SMART FOUNDRY, smart model administration
The SMART FOUNDRY in Hasloch is probably the most modern manual foundry for cast iron – and the Kurtz foundry team is also going down new paths in efficient and process-safe administration of the customers’ models, always with their sights on the Industrie 4.0 target. The days of Excel spreadsheets and databases going past the leading SAP system have gone. An integrated model administration is indispensable for unproblematic sequences of production for customers. For this reason, all the model appliances provided by our customers have been recorded as three-part SAP production assistants and enriched with all the available data records. The production assistants have been portrayed in the form of equipment families and open up completely new possibilities in everyday dealings with the models.
Process-safe production in top casting quality
For process-safe production with constant casting quality, a flawless condition of the model appliances is necessary. In order to monitor achievement of maximum stipulated casting figures continuously, an insert counter has been integrated into the equipment. Each production order – and thus each removal from a cast – is recorded through feedback. If a model appliance reaches a critical threshold, SAP gives information about it in the form of traffic lights jumping to the “yellow” status. In this way, the SMART FOUNDRY team can notify its customers about forthcoming model maintenance work at an early stage.
Administration of the models via equipments also provides further possibilities – for example, complete space administration of upper, lower and core boxes has been directly integrated into the equipments. Booking of space movements is done by means of a logistic terminal which has been directly placed in the truck. Changes can thus be followed up online in real time – by which the logistic process has been designed decidedly more efficiency. The working stock for picking of model appliances is done directly from the fine SAP planning. Each planned production order generates a picking position for the factory logistics, which additionally transmits the information when a model appliance is needed in production.