Project Overview
Rockman Industries, one of the oldest and most trusted companies in the Hero Group, partnered with Hiotron to solve a highly complex shopfloor digitization challenge across its legacy die casting operations. After evaluating multiple vendors, Rockman chose Hiotron for its technical depth, persistence, and ability to deliver results on difficult legacy machine environments. What began as a focused effort on HPDC machine data integration evolved into a broader digital manufacturing transformation covering production monitoring, predictive maintenance, die life monitoring, quality parameter tracking, and ERP-connected production visibility.
Business Challenge
Rockman’s die casting environment included legacy machines where reliable data capture and machine-data matching were major challenges. Because the systems were old and difficult to integrate, creating an accurate and dependable digital layer required deep technical experimentation, validation, and continuous refinement before the solution could be trusted at scale.
- Legacy machine integration challenges: Rockman had already explored multiple vendors, but cracking reliable integration on legacy die casting machines remained a major challenge.
- Data matching and accuracy issues: Since the machines were legacy, matching production data correctly and consistently was difficult, which created trust issues in digital reporting and system outcomes.
- Need for stakeholder confidence: The solution had to satisfy every stakeholder, from top management to shopfloor teams, before it could be approved for wider deployment across the group.
- Limited visibility into production and machine health: The business needed stronger monitoring of production, die life, machine conditions, and quality parameters across HPDC operations.
- Need for predictive maintenance and process control: Rockman required a more proactive approach to machine performance, maintenance planning, and operating discipline to reduce disruption and improve reliability.
- High-stakes ERP integration: SAP production orders had to flow correctly into operations, and machine output data had to flow back accurately at shift end. If data did not transfer properly, dispatch could be held up, making data accuracy and system discipline business-critical.
Hiotron Solution
Hiotron worked closely with Rockman over a sustained R&D-led engagement to build a dependable digital solution for its die casting operations. The implementation focused first on HPDC machines and was refined over nearly one and a half years until the system delivered the level of trust, consistency, and technical performance needed for larger-scale adoption.
- Deep legacy machine integration: Hiotron successfully integrated difficult legacy die casting machines and built a reliable digital layer where previous vendor attempts had struggled.
- Production monitoring for die casting operations: The solution enabled structured monitoring of production performance across HPDC machines, creating better visibility into output, machine utilization, and operational behavior.
- Predictive maintenance and advanced monitoring: Hiotron implemented predictive maintenance capabilities along with advanced machine-health monitoring to help teams identify issues early and improve equipment reliability.
- Die life monitoring: The platform tracked die life more effectively, helping Rockman improve maintenance planning, process control, and operational consistency.
- Quality parameter monitoring: Critical quality-related parameters on HPDC machines were monitored digitally to improve process visibility and support better control over production quality.
- ERP integration with SAP: Hiotron enabled deep SAP integration so that production orders flowed from SAP into the shopfloor system, and machine production data was sent back to SAP at the end of each shift for downstream dispatch and business processing.
- Data accuracy and SAP hygiene: Because dispatch depended on successful data transfer, the system helped ensure stronger accuracy, discipline, and hygiene in SAP data entry and production reporting.
- Built through trust and continuous improvement: The solution was refined through sustained collaboration, technical persistence, and continuous improvement until stakeholders across levels were satisfied with the outcome.
Business Impact
The successful HPDC implementation proved Hiotron’s ability to solve complex legacy-machine challenges in a demanding manufacturing environment. It improved trust in machine data, strengthened production and quality visibility, enabled more proactive maintenance, and created a reliable ERP-connected digital workflow. Most importantly, the success of the HPDC deployment gave Rockman management the confidence to expand the same solution horizontally to LPDC and GDC machine environments across the group, turning a difficult integration project into a scalable transformation initiative.
