The Construction Industry's Digital Transformation Story | Maxion Wheels Did It
About the Company
Maxion Wheels is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of steel and aluminum wheels for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and specialty vehicles. With more than 100 years of experience serving the global automotive industry, the company operates in Türkiye under the Maxion İnci Wheel Group in partnership with İnci Holding.
Operating high-capacity manufacturing facilities in Manisa, Maxion Wheels embraces operational excellence as a core part of its corporate culture. With a strong focus on quality, efficiency, flexibility, and sustainable growth, the company partnered with ProManage as part of its digital transformation journey to make its manufacturing processes more transparent, data-driven, and manageable.
Emine Uslu
Reasons for the Need
Maxion Wheels’ primary objective in its digital transformation journey was to make shop-floor processes more visible, measurable, and manageable. In the highly competitive automotive industry, the company needed accurate and reliable data to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and respond more quickly to changing customer demands.
The primary requirements identified during this process were:
- Data-Driven Decision-Making: Establishing project priorities based on transparent data rather than personal opinions, enabling everyone from shop-floor operators to senior management to work toward shared objectives.
- Preventing Misleading Manual Tracking: Replacing manually recorded production data, which is prone to errors, with systems that accurately measure production performance—particularly product changeover (setup) times—to identify the true causes of losses.
- Increasing Operational Efficiency (OEE): Increasing OEE levels from approximately 50% by leveraging digital data to maximize production capacity.
- Flexibility and Customer Focus: Building a flexible manufacturing structure capable of responding to dynamic market demands while efficiently handling even small production orders.
- Sustainable Improvement: Achieving lasting and measurable improvements through digital control mechanisms to prevent recurring operational problems.
- Cost Competitiveness: Identifying waste through production data and implementing continuous cost improvement initiatives in response to ongoing cost pressures within the automotive supply industry.
Motivation for Choosing and Important Details
The primary reason Maxion Wheels selected ProManage for its digital transformation journey was not only its leadership in the industry but also its operational ease and rapid integration capabilities.
The key factors considered during the solution selection process were:
- Data Reliability: The fact that data collected through manual methods did not always accurately reflect actual losses highlighted the need for a reliable digital data collection system.
- Shared Priority Setting: Defining project priorities based on transparent data rather than personal opinions helped align everyone—from shop-floor employees to senior management—around common goals.
- OEE and Downtime Monitoring: A digital solution was expected to make a significant contribution to accurately measuring production efficiency and enabling real-time monitoring of micro-downtimes and setup times.
- Industry Research and Benchmarking: During the decision-making process, data collection systems used by companies implementing Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing were evaluated to identify the most suitable solution.
- Sustainable Improvement: A system providing continuous monitoring was selected to ensure that resolved issues would not recur and that improvements would become permanent.
- Operational Alignment: ProManage’s ability to meet shop-floor requirements, integrate seamlessly with production processes, and provide a user-friendly structure played a significant role in the selection process.
Personal Experiences
The experiences Maxion Wheels gained throughout its digital transformation journey and the key highlights of the implementation process are as follows:
- The Importance of Leadership Support: Senior management’s belief in the transformation and close involvement throughout the process ensured that digitalization initiatives were embraced across the organization.
- Natural Resistance to Change: During the early stages of the transformation, teams showed resistance and a tendency to maintain existing habits. By starting the implementation with volunteer teams, this resistance gradually decreased over time.
- Involving Shop-Floor Teams in the Process: By involving operators, engineers, and managers throughout the implementation, the company ensured that real operational needs were properly understood and that the solution was successfully adopted on the shop floor.
- Building Trust Through Pilot Projects: Measurable results achieved in selected pilot areas made the digital transformation process more visible and reliable for both management and shop-floor teams.
- Sustainable Monitoring Discipline: To prevent resolved issues from recurring, digital monitoring, regular reviews, and close management support became essential elements of the transformation process.
- Alignment of Culture and Technology: The company recognized that digital transformation is not only a technology investment but also a transformation that must be supported by strong leadership and corporate culture.
- Enhancing the Employee Experience: Successful digital transformation initiatives not only delivered financial benefits but also simplified operational processes, reducing employees’ workload and stress.
What Has ProManage Delivered?
ProManage has delivered multifaceted benefits to Maxion Wheels:
- Increased OEE and Productivity: Through digital monitoring and continuous improvement initiatives, OEE rates on serial production lines increased from approximately 50% to 70–75%.
- Improvements in Setup Times: By analyzing product changeover processes using digital data, average setup times were reduced from approximately 180 minutes to as little as 30 minutes.
- Transparent and Data-Driven Management: Thanks to reliable data collected from the shop floor, everyone—from operators to senior management—has been aligned around the same priorities.
- Sustainable Cost Reduction: Making waste and loss points visible has supported the systematic management of continuous cost improvement initiatives.
- Flexible Production Capability: Reduced product changeover times and greater visibility into production processes have created an agile manufacturing structure capable of responding more quickly to small-batch orders.
- Employee Motivation and Reduced Workload: Reducing unplanned downtime and operational uncertainty has helped ease the workload and stress experienced by shop-floor teams, making daily operations more manageable.
- Faster Project and Decision-Making Processes: Access to accurate and reliable data has enabled faster identification of improvement opportunities in Kaizen and Six Sigma projects, allowing corrective actions to be implemented more effectively.
- Quality Improvement and Scrap Reduction: Digital monitoring of production processes has contributed to reducing quality-related costs and scrap rates.
- Sustainable Improvement Culture: The visibility provided by ProManage has supported the transformation of improvement initiatives from one-time solutions into a continuously monitored and sustainable structure.
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