Smart factory IoT and MES for an electronics component maker

A foreign-invested electronics component manufacturer runs three plants in northern Vietnam, supplying global device makers that demand lot-level traceability for every shipment. When order volumes nearly doubled in two years, paper travellers and spreadsheets could no longer keep production under control. Zentrova was engaged to build a smart factory platform that connects machines to a manufacturing execution system and to the company's existing ERP platform.

The challenge

The plants operated more than 1,400 machines spanning several generations and suppliers, most without any data interface. Downtime was recorded only when a shift leader remembered to write it down, so efficiency figures were unreliable at best. Each time a customer asked to trace a defective lot, the quality team spent two to three days digging through records. Management needed accurate, real-time visibility without halting production to replace equipment.

Our solution

• Machine connectivity layer using industrial IoT gateways and MQTT, retrofitting sensors on older equipment instead of replacing it.
• Edge computing on every shop floor, processing data locally so that each plant keeps running if the connection to the central platform drops.
• Manufacturing execution system covering work orders, routing, materials and quality, with two-way synchronisation to the ERP platform.
• Lot-level traceability from incoming raw materials to finished goods, searchable in seconds.
• Line-side tablets replacing paper: operators receive work instructions, report defects and confirm output right at their station.
• Segmented industrial network separating operational technology from the office network, with access controls aligned to ISO 27001.

Results

After 11 months, all three plants were running on the new platform, used every day by 4,500 operators and engineers.

• Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) up from 64% to 81%.
• Lot traceability reduced from three days to under one minute.
• Defects caught at final inspection down 38%.
• Printed production paperwork reduced by 95%.
• Product changeover time on the lines shortened by 27%.

The rollout followed a deliberate sequence: one pilot line, then one full plant, then the remaining two. Each step was signed off against measured OEE before the next began, and plant engineers were trained to add new machines to the platform themselves. The same data now feeds Zentrova's predictive maintenance models, currently being trialled on the plants' most critical equipment.

We can see the status of every machine in real time and, more importantly, we know why it stopped. — Plant Director, client company