Every image you see on your laptop screen, desktop monitor or car display is provided in part by backlight unit (BLU) technology, the light that allows an LCD screen to create an image. Highbroad, a comprehensive solution provider for BLU technology, is responsible for the end-to-end creation of BLUs, which includes a complex set of processes such as optical design, light guide plate design, precision mold design, overall structural design, product manufacturing and distribution.
After years of rapid growth, including expanding its production bases to multiple cities and gaining acceptance into the Chinese National Science and Technology Innovation Board, the company turned its focus to digital transformation. Rapid expansion had resulted in numerous isolated systems, and Highbroad faced a fragmented and siloed enterprise environment. This led to inefficiencies, hindered risk identification and prolonged order delivery times. These prolonged delivery times not only threatened to diminish customer satisfaction but also posed a potentially critical concern to customers in fields such as the automotive industry, where fast and on-time delivery is essential.
To address these issues, Highbroad aimed to enhance collaboration and streamline processes across various functions, such as product design, production, logistics and sales. However, as Yang Hao, Assistant Center Director of the Highbroad Information Management Center, points out, “bridging the gap between these systems presented numerous challenges, including legacy interface issues, data duplication and the absence of unified standards.”
To overcome these challenges, the company implemented IBM App Connect®, an enterprise application integration solution, at its newly constructed production base in Hefei.
Deploying IBM App Connect enabled the company to build an integration platform that could rapidly connect all applications and data across its enterprise systems. It allowed Highbroad to establish connections between all applications and data across its systems, including Enterprise Resource Management (ERP), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Office Automation (OA), Warehouse Management System (WMS), HR, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and Customs systems.
Through the project, the company aimed to achieve seamless connectivity, rapid warnings, and comprehensive process visualization and traceability across various business systems and functions. In the past, connecting these business systems had been a challenge. Some legacy system interfaces did not conform to current popular communication protocols, while other interfaces were duplicated or unrecognizable due to the loss or unreadability of their historical codes. Without unified interface standards and specifications, gaining access to new online systems had been challenging. Additionally, without unified integration and interconnection, Highbroad was unable to generate records related to information sharing processes within the company.
Highbroad received support from IBM and IBM Business Partner Zhongke SOA. The IBM customer success team utilized its cutting-edge technology and expertise to assist Zhongke SOA with architecture design and resource allocation. The IBM Business Partner took the lead in interface development and overall implementation, while IBM assumed responsibility for deploying the solution in both test and production environments.
Using IBM App Connect, Highbroad has achieved seamless connectivity across various departments, including production, management, operations, R&D and sales. This has allowed the company to address the problem of confusing or outdated interfaces between systems and attain agile and lightweight application integration.
The implementation of IBM App Connect has thus enabled Highbroad to eliminate information silos and connect eight different business systems, from production to supply and marketing. The integrated solution includes 90 interfaces between systems and facilitates approximately a thousand transactions per day. Removing the information silos is expected to result in substantial cost savings related to system integration projects.
With the help of the integration platform based on IBM App Connect, Highbroad was able to begin monitoring data security and accuracy, which enhanced the quality of statistics related to daily transactions and allowed for the troubleshooting of transaction data issues. Additionally, the solution enabled the customer to establish service classification standards and regulations across the company, leading to the optimization of service governance and the maximization of interface reuse, as well as a substantial improvement in transmission efficiency.
The new integrated platform also comes with a series of unique advantages. It supports clustered physical deployment, helping to ensure high availability and long-term stable system operation. Moreover, it aids in achieving peak performance while retaining bandwidth for system processing power. Additionally, it enables high scalability and flexibility, accommodating system expansion deployment as well as distributed deployment of multiple logical units.
The new business integration platform based on IBM App Connect has become a model for other production facilities within the company. Furthermore, IBM will collaborate with various partners to create additional open, cloud-native microservices and containerized integration platforms for Highbroad in the future, offering built-in AI and hybrid cloud deployment capabilities along with comprehensive cloud technology support.
Yang Hao, the Assistant Center Director of the Highbroad Information Management Center, summarizes the benefits of this project. “With the assistance of IBM’s customer success team, Zhongke SOA was able to build the integration application solution based on IBM App Connect in just three months. This reliable solution delivered an agile and lightweight application integration platform for the Chuzhou pilot. It successfully connected various business systems across production, supply and marketing, facilitating seamless data exchange,” says Yang.
“We have achieved comprehensive data unification and transparency for our master data, including payments, customers, suppliers, and even internal reimbursements. This has provided us with robust data statistics, analysis and monitoring capabilities for our corporate operations, enabling operational efficiencies and substantial cost reductions associated with system integration projects,” concludes Yang.
Highbroad (link resides outside of ibm.com) provides research, development, design and manufacturing of backlight modules and display materials. It was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. Its products include reflectors, polarizers, light guide plates, diffusions and bright enhance films. Currently, its products are mainly used in consumer electronics fields such as notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablet computers and car screens.
IBM Business Partner Zhongke SOA (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a high-tech enterprise and industry standard setter in the field of intelligent manufacturing. It also serves as a digital platform service provider. The company was founded in 2008 in Chongqing, China, and now operates its headquarters in Hefei, Anhui Province, with a research institute in Chongqing. It specializes in industrial internet and intelligent connected vehicles, offering a standardized technical base for “smart+” and digital transformation scenarios.
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