The Digital Transformation Story of the
Construction Industry | Unigen Succeeded
About The Company
With over 20 years of experience, Unigen Building Materials is a leading manufacturer of commercial flooring and raised floor systems. Operating its production in Düzce with brands like Onto and Preto, the company partnered with ProManage to eliminate “operational blindness” and establish a modern, data-driven manufacturing structure focused on continuous improvement.
Meltem Özkan
REASONS FOR THE NEED
Unigen’s digital transformation journey began with the vision of eliminating the “operational blindness” caused by manual production processes and establishing a data-driven management culture. Before digitalization, production data was tracked through paper-based records and Excel spreadsheets, slowing operational performance and limiting the company’s ability to identify strategic improvement opportunities.
The primary needs driving this transformation included:
- Breaking the Productivity Barrier: With overall OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) levels starting at approximately 20%, the company recognized the urgent need to improve production efficiency through digital transformation.
- Reducing Manual Workload: By eliminating manual reporting tasks for supervisors and operators, the goal was to enable employees to focus on continuous improvement and value-added activities instead of paperwork.
- Data Accuracy for Lean Transformation: During the Lean Manufacturing initiative carried out with the Ankara Model Factory, accurate, fast, and transparent production data became essential for identifying waste (muda) and production bottlenecks instead of relying on subjective evaluations.
- Continuous Production and Proactive Maintenance: To support increasing production capacity, the company aimed to establish a proactive production environment by monitoring maintenance activities and machine failures in real time, minimizing unexpected interruptions.
MOTIVATION FOR CHOICE AND KEY DETAILS
Unigen selected ProManage not only for its technological capabilities but also for its flexibility, ease of implementation, and ability to support the company’s lean manufacturing journey. The solution was expected to integrate quickly into existing operations while providing reliable, real-time production data to support continuous improvement.
- Infrastructure Flexibility: The cloud-based subscription model eliminated the need for additional server investments and dedicated full-time IT management, providing a flexible and cost-effective infrastructure.
- Rapid Machine Integration: ProManage’s IoT devices enabled fast integration with the existing machine park, allowing production data to be collected quickly without disrupting operations.
- Fast Deployment: Even in a production facility with approximately 10 machines, the complete implementation process—including hardware installation and cabling—can be completed within a single day, enabling immediate access to production data.
- Advanced Reporting Capabilities: Flexible reporting tools designed for production, quality, and lean manufacturing teams enabled rapid analysis of production losses, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities.
- Lean Manufacturing Integration: During the Ankara Model Factory lean transformation program, ProManage’s real-time production data supported waste identification, process analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives, helping accelerate the company’s lean manufacturing journey.
Personal Experiences
Unigen’s experiences throughout its digital transformation journey and the key milestones achieved during the process are summarized below:
- Rapid User Adoption: Thanks to its user-friendly interface, employees at every level—from operators to engineering teams—adapted to the system much faster than expected.
- Continuous Training Approach: Following implementation, user training sessions were organized across the company, while periodic refresher training was introduced to help new employees and team members transferring between departments quickly adapt to the system.
- No Additional Workload for Operators: At the beginning of each shift, operators only needed a few seconds to enter data into the system, significantly reducing the time previously spent on manual production forms. As a result, digitalization did not create additional workload for shop-floor teams.
- Seamless Technical Integration: With ProManage’s IoT devices, data collection from the existing machine park was completed quickly, allowing the system to be deployed without complex integration challenges.
- Minimal IT Dependency: The company successfully implemented and operated the system using its existing maintenance and technical teams, without the need for a dedicated full-time IT department.
- Data-Driven Decision-Making Culture: Digital transformation replaced opinion-based evaluations with meetings and action plans built on measurable production data. Teams across different departments began making decisions based on the same data, creating a common data language throughout the organization.
- Higher Employee Engagement: Operators gained real-time visibility into downtime, scrap, and performance indicators, while maintenance requests and related processes began to be managed directly through the system.
- Parallel Progress with Lean Transformation: During the lean transformation program carried out with the Ankara Model Factory, digital production data was used not only for monitoring but also to support continuous improvement initiatives and waste reduction activities.
- Strengthened Organizational Culture: The digital transformation initiative evolved beyond a technology project, fostering greater transparency, trust, and a data-driven way of working across the organization.
WHAT PROMANAGE DELIVERED
ProManage has delivered significant benefits to Unigen across production performance, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement:
- Real-Time Data and Complete Visibility: The “operational blindness” caused by manual Excel forms and paper-based processes has been eliminated. Production is now managed using measurable, real-time data instead of assumptions, while automated reports provide instant visibility into bottlenecks, downtime, and improvement opportunities.
- Improved Productivity and OEE: By combining digital transformation with lean manufacturing practices, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) increased from approximately 20% to 77%.
- Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement: During the lean transformation program carried out with the Ankara Model Factory, ProManage data actively supported waste identification, bottleneck analysis, production cell design, and Kaizen activities, enabling continuous improvement initiatives to be managed faster and more effectively.
- Rapid Return on Investment (ROI): Thanks to the productivity and efficiency gains achieved, the digital transformation investment paid for itself in approximately 10 days.
- Labor Savings and Operational Efficiency: Operators spend significantly less time on manual reporting, allowing engineering and planning teams to focus on analyzing production losses and driving continuous improvement rather than collecting data.
- Transparent and Data-Driven Performance Management: The performance-based bonus system is now supported by objective data generated through ProManage, creating a more transparent and reliable management approach. Operators can also monitor their own performance and downtime directly from EPC screens.
- Operational Excellence and Rapid Response: Maintenance records, service activities, and technician interventions are monitored in real time, while production managers can remotely monitor operations through the mobile application and take immediate action whenever required.
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