M&H Engineering Empowers a Multicultural Workforce with Datanomix

Next-gen production intelligence fosters communication in a shop where English is often a second language.

M&H Engineering is an award-winning precision machine components manufacturer in Danvers, Massachusetts. Founded in 1966, M&H is a second-generation shop focused on producing high-volume critical engineered components and mechanical assemblies for the semiconductor, high-tech, aerospace, and medical industries. M&H prides itself on delivering “Precision with Consistency.”

M&H is amidst a multi-year program to evolve the shop, transitioning from a company that started primarily as a job shop into a high-volume production shop. Central to that effort is upgrading technology and processes while maintaining the core principles of excellent manufacturing that M&H has developed over the years. In addition, M&H employs a culturally diverse workforce, so any new technologies must support effective communication with the many shop personnel where English is a second language.

For M&H, measuring efficiencies and identifying bottlenecks in real time using data directly from the CNC machines is critical. The company learned fairly quickly that its ERP system would not provide all the data needed to reach its goals, especially in live operations. Datanomix helps M&H quickly and efficiently identify the jobs that engineering needs to retool so they can improve the machining process. This has been a huge differentiator for them because efficiencies are everything, especially as it’s become harder to hire, and they look to use automation to take up the slack.

“Unlike other monitoring systems, with Datanomix, insights are driven by machine data, not operator input. This frees up our operators to focus on their work and delivers better data because our operators could misinterpret the meaning of reason codes because English is a second language. Datanomix is a virtual window into what’s happening on the shop floor right now.”

—Chris Burns, VP of Business Development, M&H Engineering

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

■ The ERP system at M&H is helpful for a lot of things—inventory, invoicing, tracking deliveries, etc.—but doesn’t provide insights into production in real-time

■ Identifying bottlenecks in production and understanding if they are a result of process or people allows M&H to address performance in the factory aggressively

■ For M&H, No Operator Input™ is essential—getting data directly from machines means there are no delays in driving insights from actual operations

■ Datanomix provides a communication hub that empowers a culturally diverse workforce to work together despite language differences

Use the form to access the full case study: