A. Vogel AG, Roggwil, Switzerland
OEE Cockpit
The challenge
A. Vogel AG, headquartered in Roggwil, Canton of Thurgau, was founded in 1963 by naturopathy pioneer Alfred Vogel and is today one of Switzerland’s largest manufacturers of herbal medicines (phytotherapeutics), foods, and dietary supplements made from fresh plants. As a pharmaceutical manufacturer, A. Vogel is subject to strict requirements regarding process reliability, traceability, and documentation—requirements that also apply to its packaging lines.
A. Vogel operates multiple packaging lines, including liquid and tablet filling lines. There was no systematic evaluation of line performance. Downtime, cycle time losses, and quality-related stoppages were not consistently recorded. It was not possible to compare the lines with one another, which meant that opportunities for improvement remained undiscovered.
The implementation
For A. Vogel, an OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) cockpit was developed based on the iDIP platform, which directly meets the high standards for process reliability and data integrity required in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The application includes:
- Automatic Downtime Detection: The pulse detection system on the master machine automatically detects, for each line, whether production is underway or if an error has occurred. A downtime event initially appears as an undefined error and is precisely specified by scanning a QR code—as are other statuses such as Ready, Pause, or Setup. This results in complete, traceable documentation without any additional manual effort.
- Real-time overview right at the production line: The line display shows the current and upcoming jobs, as well as the real-time OEE dashboard. The yield is recorded directly on the scanner display when the job is complete.
- Centralized Analysis and Line Comparison: The iDIP platform serves as a central hub for planning, approval, and all production data. Tables and charts provide a quick overview, while reports on error analysis, production time, production volume, and OEE make it possible for the first time to directly compare production lines.
- Planning and Approval: A. Vogel’s planning team enters production orders directly into the application and maintains master data and parameters centrally in one place. This allows the team to keep track of the daily schedule at all times—without the need for Excel spreadsheets or follow-up questions from the production line.
The result
A. Vogel now has a complete overview of the performance of both packaging lines at all times. For the first time, all causes of downtime are systematically recorded and can be analyzed—a direct comparison between the liquid and tablet filling lines shows the production team exactly where improvements are most worthwhile. Manual data entry is no longer necessary, giving employees more time for other tasks and resulting in a noticeable improvement in data quality. Thanks to end-to-end transparency, unplanned equipment downtime has already been significantly reduced.
«Thanks to Schmid Automation’s expertise and the use of the iDIP platform, we have created a reliable database that facilitates easy analysis and enables us to continuously improve. We have already reduced unplanned plant downtime by 10 percent.»
Rodrigo Leute, Production Manager, A. Vogel AG
Plant type
Filling of Natural Medicines
Project execution
2026
Our services
- Concept design and consulting
- Electrical Design
- Switchgear and Control System Construction
- Creation of functional design specification
- Application development
- Commissioning
- Operator training
Technology & Scope
- iDIP platform
- OEE box with Siemens LOGO!
- Zebra TC22 Scanners (4 units)
- Sharp 55″ display (2 units)
Contact
Marcel Fust, Head of Concept Design and Consulting, Schmid Automation AG
