Southwire Makes The Right Connections

Southwire Company is one of North America's largest wire and cable producers, manufacturing building wire and cable, metal-clad cable, utility products, portable and electronic cord products, OEM wire products and engineered products.

Established in 1950, Southwire is a multi-billion-dollar, family-owned company operating in a fiercely competitive global industry. The company’s success is rooted in hard work, social responsibility and innovation and the belief that sustaining these core values is vital to the company’s future.

Company leaders wanted to digitally transform operations to be generationally sustainable. As a family business, Southwire proudly continues building on their commitment to environmental stewardship and corporate sustainability by prioritizing stakeholder expectations, and supporting the wellbeing of their communities and the environment.

"Southwire leaders wanted to transform operations to be generationally sustainable."

Limited Visibility Limits Improvement

Lack of connected systems at Southwire limited the visibility to production issues, which limited the ability to improve. Nothing was connected, including production lines, business systems or quality devices. There was no Operations Technology (OT) network. The ‘before’ scenario meant that manufacturing assets were estimated to be sub optimized by 5%.

Teams wanted to get the right information to the right person at the right time to make the right decisions and to make the equipment operator's job less frustrating.

“Data was there and we needed a way to get to it and then to visualize so that people could see it and understand how to use it,” explained Jeff Drewberry, Connected Enterprise Director at Southwire.  

"The lack of connected systems at Southwire limited the visibility to production issues, which limited the ability to improve."

The Connected Enterprise

Smart manufacturing is the gateway to digital transformation. Connected smart devices open new windows of visibility into processes. Data and analytics enable better and faster decision-making. Seamless connectivity spurs new collaboration.

The Connected Enterprise® makes all this possible. It converges plant-level and enterprise networks, and securely connects people, processes, and technologies.

Southwire decision makers wanted to take advantage of IT/OT convergence to measure and manage productivity in new ways. Data would improve decision-making and machine performance. Integrated automation and information would open the door to new productivity enhancing innovations.

"Southwire’s modernization strategy was about more than equipment upgrades; it was about developing a roadmap that addresses multiple areas of the operation in preparation for technology advances and business changes."

Starts With Proof-of-Concept

The Connected Enterprise is an ongoing effort for Southwire; it will take a little more than 3 years to connect all of the manufacturing facilities.

The work began with a proof-of-concept followed by a pilot in two plants. The company’s digital transformation champion connected all of Southwire manufacturing for both insulated and bare, wire and cable for power distribution.

As a result of this early work, Southwire now can provide the correct information to people throughout the process – most importantly to the operators who need it most.

Now, instead of opinions, employees can use data to make decisions. Operators are analyzing quality device settings to make sure that the correct products are being manufactured – every time.

Justifying Value

Justification for the digital transformation project was based on the cost of the product through material yield, output and scrap reduction. The team demonstrated the value of the initial implementation and pilot based on the cases of providing the correct information at the point of need to drive the decision-making to the lowest level.

Asset Modernization

Southwire developed, acquired and shared information about enhancements and improvements through seminars and supplier training to ensure that operators were familiar with the new working models.

Digital transformation adoption within Southwire is driven from the top and is a critical piece of the company’s manufacturing asset modernization.