The MES system - developed for the foundry
The MES for foundries is specifically tailored for digital foundry manufacturing. The processes of the foundry are digitally visualised and monitored and the modular software offers a complete toolbox to optimise all areas of production. By visualising productivity, downtime, maintenance, and quality, it is possible to react promptly and efficiently and to use available resources efficiently. Paper and Excel lists are replaced by digital reports in real time, a change to completely digitalised manufacturing takes place in all areas. This makes it possible to avoid waste and increase productivity and ultimately value creation. The software was developed in close cooperation with Auto Heinen, a traditional aluminium foundry in the automotive supply industry.
CastVisu enables completely detailed process monitoring with casting curve on notebook or workstation and can be called up for each machine at any time. The integrated SPC logic offers more than 30 monitored process parameters such as casting curves (V1-V3), temperatures, mould, melt, gate, residual thickness, vacuum, spray quantity and much more. No additional sensors need to be installed for this, because the existing ones can be integrated. The display on the machines is not affected, but all process data is available without a machine interface. This allows special trend analyses to be created that are detailed down to the individual shot. In this way, the monitoring of each individual shot can be traced back continuously. Process data from die casting can also be compared with the results in machining (e.g. leak test) in order to derive measures for optimisation.
The Toolvisu module is the tool management for the foundry. ToolVisu enables the planning of maintenance and servicing of die casting tools (or other production equipment). Repairs, fault descriptions, photo documentation are recorded and made available as a work plan. Records of quality, malfunctions, tool breakages or other process disturbances serve as a basis. All information is available at the touch of a button within the software. In addition, shot tracking with range planning is possible for all tools. This makes checking the tool condition for mould and cut very transparent and follow-up tools can be scheduled in good time and are available in good time.
A special tool has been developed for the melting operation with level indication, melting qualities, temperatures, and specifications. This tool can be used for production monitoring and quality control. It is also possible to record the gas consumption of the furnaces and visualise it as a key figure.
The Shopfloor Suite allows active energy management. Special measuring units are installed for measuring the consumption of power and gas. The numbers are displayed on a dashboard, integrated in the Shopfloor Suite. This way it is easy to track the consumption along with other production data, making the consumption of each machine transparent.
The Shopfloor Suite is equipped with integrated document management. The complete documentation of the management systems can thus be mapped in a version-safe manner. Employee briefings are digitally confirmed via a dedicated employee portal. Inspection plans are derived from the control plans and distributed to the machines, and the corresponding inspection processes are documented via the software. Measurement data can be recorded and tracked via SPC. Freely definable checklists at all points supplement the verification obligation down to the last detail. This makes it possible to consistently verify the standard requirements of the ISO regulations up to IATF 16949.
With PlanVisu, production planning with set-up sequence is planned with simple drag and drop, clearly laid out and easily customisable. The comparison with the customer’s requirements is then displayed via a range overview. Thus, at the level of each production step, it can be immediately assessed whether there is an undersupply of the following production steps or of customer requirements. After planning, the result is transferred to the ERP. In this way, complete transparency is achieved at all production levels and possible supply disruptions are made immediately visible.
- Integration of manual workstations
- Recording of data from blasting systems, vibratory grinding systems and special machines
- Analysis options for rejects, downtimes
- Quality cost report
- Monitoring of cycle times
- SMED support
- Post calculation of all articles
- Individual measures management
- U.a.