Rebul Cosmetics Achieved Significant Success in Production Through Digital Transformation
Istanbul – One of Turkey’s long-established industrial organizations, Rebul Cosmetics, has achieved significant improvements in its production operations by combining its pharmacy tradition dating back to 1895 with a digital transformation vision and a strong MES software infrastructure. The company’s Production and Operational Excellence Manager, Melih Sünter, shared this journey in the Experience Sharing Program of Digitalizing Industrialists.
The main reason Rebul Cosmetics took a step toward digitalization was the difficulties in managing data manually collected from the field and the intensive labor allocated to this process. The lack of data transparency, the inability to instantly see operational inefficiencies, downtime caused by machine failures, and major losses created the need to establish a digital infrastructure. Melih Sünter emphasized the importance of a data collection and monitoring infrastructure by saying, “You cannot manage or improve what you do not measure.” In this context, the company aimed to analyze the root causes of losses, increase productivity, and improve equipment utilization by establishing a Manufacturing Execution System (MES).
Might Interest You: Turkey’s MES Has Entered Among the World’s Most Prestigious Solutions
Rebul Cosmetics ProManage Collaboration
As a result of the research conducted and reference interviews, ProManage MES software by Doruk Otomasyon, a domestic solution, was chosen. The system’s ease of use for operators, technical support capabilities, and the fact that no data interruptions were experienced were influential in the decision. Today, this solution has become a MES production management system actively used in more than 20 countries across 5 continents.
During the management phase of the digital transformation process, resistance to cultural change was seen as the biggest challenge. In order to successfully manage this process, Rebul Kozmetik first started with pilot projects. The system, initially implemented with filling equipment, easily expanded to packaging lines and other areas thanks to the positive results obtained and positive discussions among operators. The company recommends a “scaling from small structure to large structure” strategy. Discussing performance, targets, and machine usage with operators in daily meetings made operations more transparent.
Among the most important gains brought by digitalization is the increased speed in the data collection and reporting process. In the manual system, the reporting process, which took approximately 2 days, dropped to as little as 30 seconds with digitalization. This accelerated the analysis of losses and the identification of root causes.
Important Outputs
- Increase in production quantities: A 13% increase was achieved in 2024 compared to 2023. The fact that this increase occurred without equipment investment was evaluated as a significant performance improvement.
- Improvement in equipment efficiency: Equipment efficiency levels, which were initially around 50%, increased by approximately 10 points within a year, reaching the 60% range.
- Reduction in downtime: A 20% improvement was recorded in total equipment downtime compared to the previous year. In particular, breakdown-related stoppages on the cologne line decreased from a monthly average of 350 minutes to 90 minutes, achieving a 75% improvement.
- Transparency and visibility: All losses such as downtimes, setup times, and waiting periods became visible and analyzable.
- Planning and traceability: Digital data provided the planning team with insights into which line products would run more efficiently on. Planners can monitor the status of machines in real time from their offices and make the necessary adjustments to the plan.
- Line balancing and capacity increase: As a result of efforts initiated with the identification of line imbalances, a capacity increase of nearly 50% was achieved in one product group.
- Personnel gain and capacity increase: Imbalances in manual filling equipment were identified, leading to investments in automation. As a result, 150 personnel were gained across 3 pieces of equipment. Instead of laying off these employees, they were reassigned to different lines or second/third shifts, increasing production volume.
- Reduction in setup times: With the work carried out in water-based product groups, setup times decreased from an average of 95 minutes to 35 minutes, achieving a 63% improvement.
- Triggering of the suggestion system: Making the data visible to operators triggered the suggestion system. In as short as 7 months, nearly 450 suggestions were received, and 70% of them were turned into Kaizen initiatives. A culture of continuous improvement was established in the plant.
- Increase in prestige: Showing real-time production monitoring screens to customers during factory visits enhanced the company’s prestige.
Including operators in the process and making them stakeholders of digitalization is seen as the key to success. Being able to see their own performance instantly, knowing how close they are to their targets, and even engaging in a friendly competition between lines motivated them. At the management level, looking at the same reports, establishing a common language, and having instant access to information made meetings more efficient and accelerated decision-making processes.
Melih Sünter stated that digitalization investments are a tool and that the key to success is combining them with a culture of operational excellence. It is necessary not only to collect data, but also to analyze this data, identify root causes, and take continuous improvement actions. It was stated that Rebul Kozmetik’s investment in Doruk Automation paid for itself in less than a year.
The company noted that in its digitalization roadmap, it has evolved from a reactive state to planned maintenance, and that the next step will be to move toward proactive methods such as predictive maintenance. The 2025 plans also include the digitalization of maintenance, energy, and quality modules. Additionally, training programs for blue- and white-collar employees will be implemented to ensure the sustainability of the established structure.
Melih Sünter recommends that industrialists who are about to begin digitalization start with small steps through pilot projects and then spread the success and cultural transformation achieved there throughout the entire enterprise.
You can also request an appointment now to be among the winning industrialists and take your first step with ProManage.
