MBX Systems Wins 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Award
Custom OEM Server Appliance Manufacturer Recognized for Super Cell Project
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., March 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- MBX Systems announced today that it has earned a 2015 Manufacturing Leadership Award for innovative lean procedures it has adopted to build custom OEM server appliances for business software vendors. Now in its 11th year, the competition is judged by Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council and is designed to honor companies that are shaping the future of global manufacturing.
MBX engineers and manufactures custom server platforms for software vendors that deliver their applications as turnkey hardware/software packages. Each system is built to order and both loaded and tested with the customer's software before it leaves the MBX plant. Special methodologies are required to ensure both quality and productivity in this high-mix environment, where hundreds of unique server platforms are being produced at any given time.
The company received a Manufacturing Leadership Award for a project designed to expedite completion of larger customer orders during final software installation, testing and inspection processes. The initiative involved a new extra-large workstation format – internally called a Super Cell – requiring supporting infrastructure and automation technology that allow the simultaneous configuration and testing of up to 400 servers for faster order fulfillment.
The project leaned operations by merging configuration and testing stations, quintupled the number of server appliances that can be configured and tested simultaneously at a single workstation, and equipped MBX to process up to 400 systems at once by linking multiple Super Cells together.
It also quadrupled the company's build capacity from 5,000 to 20,000 systems a month per shift, and enabled quality improvements by reducing keystrokes and providing real-time feedback enabling technicians to check configuration results.
This year, MBX is expanding the initiative by adding multiple new Super Cell work areas enabling simultaneous configuration and testing of up to 640 systems. The upgrade will increase monthly capacity to more than 25,000 units per shift per month.
"Since the Super Cell implementation, we doubled the number of systems delivered and more than doubled company revenues. Most of those gains were a direct result of our ability to handle large batch sizes in a more timely manner through the automation upgrades and new processes we deployed in this project," said Jill Bellak, MBX President and Chief Operating Officer. "This Manufacturing Leadership Award recognizes the value of the project both from an operational standpoint and for its role in delivering the competitive advantage we need to drive business."
The award is the latest in a series of accolades received by MBX, including 2012 Quality Plant of the Year honors from Quality magazine.
About MBX Systems
MBX Systems is a leading designer and manufacturer of application-optimized server appliances and cloud-ready solutions for ISVs and service providers worldwide. MBX delivers turnkey hardware systems that are 100% customized to the customer's specifications by in-house platform engineers, while also offering value-added services such as branding, software imaging, regulatory/compliance, global logistics and warranty support to relieve customers of all hardware responsibilities. That unusual range of services, along with award-winning quality, innovation and customer service, has attracted customers in more than 40 vertical industries in the past two decades. For more information, visit www.mbx.com.
SOURCE MBX Systems
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