San Francisco, Calif. - Fresh off a $12.35M Series A investment led by Bosch Ventures, Pico MES is enabling the digital transformation of small to medium-sized manufacturers. Pico MES is an affordable no-code, IOT platform that creates a digital twin of assembly processes and integrates with limitless factory tools to directly boost the efficiency and output of the American supply base. With 98 percent of American factories operating with 500 or fewer factory workers, Pico MES helps manufacturers increase and better measure their productivity to help address current labor challenges for the production of advanced products. Today, the company shares new customer data that demonstrates how its software capabilities create connected factories and bridge the manufacturing skills gap.
Based in Elkhart, Indiana, RV manufacturing leader MORryde initially implemented Pico MES to help improve quality control during the installation of drivelines on motor homes. After seeing immediate value, MORryde quickly expanded the software into its general assembly department, where over 1,000 part numbers are digitized and managed through Pico MES. In just 18 months since installing Pico MES, MORryde shared the following results:
- Migration of over 500 complex assembly processes from paper to digital
- Measurable improvement of a 50 percent increase in production output
- Over 2,400 chassis manufactured without any quality concerns
- Full integration between Pico MES and their ERP system
- 100 percent backward traceability in all areas of assembly where Pico MES is installed
“MORryde is proud to be an American manufacturer anchored on quality, first. We have thrived over the past 50 years because of our ability to adopt innovative solutions. With over 13 manufacturing plants culminating in over 900,000 square feet in Elkhart, enrolling our employees into a new way of doing things can be difficult,” shares Greg Whitt, process improvement engineer at MORryde. “Pico MES has been easy to adopt across our assembly area – it serves as a guide in the background, providing incremental productivity gains that culminate into larger efficiency gains. We now ask the question: Where else can we use Pico MES to capture value?”
Formerly with Tesla and General Motors, Pico MES CEO and co-founder Ryan Kuhlebeck started the company in 2019 after recognizing most manufacturing tech was developed to meet the needs of large-scale enterprise operations.
“When many people imagine a smart factory, they envision something complicated and expensive – that paradigm is largely driven by legacy enterprise systems,” explained Kuhlenbeck. “Pico MES facilitates the digital transformation for small to mid-sized factories by helping them measure and improve productivity. Given the tight labor market, providing the supply base with solutions that are easy for the average factory worker to use is critical to the resurgence of American manufacturing. Anybody of any background can learn assembly processes of advanced products by using Pico MES.”
Pico MES is designed for the average factory worker – connecting the tools and machines with the people who use them, measuring shop-floor processes, and digitizing assembly lines. Its platform is exponentially faster than legacy methods and has an open API for connection to other critical systems. Since its founding, Pico MES has integrated 10,000 processes into digital data streams from over 700 workstations and connected over 1,900 devices to its platform.
"American manufacturers need better digital tools to gain a competitive edge, from seamless onboarding to supercharging production. Easy-to-use software solutions are mission-critical for modernizing our factories and fueling local economic growth," said Chris Stager, President and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County, a public-private partnership program that supports the retention and expansion of local businesses, attraction of new businesses to Elkhart County, and local entrepreneurial development. "These transformative technologies will empower Indiana manufacturers and others across the US to stay competitive and thrive."
To learn more about Pico MES, visit booth #551 at The Assembly Show from Oct. 24-26, 2023 in Rosemont, Illinois. See an interactive demo of Pico MES here.
