Terex democratizes technology to improve frontline worker experience and productivity with Tulip and AWS

How do you implement a manufacturing execution system (MES) when you don’t have the data most MES providers need to get started? Terex Corporation, the manufacturer of Genie Aerial Work Platforms, worked with Tulip, a no-code frontline operations platform running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to get some answers. Tulip met Terex’s need for MES functionality—specifically visual Andon and digital work instructions—with a lean methodology approach that puts technology in the hands of frontline workers. By empowering those who understand manufacturing problems best, Terex increased productivity and improved the worker experience for the company as a whole.

In 2019, Terex Corporation launched a search for a manufacturing execution system (MES) to help it better manage its complex production processes. As part of the project, the Terex team visited each of the company’s manufacturing sites to learn directly from frontline workers what tools they needed to best support their day-to-day activities. “The major themes centered around digital work instructions, quality management, visual Andon, and lean performance management,” said Audra Kirkland, Director of Digital Manufacturing at Terex. “But I also learned that we didn’t really have some of the primary data and transactional data processes you need for standard MES vendors to be able to get started.”

 

Given that information, the team decided to approach the MES project in a different way. First, they narrowed the project’s focus to two areas that would provide the biggest benefit for frontline workers: Andon, which uses Internet of Things (IoT) technology to quickly alert supervisors to problems on the line, and digital work instructions, which helps operators to perform daily tasks and complex processes more efficiently and with fewer errors. Second, they realized the company needed a different kind of MES solution—one that didn’t require standardized data it didn’t have.

As part of the facility tour, the project team discovered that one of Terex’s factories was using Tulip, a no-code frontline operations platform, for local digital work instructions. Unlike a traditional MES, Tulip is designed to give those closest to the manufacturing floor the power to build and deploy applications that solve the problems they face every day. “Manufacturing has always been underserved in terms of technology and software,” noted Sanjay Rajan, Ecosystems/Industry Lead at Tulip Interfaces. “The divide between IT, where a traditional MES sits, and operations technology means that those closest to operations have never really been in control of the software they have to use. Tulip disrupts that, putting workers at the center of the digital transformation process.”

The ability to democratize technology for frontline operators was particularly appealing Terex, as was the ease and speed of implementing Tulip compared to a traditional MES—a couple of weeks versus several months. “We asked ourselves which vendor can get us the most capability the fastest, without having to worry about data standardization,” said Kirkland. “The answer was Tulip—and the fact that Tulip runs on AWS, which was already a critical part of our ecosystem, made the decision even easier.”

Tulip is purpose-built for equipping workers across the organization, from operators who actually build the products or operate the machines, to process and quality engineers on the shop floor, to maintenance and health and safety personnel. At Terex, Tulip is deployed both globally and locally. The global cloud database is structured with replicas, so all users can share information without disrupting the work of others. Each facility also has its own local Tulip instance, where workers can develop local applications to meet local needs. “We’ve made it where everybody gets their problems solved. Management gets standardized metrics and ways of recording things that are important for our shared needs, and local teams have the ability to build applications for their specific needs that don’t have to be rolled up into global metrics,” said Kirkland.

 

Tulip’s intuitive, easy-to-use interface makes it simple to extend the platform across functional areas. Creating an application in Tulip is as simple as building a series of screens using the Tulip App Editor, which features drag-and-drop functionality for embedding rich media like videos or CAD images and logic triggers to automatically capture information and dynamically serve up the next step. Tulip is also IoT native, providing out-of-the-box connectivity to machines, sensors, smart tools, and business systems like ERPs, making it easy to embed a range of process-level and machine-level information into the app as it’s built. “If you know how to use PowerPoint, you can start creating applications in Tulip,” said Rajan.
 
While users can build applications from scratch, they can also take advantage of Tulip’s Applications Library, which features dozens of apps aligned with specific industry best practices and use cases. “These include things like guided workflows, full wireframes to implement digital work instructions, analytics, and pre-built connectivity to numerous ERP and other business systems,” said Rajan. “Using the Tulip Library, users can almost immediately create a rich set of solution bundles to meet their specific needs.”

Tulip’s agile, flexible approach aligns with Terex’s vision for manufacturing. “Our business is very much a lean methodology business,” said Kirkland. “When you have team members who have a very good understanding of the problem they’re trying to solve in a lean-trained organization, and then you put a digital tool set in their hands, the sky’s the limit. You can get started where you are and just continue to improve.”

Kirkland continued, “I believe in the frontline worker and the ability of technology to be an helper. The frontline worker is where small changes can have a large impact. If we can get the right information to the right person at the right time to build the right product, then we’ll all be successful.”