practical Experience
Despite the human-centered approach to efficiency improvement through innovative knowledge management and the extensive system integration for comfortable use, initial acceptance of MADDOX was hesitant. Sharing personal experiential knowledge in AI-powered software raises concerns. Therefore, Peerox developed a training program together with the responsible training staff, which has been completed by over 200 employees to date. This includes, for example, a training instance with virtual production machines on which production scenarios can be simulated, as well as MADDOX integrated into a physical training facility. In addition, Peerox specialists for training and change management accompany the implementation process in weekly sessions (online or on-site) by addressing objections and questions, adjusting software functions as needed, collaborating with the works council, and providing materials and tools for training and creating positive habits.
Knowledge Management That Works—Measurable Success in Production
At a world-leading company in the pharmaceutical industry, the Peerox team has already proven how valuable innovative knowledge management with MADDOX is for increasing efficiency in production. A detailed analysis of production data, particularly on certain production lines, showed significant improvements in the OEE value.
An outstanding example is a central production line in the pharmaceutical sector, which is responsible for the manufacture of highly specialized medications and requires the highest precision and quality. Production in this line is particularly complex, as it must fulfill both demanding mechanical processes and strict regulatory requirements. Through the integration of MADDOX, the efficiency and utilization of the systems could be significantly increased—the OEE value rose by 7%, which represents a verifiable improvement.
This increase resulted not only from higher machine availability due to reduced downtimes, but also from optimized communication processes between departments—which led to a noticeably better overall performance.
Further advantages of MADDOX were the reduction of waste and faster onboarding of employees, which had a significantly positive effect in the course of major internal restructurings in recent years. Through intelligent analysis and the immediate identification of problem causes, the company was able to significantly extend machine runtimes and simultaneously reduce production costs.
This is proof that MADDOX represents a real increase in value for your company and has the potential to significantly improve a wide variety of production processes.
Increase OEE with Peerox—Your Next Step Toward Smart Production
If you are also interested in optimizing your production processes and increasing both the efficiency of your machines and your employees, MADDOX could be the right solution for you. The self-learning assistance system not only supports the reduction of downtime and lowering of costs, but also improves job satisfaction through targeted knowledge transfer at the right moment.
The integration of MADDOX offers you the opportunity to leverage the potential of digitalization and artificial intelligence specifically for production practice—and to sustainably increase your OEE.
A step toward more efficient, smarter, and future-proof production is possible with Peerox as a partner for digital transformation.
