How MetalWorks Achieved 100% Product Traceability and Increased OEE by 15% with a Custom MES Platform

MetalWorks, a precision metal fabrication company serving aerospace and medical device industries, was drowning in paperwork and struggling with compliance requirements. Their production floor operated on a patchwork of paper travelers, Excel spreadsheets, and manual data entry into their SAP ERP system—often hours or days after events occurred. This created a perfect storm of problems: quality auditors couldn't trace material lots through the production process, operators spent 20% of their time on paperwork instead of making parts, setup times were excessive due to manual work instruction retrieval, and management had zero real-time visibility into production status or OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). The ISO 9001 and AS9100 certifications required for their aerospace customers demanded full traceability, but their existing systems made audits a nightmare of hunting through file cabinets. When quality issues arose, it could take days to identify which customer orders were affected. The company had tried implementing a commercial MES solution two years prior, but it failed because it couldn't integrate with their specific SAP customizations, required extensive process changes, and cost $500K in licensing alone. They needed a flexible, custom solution that would adapt to their processes, not force them to adapt to rigid software, while providing the digital backbone for Industry 4.0 transformation.