Goodbye paper: Helmut Fischer uses digital shop floor management
Helmut Fischer GmbH
challenges
Process transparency in production and logistics; visualization for real-time monitoring of delivery reliability, quality and costs and early identification of possible disturbances in the shop floor rules meeting
solution
Real-time visualization of shop floor data with Peakboard as a lean management tool
benefits
- Information advantage through real-time data without programming effort
- Respond to errors faster and more efficiently
- Higher employee motivation through transparency about their own work performance
Time to Value
A few months until the final shop floor management solution
With around 800 employees worldwide, Helmut Fischer GmbH is a full-service provider in the area of surface testing and has been developing precision instruments for surface measurements since 1953. The range ranges from handheld devices for coating thickness measurement in corrosion protection to XRF spectrometers and analysis to fully integrated systems in the electronics industry that automatically monitor production.
“Only Peakboard met our requirements for standardized interfaces to various systems, in particular SAP, and the visualization of shop floor data in real time and without programming. ”
Outdated information, less visibility, lower performance
Helmut Fischer's shop floor management is an essential component for monitoring and improving its production and logistics. As part of its Lean management strategy Continue to make its processes transparent in both areas in order to mitigate potential problems and performance losses in advance. The visualization required for this should play a central role in the shop floor rules meeting in creating a common understanding. In this way, the parties involved want to monitor delivery reliability, quality and costs in real time and influence potential disruptions at an early stage.
The previous shop floor solution does not visualize data in real time; key figures are manually in paper form and therefore not regularly updated. Outdated lists and a lack of transparency generally lead to lower performance, for example due to an unsuitable focus on topics in shop floor meetings. As a result, optimal gut decisions are not always made. It is very complex to keep the key figures on the physical wall up to date.
Digitally mapped production for faster and better decisions
“We were looking for simple, flexible and comprehensive options with standardized interfaces to various systems, in particular SAP. All this in real time and without programming,” says André Fimpel, who was responsible for the project as Head of Lean Management at Helmut Fischer, explaining the conditions. “As we discovered after a long period of research, only Peakboard has met these requirements so far. ”
Helmut Fischer GmbH relied on the Stuttgart-based company's three products: on the one hand Peakboard Designer and Peakboard Box for visualizing existing machine data. On the other hand, Peakboard Edge, to display signals from factory events, for example via buttons, and to be able to play them out again via other external devices.
The measurement instrument manufacturer's data visualization has the following structure: five shop floor monitors at team level and one monitor at department level, each with a 46-inch touchscreen. All monitors are located in strategic locations in production, so teams and departments have short distances.
The monitors are connected via LAN to SAP, Excel spreadsheets and an SQL server to record progress data. In addition, employees use a rotary knob to transmit information about their load trains, which take place several times a day, to supply materials to the individual production areas. Helmut Fischer continues the information obtained to an SQL database in order to map the history and see developments. The teams, divided into production steps, find out via a traffic light system when delays occur. After one click, they immediately see the details.
The following information and processes are visualized:
- Construction orders: deadlines and missed deadlines
- Kanban control loops: replacement interval, problems with the replacement of parts
action plan - Punctuality/Follow internal timed routes
- Production capacity per area, versus order processing time
Before making a purchase decision, André Fimpel tested the free Peakboard Designer. Helmut Fischer GmbH created the first dashboard independently.
“With a basic technical understanding and a little support from the internal SAP team and Peakboard, we did it well,” says Fimpel. “We first had to understand the SAP structure to get the data we were looking for. At the beginning, we carried out a lengthy test with a daily check to clarify detailed questions: Which data do we really need, which not? That was a valuable, moderated process. ”
Initially, the reliability of the system was critically examined, as were the costs and resources required by IT for implementation and maintenance. Fimple:
“The benefits of the first application were then quickly convincing and the data generation is virtually effortless. That alone made Peakboard worthwhile. The good support also ensured high performance. ”
Real-time information for surprising insights and greater efficiency
As a test, the company initially only equipped one team with Real time data off.
“There we noticed right away: They see things that others don't see, such as the status quo of orders, incorrect bookings, deviations from appointments and much more. The team with the new solution had an informational advantage. As a result, it was able to quickly initiate measures so that our customers received their product on time and in the usual Fischer quality,” says Fimpel, describing the initial experiences.
Errors in data consistency, for example due to incorrect area information, are now also transparent and all areas — production, purchasing, logistics, PPS, LEAN — have a common image. A particular aha effect was created when orders that were physically completed but still open in the system became transparent. Right after the first live broadcast, the team saw that an actually finished order had not yet been scanned as complete. Another case was an order marked in red, which suddenly became visible that it was running at work station A but was posted to work station B. A later discovery would have caused significant problems, including inventory and price calculation, and would therefore have caused follow-up costs.
“Since implementation, the topics on the shop floor have clearly focused on the specific challenges and we are much faster at solving them. The urgency of a case, such as the absence of a part, now depends exclusively on its significance. As a result, he becomes objective. This has also helped us to develop our error culture, as we can now identify error chains in real time and simply interrupt them,” explains Fimpel. “Even in the event of impending bottlenecks, we react more quickly and achieve more precise capacity planning, greater delivery reliability and better capacity utilization. Since we visualize our production processes, our decisions are faster and more effective. The transparent and fact-based approach to challenges ensures that employees can better understand decisions and accept the solution very well. ”
Very lean
Helmut Fischer is already thinking about using further visualizations. So could the purchasing improve your Milkrun performance by knowing urgently needed parts. Data on open orders, due dates and workload helps picking logistics, and in shipping logistics, Peakboard's solution can visualize the organization of shipments, emergencies and collection dates.
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