MGS Technical Plastics is monitoring all 19 of its injection moulding machines through a live production system, extending factory data beyond machine utilisation into capacity planning, downtime response, scrap recording, investment decisions, and customer order updates.
MGS Technical Plastics has deployed Intouch alongside its existing enterprise resource planning processes, creating a common live view of activity across the production floor. The Blackburn manufacturer wanted clearer information on where machine time was being lost, how closely jobs were running to planned cycle times, and where spare capacity remained available.
The system collects production information across the complete 19-machine moulding operation rather than monitoring selected equipment. Utilisation, cycle performance, machine stoppages, scrap, and expected completion times can consequently be viewed against the wider production schedule rather than reconstructed after a job has finished.
Nominal machine availability does not necessarily translate into usable injection moulding capacity. Tool changes, material drying, manual operations, quality interventions, maintenance, and unrecorded stoppages can all reduce productive time while leaving the machine technically available on a planning system.
MGS already used an ERP platform to manage manufacturing orders and information including bills of materials, but the business lacked the same visibility into what was happening at machine level. An earlier wireless manufacturing execution system had also created reliability problems, limiting confidence in the information being collected.
Manufacturing Project Engineer Kail Sturgess said: “We didn’t know how long toolsets were taking.” MGS therefore placed particular emphasis on validating information from the replacement system before removing existing manual records.
Scrap figures captured through Intouch were checked against production sheets until the company was satisfied that the digital record matched established reporting. Operators can now record scrap directly at the machine, removing duplicated paperwork while making the figures available to planning and management without waiting for manual reconciliation.
Factory displays provide immediate visibility of production status. When a machine stops, technicians can identify the interruption more quickly, while cycle monitoring shows where manual jobs are moving away from expected performance.
Production Planner Craig Parkinson also uses live information to estimate when jobs will actually finish. Completion forecasts influence labour allocation, material preparation, logistics, and the sequence of following orders, particularly when work can be transferred between compatible presses to relieve heavily loaded equipment.
Capacity planning is one of the more substantial uses of the data. A factory can appear fully loaded when planning is based on booked machine hours even though recoverable time is being lost through poor sequencing, extended changeovers, or jobs consistently running beyond their standard cycle.
The reverse can also occur. A machine may appear free on a schedule while tool availability, polymer preparation, labour, ancillary equipment, or customer qualification prevents that capacity from being used for the next order. Live production records provide a better basis for separating theoretical hours from capacity that can actually be sold.
MGS is using those records in capital expenditure modelling. Additional injection moulding machines require more than their purchase price: they consume floor space, services, ancillary equipment, maintenance capacity, and labour while requiring enough future work to justify the investment.
Better information about the installed asset base can therefore delay unnecessary expenditure or, equally, provide stronger evidence that a further machine is required because existing presses are genuinely operating near practical capacity rather than simply being scheduled inefficiently.
The same production information is reaching customers. Managing Director Judson Smyth uses the Intouch application to show job progress and expected completion without first asking production staff to manually establish the status of an order.
The system does not remove the judgement involved in scheduling. Tool availability, polymer grades, colour changes, staffing, maintenance, delivery priorities, and customer requirements still determine how work is allocated. It changes the quality and timing of the information available when those decisions are made.
MGS operates around the clock and supplies injection moulded components into markets including automotive and other industrial applications. Its manufacturing model places a premium on using installed presses efficiently because the commercial value of each machine is determined by productive, conforming output rather than the number of hours for which the asset is theoretically available.
Factory digitalisation is often associated with large automation programmes, new robot cells, or extensive software platforms. The MGS deployment is more prosaic: it records what existing machines are doing with enough reliability for production teams to act on the information.
All 19 presses are now feeding the same operating picture, and Intouch says MGS plans to extend the approach into its newer engineering activities. The useful measure will be whether the visibility continues to recover productive time and sharpen investment decisions after live monitoring becomes an ordinary part of running the factory rather than a new project.
