RoviSys has been involved in MES and digitalization initiatives since our founding in 1989. While we have had strong successes in the MES space during that time, different project teams took various approaches to MES-centric projects, leading to inconsistency and frequent reinvention. To combat this challenge, in 2019 we established a dedicated Center of Excellence (CoE) to consolidate our varied MES knowledge and expertise, ensuring that MES projects are defined, implemented, and deployed in a consistent, efficient, high-quality manner using standard tools and practices. This CoE has dedicated resources and is supported globally with RoviSys technical resources.
Since 2019, our CoE has played a role in the execution of 600+ opportunities consisting of 365K+ engineering hours across various vertical markets. RoviSys has executed large enterprise MES programs requiring thousand of hours as well as small support/enhancement projects.
As an independent integrator, RoviSys regularly evaluates MES technology trends and the various platform options, allowing us to 'right-fit' MES technology to solve our customer's pain points and provide return on investment, rather than leading with specific technology options. Vendor partnerships are based upon solution merit rather than hidden sales agendas.
Our proven Agile for Manufacturing process allows for the establishment and continuous refinement of project scope throughout the lifecycle of the digitalization initiative. It addresses key deficiencies of both purely agile and purely waterfall execution methodologies. Projects executed in a purely agile manner often lack overall goals, clear scope boundaries, and a comprehensive project roadmap. As a result, these projects often have an unclear definition of completion, exhibit cost overruns, and lead to unfulfilled customer expectations. Alternatively, projects executed in a waterfall manner have very rigid scope boundaries and have little room for course correction as the project progresses. Additionally, these projects require thorough functional requirement and detailed design definition up-front, which is often impractical and can lead to weak or incomplete design deliverables that are poorly understood by the customer at the time review is requested.
The Agile for Manufacturing process flow consists of three primary phases: Assessment, Spend Allocation, and Execution. RoviSys leverages a standardized assessment process to baseline our customer's operations and current KPIs, solicit feedback from key stakeholders, analyze potential technical solutions, and roadmap implementation logistics. With a culture based in control system engineering, RoviSys fosters MES up from the factory floor rather than down from the IT space, unlike numerous other competing technology consultants. Based on the results of the assessment, budgetary refinement is conducted and contrasted with the expected ROI of the solution.
Scope refinement occurs throughout the process as high-level goals are translated to detailed technical tasks to be executed. During execution of solution implementation, in-progress build process reviews are conducted at frequent intervals to ensure that stakeholders understand and are aligned with the functionality being implemented. This forum allows feedback to be captured and course corrections to be made while there is still room in the project budget and schedule to do so.
The most important measure of an MES initiative's success is that operations has embraced the delivered solution and it is being leveraged to provide a positive impact to plant performance. As a result of this, we place great importance on organizational change management (OCM), ensuring that both the value statement of the solution and means of leveraging the solution are well understood across various customer stakeholder groups. We take steps early in the process and throughout the project's execution to keep OCM at top of mind. These include identification of 'expert users' who can participate in observation of the build and test of the solution and champion the solution to their peers. Proper business process scenario definition, training considerations, and project deployment planning are also considered early in the project's lifecycle rather than as an afterthought.
Additionally, RoviSys has embraced modern development tools and techniques to allow for the deployment of enterprise-wide MES architectures efficiently and with minimal quality control impact. These include usage of CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous deployment) principles such as automated unit testing, infrastructure as code, and automated development -> test -> production deployment pipelines to ensure early identification of bugs and consistent site deployments, in turn reducing opportunities for human error.
All our projects possess a strong project management component. A project manager is staffed on every project engagement who is responsible for ensuring the project's budget, schedule, and deliverables adhere to the agreed upon project plan. Our project managers utilize established RoviSys project management standards, ensuring that all projects adhere to our expected level of project delivery quality. Standard cost tracking, project organization, and project status reporting tools and templates are also leveraged. As Azure DevOps is leveraged for implementation by the internal team, RoviSys project managers are familiar with DevOps and using it to track day-to-day tasks, sprint velocity, and sprint burndown rates.
If our customer has preferred templates or tracking tools, RoviSys is willing to evaluate these to see if they can be made to fit within our Project Management approach. We are well accustomed to adapting our proven procedures to meet customer-specific practices.
Additionally, RoviSys places a strong emphasis on program governance and customer satisfaction. We lead periodic governance calls with our customers, attended by our project responsible management, the customer's, and often the platform vendor's representatives as well. This call discusses key risks & issues, current project progress, and the status of future phases/initiatives. RoviSys leverages dedicated customer success personnel to serve in a customer advocate role, and employ periodic feedback loops such as NPS (net promotor score) surveys to ensure we are meeting or exceeding our customer's expectations.
Rather than employ disconnected help desks or call centers, our design and development teams ultimately support the solution throughout deployment and 'Hypercare' sustainment periods, with extended support contracts available to ensure that an individual knowledgeable in the specific MES implementation is at-the-ready to quickly resolve issues, reducing downtime and further increasing the value of the solution and of RoviSys as a services partner.
At RoviSys, we distinguish ourselves in the digitalization and MES solutions space through our unique approach, extensive experience, and unwavering dedication to quality. We have continually demonstrated our commitment to improving and refining MES projects. Having successfully executed hundreds of projects, established a dedicated Center of Excellence, and nurtured a pool of highly skilled technical resources, we have a unique working ethos that sets us apart. As an independent integrator, our primary focus is on providing the right solutions to meet your specific needs and thus ensuring your success. Our Agile for Manufacturing process guarantees adaptable, efficient, and customer-centric project implementation, while our robust project management component guarantees quality and timely delivery. Unlike other technology consultants, our very business culture promotes growing MES from the factory floor upward. Given our commitment to customer satisfaction, program governance, and delivering quality service, we can assure a significant improvement in plant performance. Connect with our expert team at RoviSys to explore how we can revolutionize your manufacturing operations.
