The global automotive supplier Auto-Kabel manufactures cable and lead sets for power supply applications. The friction welding machines deployed in the process must always have an adequate supply of material to work on without excessive safety stocks. In order to ensure that material does not run out and lead to machine idle time Auto-Kabel needed a system giving total transparency of the stock levels in the FIFO racks as well as an effective and reliable replenishment system. Auto-Kabel found the answers to its search with the easy to retrofit system from WERMA; StockSAVER. This process optimisation system ensures that material held on FIFO racks does not run out, will reduce the amount of safety stock traditionally held line-side and solves many other problems often associated with Kanban systems.
The challenge – reduce downtime
The Industrial Engineering department at Auto-Kabel is responsible for the optimisation of manufacturing processes on all sites. Staff immediately recognised that there was great potential to make an improvement in the kitting of parts for the welding machines where there had always been bottlenecks.
Machine downtime was another problem, until now operators often had to leave their machine to go and find assistance from logistics if they had run out of material, during which time the machine was not operational which for the company was unacceptable.
Looking for the right solution
First contact was made during one of WERMA’s frequent road-shows showcasing its system solutions. “We were really looking for some sort of Ekanban system to control part replenishment at the friction welders which had material provided line side on flow racks “ explains Industrial Engineering.
Following an initial presentation and site visit it was decided to kit out 3 flow racks containing 90 stock locations with the system. Right from the start of the trial it was clear that if the system proved to be of real benefit to Auto-Kabel further material replenishment locations would be equipped with the kit.
Easy to install, simple to operate
StockSAVER is a maintenance-free system which is easy to retrofit to any FIFO flow rack. Sensors fitted to the flow racks ensure complete transparency of stock levels and safeguard against material running out or misplaced stock.
The system works very simply: sensors monitor the number if bins held on the FIFO flow racks. The number of and movement of bins is then sent to the “SmartBOX” and from there on wirelessly to the StockSAVER software and displayed as a digital copy of the actual stock held on the flow racks. The system solves many traditional Kanban problems such as lost or damaged Kanban cards or human error in replacing bins on the racks and frees up space on the factory floor for other activities and improves cash-flow. The automatic stock replenishment system reduces the margin for human-error and can reduce the levels of safety stock held considerably.
Comprehensive and intuitive – the StockSAVER software
Data is transmitted wirelessly to the StockSAVER software delivered with the system and then shown in various display views. Auto- Kabel was extremely impressed with the displays: “installing and setting up both the hard- and software really was really intuitive and there wasn’t the need for a large project team to oversee the task” says Alicia Schwald, joint project leader Industrial Engineering. The software displays the stock levels of all flow racks connected to the network on PC displays and gives complete transparency of all available material.
A requirements list shows the priority list for replenishment and creates a to do list for logistics to work with. In this way errors are avoided and the replenishment process optimised whilst reducing the levels of safety stock previously held.
Great benefits immediately after the trial
After the trial during which 3 flow racks with 90 stock locations were fitted with the system significant improvements were seen. The target of reducing machine idle time was easily met. Furthermore, operators no longer had to leave their workstations to seek help from logistics as StockSAVER reports automatically a requirement for stock replenishment.
An additional customer request – place by light “We had another request after we completed the first trial” carries on project leader Engelhardt who explains: “in order to achieve an even higher degree of safety and avoid any danger of misplacement of bins we wanted to introduce a “place by light” system on the flow racks. This should make it even more obvious to the logistics operator precisely where to replace the replenishment bin.
With the provision of additional “place by light” LEDs the logistics operator is able to see a green LED at the head of the correct stock location after scanning the bar code on the bin to be replenished, and should the bin be replaced into the wrong location a red LED is lit.
WERMA (UK) LTD
Tel: 01536 486930
Email: uksales@werma.co.uk
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