Targeted Tech Solutions Help Manufacturers Transition from Paper to Automation

Manually entering numbers. Stacks of paper in filing cabinets. Workers using clipboards to pass critical information and instructions to one another. These traditional business tools were holding back Hallstar, a Chicago-based chemical manufacturer whose multi-step chemical reactions don’t wait for analog communications. Hallstar leaders knew there were better ways to optimize operations. They also felt that they needed to act. The Hallstar business in sealants and adhesives, shampoo, industrial compounds, and other products was growing. They had to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of their facility as efficiently as possible with the equipment they had. 

The company began to investigate software-based manufacturing execution systems (MES), quickly realizing these solutions could collect data from batch manufacturing processes, help analyze that data to identify recipe priorities in mixing chemicals, and achieve greater efficiency through significant increases in throughput.