LIBERTYVILLE, IL (April 5, 2016) – MBX Systems, a provider of custom OEM computing hardware solutions enabling turnkey hardware/software deployment of complex applications, has earned its fourth Manufacturing Leadership Award in six years for a project that expedites manufacturing process improvements, reduces staff overhead, and automates customer access to MBX manufacturing data without the time and expense of partner integrations.

The ML competition, judged by Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council, honors companies that are shaping the future of global manufacturing. MBX was recognized in the Collaborative Innovation Leadership category, joining fellow honorees Cisco Systems, Dotson Iron Castings, HP Inc., LAI International and Universal Robots.

Internal & External Collaboration 

MBX’s winning 2018 ML project involves an internally developed RESTful API that facilitates collaboration among MBX software engineers in building and enhancing the company’s proprietary shop floor software and production infrastructure. The ability to collaborate on these efforts accelerates development of new processes that enable fast, accurate and highly scalable manufacturing of custom hardware platforms ranging from server appliances to multi-rack systems configured to order for each end customer.

MBX also makes the API available to customers for automated self-service information retrieval, including real-time manufacturing status updates that support collaboration by enabling timely handoffs to customers who remotely test systems at different stages of the manufacturing process. Customers can also automate processes such as pushing purchase order and fulfillment orders directly to MBX from their order management platform, updating orders with real-time anticipated shipment dates, and more.

In addition, customer use of the API streamlines integration with MBX data via connectivity to SaaS applications like SAP, Salesforce and NetSuite, eliminating tens of thousands of dollars in EDI integration expenses as well as reducing MBX overhead in responding to customer information requests and integration support. These benefits are achieved through API-enabled interoperability between web-based computer systems.

“Our RESTful API began as a collaborative tool to accelerate development of our proprietary Signal production software, and it has since been instrumental in other in-house technology projects that have advanced our manufacturing processes as well as in providing a supporting layer of customer-facing technology that is unique in our market sector,” said Justin Formella, MBX Chief Strategy Officer. “It’s part of a technology backbone that has helped fuel our growth, both by enabling us to fulfill increasingly complex customer needs and by expanding the value-added services that enable customers to outsource all hardware-related needs to MBX.”

Three Previous Wins

MBX previously received 2012, 2015 and 2016 Manufacturing Leadership awards. The company was first honored for a proprietary shop floor software and process improvement project that strengthened scheduling, quality control and workload distribution in MBX’s extreme high-mix, high-variability environment. Subsequent awards were for a Super Cell workstation initiative designed to expedite completion of larger orders and a proprietary software platform that supports the company’s exclusive Forge imaging, testing and configuration environment.

Working in conjunction with MBX’s advanced automation systems, the award-winning 2015 and 2016 projects allow a single operator to concurrently manage software imaging, testing and final configuration for hundreds of heterogeneous hardware systems, even when different units must be equipped with different network connections, software or internal components. The software also conducts all verification and quality analysis and reports the results for regular quantitative analysis without operator involvement.

All three projects also enhance MBX’s ability to accommodate high variability while simultaneously maintaining quality.