As part of the con­ti­nuous digi­tiza­tion pro­cess, we have rea­ched ano­ther mile­stone. Tog­e­ther with HSI GmbH, we have digi­ti­zed our pro­duc­tion plan­ning and will con­ti­nue to opti­mize it in the coming years. The results are alre­ady visi­ble with resi­li­ent plan­ning times, com­pre­hen­si­ble work plans and more effi­ci­ency in production.

The coope­ra­tion with the soft­ware com­pany from Erfurt has resul­ted in a joint user report, which we are plea­sed to make available to you here.

Enjoy rea­ding.

We uses tailor-made software when it comes to planning assemblies

Plan­ning relia­bi­lity is beco­ming incre­asingly important in chal­len­ging times. This is why many pro­duc­tion busi­nesses are swit­ching to auto­ma­ted cal­cu­la­tion rules and rea­li­stic value tables in their work plan­ning. They are repla­cing expe­ri­ence values and manu­ally main­tai­ned Excel sheets. Here, a solu­tion with pre­con­fi­gu­red, adjus­ta­ble pro­cess modu­les will save you a lot of effort with the intro­duc­tion. Machine tool manu­fac­tu­rer NILES-SIMMONS isn’t merely pro­fiting from using the work plan­ning solu­tion from HSi: The web-based soft­ware with its modu­lar struc­ture can be adapted intui­tively to suit busi­ness-spe­ci­fic requi­re­ments, sup­plies relia­ble plan­ned times and redu­ces plan­ning costs.

Wanted: Reliable, automated operation sequences

Before the intro­duc­tion of soft­ware spe­ci­ally desi­gned for the spe­ci­fic requi­re­ments in machine tool manu­fac­ture, it took a great deal of effort to manu­ally prepare work plans at NILES-SIMMONS, based on Excel tables, time ana­ly­ses and expe­ri­ence values: “This no lon­ger worked for a large num­ber of our work plans and took up too much time,” says Maxi Klaus­nit­zer, Pro­duc­tion Plan­ner at NILES-SIMMONS. This is why they star­ted loo­king for soft­ware which crea­tes auto­ma­ted ope­ra­tion sequen­ces based on cal­cu­la­tion rules and value tables. When dis­cus­sing the fur­ther requi­re­ments during their search for a solu­tion, Maxi Klaus­nit­zer says: “The effort invol­ved in work plan­ning was to be redu­ced and orga­nised more effec­tively. We wan­ted to opti­mise the pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses and reduce our through­put times.” Based on a stan­dard sys­tem for cal­cu­la­tion, they also wan­ted to increase plan­ning relia­bi­lity and make the deter­mi­ned data more cre­di­ble. Here, the plan was for the solu­tion to have a bidi­rec­tional con­nec­tion to the PPS sys­tem used at the time, and to be intui­tive for the user and adap­ta­ble for indi­vi­dual pro­ces­ses. The busi­ness lear­ned about Erfurt-based HSi GmbH through a con­ver­sa­tion at a trade fair. With HSplan, the IT pro­vi­der, spe­cia­li­sing in adap­tive cos­ting and work plan­ning solu­ti­ons for pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies, had soft­ware in their range that could meet the sel­ec­tion cri­te­ria of the Chem­nitz-based machine tool manufacturer.

Connection to ERP prevents duplicate data retention

HSi solu­ti­ons have a tech­no­logy base which includes the pre­con­fi­gu­red modu­les with cut values, machi­nes or work pro­ces­ses, for exam­ple for tur­ning, mil­ling, dril­ling and grin­ding. These can be adapted to the com­pany-spe­ci­fic pro­duc­tion and assem­bly con­di­ti­ons. “Today, HSplan is bidi­rec­tion­ally lin­ked to our ERP solu­tion,” Maxi Klaus­nit­zer explains the chan­ged situa­tion at NILES-SIMMONS. “This sim­pli­fies the effort invol­ved in plan­ning by a great deal, because all the mas­ter data is stored in the ERP, our work plan­ning solu­tion picks up this data auto­ma­ti­cally, and the modu­les and rules can then use it.” This is how duplicate
data reten­tion is avo­ided. In this way, dimen­si­ons, weights, times or parts lists can be used by modu­les and rules directly. Once all the data is trans­fer­red, HSplan pre­pa­res the work plan. Here, pre­con­fi­gu­red pro­cess modu­les can be added and fil­led with the cor­re­spon­ding para­me­ters of the work­pie­ces: such as dia­me­ter or weight. Here, the final work plan is gene­ra­ted step by step via an intui­tive menu navi­ga­tion. Once the plan­ning pro­cess is com­plete, the work plan goes back to the
ERP where the pro­duc­tion order can finally be prepared.

Adapted just once, and planning time is reduced in the long term

As well as the auto­ma­ted crea­tion of work plans, at NILES-SIMMONS, they also bene­fit from the adap­ta­bi­lity of the solu­tion: “The one-time effort invol­ved in crea­ting our own logics pays off in the long term when we can reduce times and gene­rate stan­dard data in the work plan­ning,” says Maxi Klaus­nit­zer. They adjus­ted many of the pre­set rules to suit their own situa­tions and inte­gra­ted plau­si­bi­lity tests. This means that the user would receive a noti­fi­ca­tion if a value for HSplan was miss­ing or if a com­po­nent excee­ded the maxi­mum dimen­si­ons of the pro­duc­tion machi­nes. “For exam­ple, we took the exis­ting rules for grin­ding from HSplan, loo­ked at the basis for cal­cu­la­tion and, tog­e­ther with our col­le­agues in pro­duc­tion, we adjus­ted the spe­ci­fied time to suit the actual sta­tus of the machine,” Maxi Klaus­nit­zer explains the pro­cess. On one hand, this gives you rea­li­stic plan­ned times and, in a fur­ther stage, you can get to the bot­tom of the cause of any delays.
Here, NILES-SIMMONS also uses the module HSmdae for mass data chan­ges: This makes it pos­si­ble to update all work plans which are refe­ren­ced in an updated value table auto­ma­ti­cally with just one click of the mouse. “The mass data change saves us a con­sidera­ble amount of time, because we no lon­ger have to open each work plan to make the change manu­ally,” says Maxi Klausnitzer.

Allocating assembly effort in a rules-based system or manually

For deter­mi­ning the plan­ned time of assem­bly pro­ces­ses, NILES-SIMMONS also uses HSmont: HSmont con­ta­ins various search algo­rithms which can be used to allo­cate assem­bly times to parts list items auto­ma­ti­cally, in a rules-based sys­tem, or manu­ally. The assem­bly effort is stored in the mas­ter data for various assem­bly groups. For spe­cial parts, you also have the option of ente­ring the effort manu­ally. It can be added up in the assem­bly plan and adapted to suit the indi­vi­dual situa­tion in order to finally deter­mine the spe­ci­fied time. “Once the effort for indi­vi­dual parts has been stored, the time value for repeat parts is automatically
adopted,” high­lights Maxi Klaus­nit­zer. “Here, the copy box also pays divi­dends for us in order pro­duc­tion, for exam­ple, when pro­ces­sing sheet metal: This function
makes it pos­si­ble to take values from exis­ting, simi­lar work plans and adapt these. At NILESSIMMONS, the team has recently been inte­gra­ting NC data into the work plan­ning. An NC module is crea­ted for the solu­tion. The pro­grammer enters the data from the CAM sys­tem, such as the run time of the NC programme,
amount and type of fric­tion and num­ber of tools. Cor­re­spon­ding to the ent­ries, the module then out­puts the plan­ned times for set-up time and time per part.

Optimally adjusted for modified framework conditions

Every year, working with HSplan and HSmont, NILES-SIMMONS crea­tes around 6000 work plans for parts pro­duc­tion and around 1500 work plans for assem­bly. Plan­ning relia­bi­lity will also remain a big focus in the future, and the busi­ness will con­ti­nue to rely on the adap­ta­bi­lity of HSplan: “The plan­ning experts at HSi have  deli­vered a pro­gramme that we can use to adapt cal­cu­la­tion modu­les after any occur­rence,” sum­ma­ri­ses Maxi Klaus­nit­zer. They will con­ti­nue to make regu­lar adjus­t­ments so as to set up their work plan­ning in the opti­mal way to suit new frame­work con­di­ti­ons. The results are relia­ble plan­ned times and trans­pa­rent work plans for more effi­ci­ency in pro­duc­tion. “Using the solu­tion has redu­ced our plan­ning effort signi­fi­cantly,” reco­g­ni­ses Maxi Klaus­nit­zer, “and it offers the poten­tial of shor­tening sup­ply times.”