It All Starts With Warehouse and Set-Up Time
Optimization Over 4,000 complete tools and an equal amount of single components are in use at H.P. Kaysser – a significant cost factor. To work more efficiently and lower tool costs, the company launched a project to optimize tool storage and management in 2015. “In the past, employees frequently had their own storage areas at specific machines. It was almost impossible to know where a certain tool was,” explains Peter Pfleiderer, Project Manager of Tool Management at H.P. Kaysser, describing the initial situation. “Machine set-up times, especially, were too high. That’s why we decided to establish a central set-up station with two Kardex shuttles, while optimizing tool management at the same time.” The company chose to partner with ZOLLER – they were already aware of the company from joint projects in the past, and had been operating TMS Tool Management Solutions on a ZOLLER »venturion« presetter since late 2015. The diversity and modular design of TMS Tool Management Solutions by ZOLLER, and the fact that they could receive tool presetting and management from a single source, were other key factors behind the decision.
Achieving Goals, Step by Step
To quickly benefit from tool management, the company needed to differentiate required project modules from desirable modules, then address them one by one. “If we had tried to start off at our current level of detail, we might have been overwhelmed by the many different options ZOLLER-TMS offers,” Pfleiderer says, explaining why they chose a stepby step approach to introducing the new system. Getting employees on board with the changes early in the process was also helpful. This allowed them to inform everyone involved of the project's benefits right from the start, and handle any reservations before changes were made. Especially when handling ongoing tool data entry, which was an extensive project at the outset, the company needed to foster an awareness that it was looking for good work processes that would ultimately benefit everyone. Pfleiderer notes that one key factor in the smooth switch over was how easy ZOLLER products are to use: “The ZOLLER product user interface is very easy to understand and is always the same, no matter whether it's on a measurement device or on the PC. That helped shorten our training time.”
1. Milestone: Transparency, No Storage Confusion
Careful data import for component designations, complete tools, and setup sheets via Excel tables, and manually linking storage locations, quickly paid off, says Pfleiderer: “Thanks to the central ZOLLER z.One tool database, we have a transparent tool inventory with no more confusion about where tools are stored. Finally, everyone can access the knowledge of the whole staff without having to search for tools – that saves time. Everyone immediately saw the advantage of the central database.”
2. Milestone: Direct CAM and ERP Link
After storage management was up and running, the CAM and ERP systems were also linked to ZOLLER-TMS. As Pfleiderer explained: “Our CAM system TopSolid now directly accesses the central tool database. This really lowers our programmers’ workload. ZOLLER tool management is also already paying off in purchasing: Since we have such good transparency, we only order what we really need – a major cost saving.”
3. Milestone: Process Reliability and More Speed
The company is adding further options from the extensive and modular TMS Tool Management Solutions range over time. Pfleiderer notes the »quickPick« storage module as one example, which allows the company to quickly book and remove items in just a few clicks, as well as »cetus«, a software module used to optimize tool requirements: “Thanks to »cetus«, the control center for all tools is now the office; we don't have to ask each individual machine operator what tools they have on their machine, since all the data is saved in the system. The program calculates tool requirements based on current machine magazine fittings. Then a picking list is created automatically, and only the tools that truly need to be exchanged are. That helps us save even more time and costs.”
A Complete Success – To Be Continued
A central set-up location and ZOLLER Tool Management combined to accelerate set-up times at Kaysser, also simplifying programming and purchasing processes, which in turn helped lower costs: “On average, we are saving 20-30 percent of our tool and operating material costs, and our production processes are already 10-15 percent faster,” reports Udo Schwarz Production Manager of CNC Machining Technology at Kaysser with satisfaction. However, for Kaysser all of this success is no reason to rest on their laurels – the company has already planned its next steps towards a profitable digital future: “Above all, we want to continue reducing our tool costs by using the Item Statistics module in ZOLLERTMS to find optimizations,” Mr. Pfleiderer said of upcoming plans at Kaysser for ZOLLER TMS Tool Management Solutions.
About H.P. Kaysser GmbH + Co. KG H.P.
Kaysser is a family-owned service provider using highly modern production technologies in metal processing and finishing. Its sheet metal components are used in over 30 different industries. With two locations in Germany and Romania, over 400 employees, and 27,000 square meters of production space, H.P. Kaysser is one of Germany's leading mid-sized metalworking businesses. The company not only serves as a supplier, but often also as a development and strategic partner for its customers. More info at: www.kaysser.de
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