The Exal Group is the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum extruded by impact. With state‑of‑the‑art lines producing 250 cans per minute, its new facility in Itupeva (SP), inaugurated in 2014, is the most modern in the world. It started producing 80 million cans per year, but by 2016 production was projected to reach 320 million cans per year, supplying the Personal Care, Pharmaceutical, and Industrial markets.
To ensure quality in the production at the Itupeva plant, Exal Brasil required a production and quality control platform with traceability to support quality management. Records with periodic frequencies needed structuring to ensure sampling compliance. The software should be aligned with the requirements of ISO 22716, which comprehensively deals with the quality management system of the production chain involved in the manufacture, packaging, testing, storage and transportation of finished cosmetics. In order to optimize the issuing of certificates sent to customers, it would be necessary to make it easier to fill in the quality characteristics present in the document.
Exal Brasil chose to work with HarboR Informática Industrial to deploy InfinityQS, a smart manufacturing and quality control software featuring a powerful SPC tool. Initially running on one production line, HarboR configured InfinityQS to record checklists, quality and production data, enabling analysis and management of this information. The factory floor sampling requirements were structured to maintain controlled frequency via Dynamic Scheduler, prompting operators when to collect and requiring justification if violated. In parallel, laboratory technicians can view production records in real time and record their own analyses. HarboR was responsible for training key InfinityQS users, equipping them with core configurations, apps, and software functionalities.
“InfinityQS helps us manage data and when we need to generate graphs for clients. The information is well-organized and easily accessible for analysis. Since we need to send certificates to clients, the quality certification system developed by HarboR has been very helpful, as it’s easy to use.”
-Juliana Brito, Analista de Processo e Qualidade
To automate quality certificate filling, HarboR developed a custom Excel spreadsheet integrated with the InfinityQS database. A lot search enables auto‑filling certificate fields with values stored in the database. An analysis status is generated by comparing collected values with engineering specifications.
In its third year of production (2016), Exal Brasil is already working with 3 production lines, all of which are monitored by InfinityQS. As new lines are put into production, they are already integrated into InfinityQS due to the tool’s agility and ease of managing quality and production records in real time. The integration of InfinityQS with shop floor and laboratory records has allowed paper records to be minimized and facilitated the collection and analysis of data in real time. The use of Dynamic Scheduler reduces the chances of non-compliance with sampling. InfinityQS is an important tool for locating and making information available in an organized manner, especially during audit periods.
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