Transforming Manufacturing Efficiency with Microsoft Fabric

Streamline data management, enhance real-time decision-making, and leverage predictive analytics to improve operational efficiency.

The client faced significant challenges in managing their data across fragmented systems:

1.  Siloed Data Sources:

Data from ERP (SAP S/4HANA), MES (Rockwell FactoryTalk), IoT sensors, and CRM (Salesforce) were stored separately, making it difficult to get a unified view.

2.  Delayed Insights:

Static Power BI dashboards were unable to provide real-time visibility into production line performance and supply chain disruptions.

3.  Reactive Maintenance:

Lack of predictive maintenance capabilities led to frequent unplanned equipment failures, increasing downtime and operational costs.

4. Inefficient Decision-Making:

Leadership struggled to make data-driven decisions due to inconsistent reporting and delayed access to actionable insights.

Xylity implemented Microsoft Fabric as a unified data platform to address these challenges and optimize the client’s operations:

1.  Data Consolidation and Integration

• Integrated SAP S/4HANA, Rockwell FactoryTalk, and Salesforce into Fabric’s centralized lakehouse using its Data Engineering capabilities.
• Connected IoT data streams from PTC ThingWorx to Fabric for real-time monitoring.
• Standardized and cleaned data using Fabric’s Data Factory, ensuring consistency across systems.

2.  Real-Time Analytics

• Set up Fabric’s Real-Time Analytics to ingest streaming data from IoT sensors, enabling live monitoring of production metrics such as machine uptime and throughput.
• Created real-time Power BI dashboards that displayed production bottlenecks and supply chain delays.

3.  Predictive Maintenance

• Leveraged Fabric’s Data Science tools to develop predictive models using historical equipment data and IoT sensor readings.
• Deployed predictive maintenance alerts via Microsoft Teams, notifying operators of potential failures before they occurred.

4.  Advanced Reporting and Decision Support

• Migrated existing Power BI dashboards to Fabric, enhancing them with Fabric’s Copilot for Power BI for natural language querying.
• Built customized dashboards for leadership, operations, and maintenance teams to provide actionable insights tailored to their needs.

After the migration to Microsoft Fabric, the client achieved the following outcomes:

1. Unified Data Ecosystem

• Consolidated data from ERP, MES, and IoT systems into a single source of truth, reducing reporting errors by 40%.

2. Real-Time Insights

• Real-time production monitoring reduced response time to bottlenecks by 30%, significantly improving efficiency.

3. Reduced Downtime

• Predictive maintenance cut unplanned equipment failures by 18%, saving approximately $250,000 annually in downtime costs.

4. Faster Decision-Making

• Natural language querying with Copilot for Power BI allowed managers to generate insights 50% faster, leading to quicker operational adjustments.

5. Scalable Platform

• The Microsoft Fabric platform provided a scalable foundation for future analytics needs, enabling the client to add new data sources seamlessly.