Nelipak

Nelipak is a leader in the Irish market for special thermoformed packaging for medical devices and electronic components. This is a highly automated production industry and requires rigorous quality control and process monitoring to meet the standards required by customers. Managing Director, Joe Holland, felt that I.T. would have a key role to play in taking Nelipak the final mile to a fully automated business process.

Nelipak had in-place a “Folder” system for controlling quality on each batch in production and for reporting on inspections and other key parameters during manufacture. Each job scheduled for production was issued with a unique code and a physical folder would be prepared and delivered to production prior to start date. The concept was simple; all the relevant work instructions for the batch were included in the folder for the operators and the tool set-up technicians. Blank copies of all inspection forms and time sheets would also be included in the Folder. These forms would be completed by the operators and approved by shift supervisors at designated intervals. The batch “Folder” was used as the control system within the factory and at any time a person could refer to the folder to check out the progress and quality inspection reports. At the end of each shift required information would be transposed from the inspection forms in the folder to the back-office systems including Accounts and Production planning. Quality control would use the information on the inspection form to manually produce a Certificate of Conformance and other customer specific reports and documentation.