World Class Manufacturing (WCM) is an international benchmark in the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing processes are evaluated in audits on the basis of a point system. Among others, the efficiency of individual production sites of a company can be compared on a worldwide scale.With the "ifm Application Packages", ifm offers ready-made plug and play packages to optimise individual line components. This helps the company to collect precious points for the WCM ranking.

"WCM" sets the highest standards in the manufacturing industry. Other international benchmarks for process optimisation include "Made in China 2025", "Toyota Produktionsprinzip" or "BASF 4.0". In the end, "Industry 4.0" also constitutes a strategy for the optimisation of production processes.

WCM audits are based on a maximum of 100 points the companies can achieve by introducing different optimisation strategies.

WCM classification levels
Theoretically, every company can achieve a maximum of 100 points. There are the following classification levels:

• 80-100 points = World Class Manufacturing
• 70 points = gold level
• 60 points = silver level
• 50 points = bronze level

World Class Manufacturing can be regarded as a benchmark for all participating companies. Status to date: There are only two companies worldwide that come close to reaching 80 points.

"ifm Application Packages" – collecting points for WCM
ifm offers application packages for monitoring of defined components of different system parts. Currently, these plug and play solutions are available for monitoring of fans, pumps, compressors and cooling water circuits. Other packages are in preparation.
These complete solutions include all elements required for monitoring. Besides sensors, e.g. for temperature, pressure and vibration monitoring, they also feature an industrial PC with the LR SMARTOBSERVER software to collect, visualise and analyse data. All components are delivered in a preconfigured control cabinet so that they can be put into operation in no time.

Target: condition-based maintenance
The goal is to improve the quality of the maintenance and repair process, from "time-based maintenance" to "condition-based maintenance".
The process data from the sensors of the individual manufacturing components is sent to the LR SMARTOBSERVER, where it is read and analysed. By means of algorithms for limit value management, alarms are generated for maintenance activities.
The ifm application packages are already being used in more than 20 plants in the automotive industry. Customers were particularly impressed by the fast implementation of different ifm components. Some of the packages could even be installed during operation.
To get back to WCM: Thanks to the application packages, the customers received 2 points per application in the audit.

In short: The "ifm Application Packages" help you to achieve a top position in the World Class Manufacturing ranking.