A working record of digitizing a Foshan extrusion plant since January 2023: what the systems do, where we still use paper, what the mistakes cost, and how buyers can verify the claims.
Most suppliers describe their factory in adjectives. This series does it with records.
Since January 2023 we have been replacing spreadsheets, paper forms and group chats with an ERP system and a manufacturing execution system on the shop floor. This page is the index of that project — what the systems actually do, where we still work by hand, what the mistakes cost, and how a buyer can verify any of it.
We are not a software company and this is not an Industry 4.0 story. It is a record of a mid-sized extrusion plant digitizing itself, including the parts that failed.
The plant behind the story
| Item | What we run |
|---|---|
| Extrusion presses | 8 presses, 660T to 4,000T |
| Billet range | Ø90mm to Ø254mm, alloy 6063 / 6061 / 6005 (6005A, 6082, 7075 on request) |
| Dies | More than 10,000 dies, all with digital records |
| Surface treatment | In-house anodizing and powder coating lines; electrophoresis optional |
| Machining | 20+ CNC machining centers |
| ERP | sales orders, purchasing, inventory, finance |
| MES | Tier-one platform: production planning and scheduling, die and maintenance records, press IoT data, inspection |
| MES coverage | 5 of 8 presses since January 2023; the three largest are not on it yet |
| Typical lead time | 5-7 days mill finish, about 12 days with surface treatment, 15-18 days with machining |
Before and after
| Process | Before January 2023 | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Order entry | Sales re-typed drawings into spreadsheets | Sales order in the ERP, scheduled in the MES |
| Scheduling | Excel plus a whiteboard, rush orders by hand | System proposal plus a human decision — deliberately |
| Die records | Register plus memory | Digital archive per die, with polish and nitriding history |
| Inspection | Paper forms filed by batch | First-off, in-process and final, recorded in the MES |
| Traceability | Find the folder, ask the operator | Batch, press, billet lot, shift and parameters in about a minute |
| Customer status | Call the workshop and ask | Sales sees progress and gets an automated pick-up notice |
| Export documents | Manual | Still manual — our most honest gap |
Where we still use paper and people
- Scheduling is not automatic. The system proposes, a planner decides. Fully automatic scheduling looked good in the demo and was worse in the plant.
- Three of eight presses are not on the MES. Traceability there relies partly on people.
- Weighbridge figures are still typed in by hand.
- Export documents, customs and forwarding are manual.
- Some inspection sheets remain paper.
Every one of those is on the roadmap. None of them is a secret.
What went wrong
- Fake requirements. We specified what sounded advanced instead of what the plant needed. That is the most expensive mistake in this project.
- A supervisor who designed features nobody used. Built, then abandoned.
- A large vendor whose product looked great and fit us badly.
- An IoT supplier that went bankrupt — we lost that module entirely.
- A consultant who was not qualified for our scale.
- Commercial terms we did not agree up front. Ask who owns the code, the server and the data before you sign.
- Staff who were not going to type data that did not affect their pay. If a field does not matter to the person entering it, it will be empty.
How to check any supplier's claims, including ours
- Ask for the billet lot and die ID behind a specific delivery.
- Ask whether press parameters are recorded per batch or only per shift.
- Ask how long it takes to answer a defect claim.
A supplier who can answer in a minute has a system. A supplier who says "we will get back to you" has a folder.
In this series
- Before January 2023: how we ran this plant on Excel, paper and WeChat
- One minute to trace a batch: how we find the billet behind a complaint
- 10,000 dies in one database
- Why we let humans overrule the scheduling system
- First-off, in-process and final: what our MES actually records
- Where your order stops being paperless: export documents
- The IoT supplier that went bankrupt
- The three stages of a shop floor: resistance, dependence, anxiety
- What the project cost, and what we got for it
- What we would do differently
If you are evaluating aluminum suppliers and want the same record for your own order — press, die, billet lot, inspection — send us a drawing and we will show you how it runs through the plant.
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