Papoutsanis operates a fully integrated, state-of-the-art production plant in central Greece, near Thiva, which also serves as an export hub. The company has four main production areas:

Own Brands (such as KARAVAKI, Natura, and Aromatics) and Selective Distribution Products (OLIVIA). Hotel amenities, which hold a leading market share in Greece and have existing collaborations with international hotel chains and the largest multinational hotel supply companies. Manufacturing of private and third-party labels for international suppliers and retailers. Specialized soap noodles for their industrial clientele.

Beyond the variety of products it makes, the company also manufactures plastic packaging (bottles and caps) for its cosmetics. In-house production includes processes such as injection molding, stretch blow molding, and extrusion blow molding.

All of this demonstrates the diversity and complexity of their production, and that any technological solution implemented to improve their production must take this into account.

In order to respond to today's challenges, which demand flexibility, rapid response, full customer and consumer satisfaction, total cost control, and productivity improvement, Papoutsanis decided to modernize its factory. Leveraging the technological solutions available on the market, they began looking for ways to transform their factory into a Smart Factory.

"A smart factory is a digitalized manufacturing facility that uses connected devices, machinery, and production systems to continuously collect and share data. This data is then used to inform decisions to improve processes, as well as to address any issues that may arise."— TWI Global

Since this process consists of many stages and increases complexity, they wanted to start by digitizing their data collection process and gaining insight into what matters most to them: a real-time overview of production, OEE, and top losses.

Because of its profile, Papoutsanis had many criteria that had to be met when implementing an OEE solution. Ultimately, after running a free trial of Evocon, they described the following reasons for choosing to continue with Evocon: the possibility of testing the solution for free before making any investment; Evocon's OEE system is easy to set up and can monitor any production process; the initial investment was minimal; it is cloud-based and offered as a subscription service (SaaS); it captures OEE in real time with accuracy, transparency, and clarity; it is easy to use and, due to its engaging nature, motivates the team to continuously improve; the solution helps assess the effectiveness of maintenance through the use of different features; it provides various reporting features and supports in-depth analysis of each identified problem; the system can be integrated with other IT systems (ERP, CMMS, etc.); and it comes with support documentation that users can easily access, plus a professional and responsive support team to help with problems and questions.

After a year of working with Evocon, the experience has been summarized as follows:

"With the installation of Evocon and after full implementation across the factory, we review all equipment losses every day, and we know every minute what is happening in our factories. The upward trend in OEE is constant, and the improvement compared to last year is more than 30%."— Vassilis Mavroidis, Production Manager at Papoutsanis SA

In their OEE dashboard, we can see how the first 4 months (12.2021-03.2021) for the entire factory averaged 45%, and then in the last 4 months (7.2022-10.2022 – excluding November 2022, which was still in progress at the time the case was written), it has averaged 62.5%. This is actually a 39% change and a 17.5% increase in absolute numbers. This is a remarkable increase in just one year for the entire factory.