42Q Briefing Note
Axendia was recently briefed by the leadership team at 42Q, a product division of Sanmina Corporation. With over thirty years of experience, 42Q is a leading provider of a multi-tenant cloud MES across a broad range of industry verticals, including life sciences.
In April, 42Q announced it achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Manufacturing and Industrial Competency designation. To receive the designation, AWS partners must undergo rigorous technical validation and provide vetted customer references. With this designation, 42Q is recognized for its expertise in providing customers professional services and software solutions for an end-to-end Industrial Manufacturing Software toolchain.
One example of an industry that is investing in MES is health and life sciences. With the increased complexity of medical devices, an increasing focus on quality, companies require smart manufacturing solutions. Additionally, the increasing maturity and security of cloud services offers an opportunity for forward thinking medical device companies to leverage transformative technologies, such as cloud MES.
The company has reported significant growth over the past three years primarily in the medical devices industry. “Our growth is attributed to the fact that customers lost visibility and control during the pandemic. Companies told us they didn’t know what was happening on the production floor, they couldn’t communicate with their suppliers or customers and needed to resolve these issues fast. We knew we could easily solve these changes and nobody else is able to do it as fast and effectively as we can,” said Wellington Giolo, Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at 42Q.
Today, 42Q is running in over 100 factories around the world. Three years ago, twenty-five thousand pieces of equipment were connected to 42Q. Today, that number has risen to over thirty-five thousand.
42Q Xchange
Axendia has consistently heard the challenge for life science companies is not necessarily the ability to move to the cloud, but rather the need to integrate local automation equipment (i.e., PLCs, lab or testing equipment.) “Some manufacturers have no problems whatsoever connecting their equipment directly to 42Q. Others prefer to have PLCs or machines connected to an edge device that sits within the customer network. And, based on our experience and maturity in this space, the integrations are straightforward,” explained Giolo.
According to Giolo, the latency is minimal today with 42Q processing latencies in less than 200 milliseconds, which has been more than sufficient to support its customers worldwide. One of its largest medical device customers is finishing one unit every two seconds…which results in the production of millions of units a year.
“But we don’t just integrate with equipment!” exclaimed Giolo. Through the 42Q Xchange, the company offers a standard set of secure APIs that provide all the key capabilities of an ERP adapter, without the need to develop, maintain, and deploy code into a customer’s ERP system. 42Q Xchange also allows users to create ERP style transactions, without having an ERP.
Through Xchange, a user can populate a template, providing all the information for a work order, BOM, and other manufacturing information, and easily create ERP work orders in a configured 42Q environment. “Between the 42Q Xchange and a variety of other proprietary APIs, we have been able to effectively integrate with systems as diverse as ERP, PLM, LIMS and even homegrown applications,” added Giolo.
42Q is also working with customers to integrate advanced AI use cases into their production lines. To be future ready, organizations need to consider an agile MES solution that is capable of rapidly supporting the complex AI and ML use cases that are transforming how business is modernizing.
In Brief
FDA is encouraging advanced manufacturing initiatives to enhance product quality and improve the manufacturing process. The agency defines advanced manufacturing as a collective term for new medical product manufacturing technologies that can improve drug quality, address shortages of medicines, and speed time-to-market.
Kudos to 42Q customers who are taking advantage of modern, cloud technology in the MES space. Learn more in an Axendia “Straight from the Source Webinar” now available on-demand, featuring Sanmina Medical Corporation.
We will continue to monitor 42Q and provide updates as they become available.
Contact research@axendia.com to schedule an Analyst Inquiry on this topic.
The opinions and analysis expressed in this Briefing Note reflect the judgment of Axendia at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice. Information contained in this report is current as of publication date. Information cited is not warranted by Axendia but has been obtained through a valid research methodology. This report is not intended to endorse any company or product and should not be attributed as such.