Every finished lot, back to the material and the machine that made it.
Automotive supply is judged on what you can prove after the fact. VZIAM MES records the machine’s states, the material lots consumed and the checks carried out against each work order as it runs, so the record exists before anyone asks for it.
The record is assembled after the question is asked.
Most plants can reconstruct what happened. The work is in the reconstruction, and a reconstruction is exactly what an OEM auditor is trained to distrust.
A recall widens to fit the records
When material lots are tracked on batch sheets and finished goods in the ERP, nothing joins the two at the moment of production. The recall then covers everything that could have been affected rather than what was, because the narrower answer cannot be evidenced.
The stops nobody logs
A station that pauses for eight seconds does not get a downtime declaration. Across three shifts those pauses are real lost capacity, but they never appear in the numbers the plant reviews, so they are never worked on.
Audit preparation as a project
Weeks of assembling evidence ahead of an OEM or IATF 16949 audit, because the evidence lives in spreadsheets, batch sheets and operator memory rather than in one queryable record.
Record it at the station, in the order it happens.
Nothing below depends on an operator remembering to log something. Each step is a part of VZIAM MES, and its page is linked under it.
- 01
Read the assembly PLCs
Counts and machine states come from the controllers over OPC UA or MQTT, or through a gateway on the line for Modbus and Siemens S7. A figure the line produced cannot be adjusted by the person being measured on it.
How machine data is read - 02
Link each lot to its material
Starting a work order creates its finished lot, and material lots are scanned against it as they are consumed. A quarantined, expired or blocked lot is refused at the station, with a message that says what to do instead.
Lot genealogy and recall - 03
Count the pauses as micro-stops
A station that hesitates for a few seconds is counted from the controller as a micro-stop, under a threshold set for that machine, and booked against performance. It stays out of the breakdown Pareto, so maintenance and production read different losses.
Micro-stops, counted - 04
Keep the record queryable
Stops, counts, checks and lots stay in one record per work order, and every correction keeps what it replaced, who made it and when. An auditor’s question becomes a query rather than a search through archived sheets.
The order’s complete record
Four people, one record of the order.
Each reads and writes the same work order, from the station to the audit. Nobody copies a figure from one system into another.
Scan the lot, confirm the order.
The order arrives at the station’s terminal. The operator scans each material lot as it is loaded and gives the reason for stops the controller has already timed. A blocked lot is refused there, with what to do instead.
The operator terminal- Order
- From the ERP, confirmed
- Material lot
- Scanned, state checked
- Stop
- Timed by the PLC
Checks due by time, quantity or event.
Dimensional and visual checks fall due as the order runs. A failed critical point alerts the supervisor and holds the lot until a recheck conforms, and every attempt stays on file in sequence.
Checks and lot release- Due
- Every so many parts
- Failed point
- Recheck chained to it
- Lot
- Held until it conforms
The shift’s losses, from the machine.
OEE computed on the server per order and per shift, stops by reason, micro-stops counted apart. Corrections after the shift are a supervisor’s, and each keeps what it replaced.
OEE calculated on the server- OEE
- Per order, per shift
- Stops
- By reason and type
- Corrections
- Audited, original kept
An OEM’s question, answered by a query.
Search by your own lot number or the supplier’s label. The genealogy runs every level upstream and downstream, and the order’s record shows the checks and stops behind each finished lot.
Lot genealogy and recall- Supplier lotSUP-5521
- Material lotCOIL-0871
- Work ordersWO-1132WO-1140
- Finished lotsBR-1132BR-1140
- Search
- Your lot or the supplier’s
- Depth
- Every level
- Shipped lots
- Impacted, not quarantined
What gets connected on an assembly line.
- Assembly PLCs
- OPC UA, MQTT
- Older presses
- Modbus, S7, via a gateway
- Gateway
- Node-RED or a DAS box
- Lot scanners
- USB or Bluetooth, no driver
- Lot labels
- GS1 read
- ERP
- REST API, JSON, CSV
- Runs
- Docker, on the plant’s network
Frequently asked questions.
Describe how a lot is traced today, and ask the engineers what would change.
Book a callNo software does. Conformity is assessed by an auditor against the plant’s whole quality system. What VZIAM MES provides is part of the evidence: a lot genealogy made at the machine, checks with their results and rechecks, and corrections that keep the original on file.
Search by your own lot number or by the supplier’s label number. The recalled lot is blocked and everything made from it is quarantined, level after level. A lot already shipped is shown as impacted rather than quarantined, because VZIAM MES holds no shipping data.
Controllers that speak OPC UA or MQTT connect directly. Modbus, Siemens S7 and proprietary controllers connect through a gateway on the line (Node-RED or a DAS box) that translates for them. A machine with no usable signal at all is assessed on the floor, before the pilot is scoped.
No. If a recalled lot is in production, it goes into logical quarantine, the run continues and management gets a critical alert. Stopping the line is a decision for a person, not a side effect of the trace.
Only what the machine cannot know: the reason for a stop, the quantity and reason of a reject, and the result of a check. Counts and durations come from the controller.
Other industries we work in.
Plan the change before it reaches the line.
Request a demo and an engineer looks at how your production runs today, shows how the software would fit around it, and where a pilot on one line would start.
01Pick a time
Choose a slot in the calendar, and note what you make and what reads your machines today.
02Screen shared with an engineer
A video call with someone who builds the software, in English or French.
03What would connect
For each machine, its path: native (OPC UA, MQTT or HTTP push), through a gateway, or nothing to build.