Flexible production in quick motion

Transcription

1 No. 21 Page: 1 / 8 April 2014 Flexible production in quick motion When it comes to being competitive in the furniture industry, an optimized production line concept provides an essential foundation. Particularly in times of growing variant diversity, lowering costs by optimizing the use of resources, cutting throughfeed times and minimizing stock levels are all decisive to success. At the same time, the production philosophy has evolved continuously from the early years through to the high-tech batch size one solutions we see today. The second part of the HK Series HOMAG Spotlight focuses on advances in flexible production. There was a lot going on in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1988: Steffi Graf was the first German to win four Grand Slam tournaments in a row and in the same year, Germany hosted the Football European Championships. In the world of international sport, Germany s achievements were making a mark. At the same time, an order for the very first highly flexible furniture production line dropped into HOMAG s mailbox. Its execution was another sporting target that the team of HOMAG Group Engineering achieved with flying colors. The ordered plant was to be delivered to a fitted kitchen manufacturer in Japan. The performance specification was an ambitious one for the times, with between eight and ten parts per minute. Unlike the German team at the European Championships taking place at the same time, HOMAG Group Engineering team together with BARGSTEDT,

2 No. 21 Page: 2 / 8 April 2014 HOLZMA, HOMAG and WEEKE rose spectacularly to the challenge. The first complete production line was born, encompassing every stage of manufacture from panel dividing through to assembly, all controlled from a production line using barcodes. In the summer of 1989, the plant was successfully commissioned and began the production of kitchens for the people of Japan. This achievement was the start of what was to be a truly exciting development history. Just ten years later in 1999, the company successfully delivered a plant capable of working at double the speed, with an output of 20 parts per minute. This concept was engineered for a high-end kitchen manufacturer in Westphalia, and once again put the development ingenuity of the HOMAG Group engineers to the test. The end result was a complete production line to process cabinet sides and shelves with a barcode printed on the back of the component, automatic destacking and what is known as Christmas tree stacking. The plant engineering experts from Schopfloch set another milestone in 2002 in response to an enquiry from a well-known office furniture manufacturer based in Austria. The challenge here was to design a seamless, highly flexible component production line permitting an output of 20 parts per minute. The contract encompassed all the processes required for carcase furniture production: from the automatic two-storey BARGSTEDT area storage system equipped with a total of three HOLZMA panel dividing saws through to downstream edge processing technology from HOMAG encompassing over 100 different rebating and grooving operations. A highly flexible drilling and trimming center from WEEKE took care of subsequent processing stages. Two years later, a bathroom furniture manufacturer invested

3 No. 21 Page: 3 / 8 April 2014 in a new production concept with an output of 30 parts per minute. Working in association with HOMAG Group Engineering, the German company developed a ground-breaking new concept for complete bathroom furniture manufacture. Workpiece processing starts in the area storage system, followed by a downstream angular saw with integrated automatic labeling system, and continues with workpiece sorting by an automatic buffer storage system. The parts are then automatically removed and forwarded for edge processing. The really unusual aspect of the plant is that the shelves are already drilled and the dowels driven into place in the edge processing line. The workpieces are sorted in a distribution station and prepared for possible further processing, or alternatively transported to the sorting warehouse storage system. What is currently one of the world s most innovative high-tech systems was installed in Austria in Office furniture manufacturer Hali was very clear about what it wanted from its new production concept for high piece numbers. However, at the same time, it expected the industrial-scale production system to offer all the flexibility of a woodworking shop. The result was a completely networked production system with the world s shortest resetting gap. The production sequence starts in a highly dynamic warehouse with capacity for 4,000 panels. From here, panels are automatically fed to two saws, after which the parts are transported by a decoupling buffer storage system into the downstream edge banding machine,

4 No. 21 Page: 4 / 8 April 2014 and are subsequently stored in a component buffer storage system for 6,000 parts and picked for the various assembly lines. The parts then enter two directly connected drilling lines with integrated trimming units. Today, HOMAG Group batch size one concepts are capable of producing between 400 and 6500 parts per shift. The underlying aim here is to reconcile the need for variant diversity and batch size one production with outstanding economy. As a result, no plant is ever quite the same as another: The optimum machine configuration has to be engineered to address the unique needs of each manufacturer. To achieve this aim, the HOMAG Group networks all the necessary technical components along the entire process chain: From storage and transport logistics through sizing/nesting and part identification, including buffer storage and complete sizing and edge banding, through to sorting and order picking, drilling and hardware systems as well as assembly and packaging technology. And all from a single, reliable source. Albert Nopp Technical Director at Hali Büromöbel Office furniture manufacturer Hali took its production onto a whole new plane. Albert Nopp had very clear goals in mind for the implementation of the company s new and unusual production concept. The end result was a unique, almost totally networked plant which produces around 20,000 parts per week, and involves 90 per cent fewer stocked items compared to the former production system. Hali boasts a delivery period of just 15 working days and deploys only three machine operators per shift. Mr Nopp, you produce using one of Europe s most up-to-date furniture manufacturing plants. How was this achieved, and what were your requirements? We had a stringent list of requirements for the new plant. Using an unmanned order, procurement and production process, our aim was to comply with every

5 No. 21 Page: 5 / 8 April 2014 individual customer request from a pool of over 48 million possible product variants within no more than 15 days. Another goal we set ourselves unlike other batch size one production systems was to eliminate the use of labels on the workpieces. Added to this was the aim of achieving a 30 per cent capacity increase without using more personnel. Our vision was to achieve the performance of a woodworking shop with the benefit of industrial manufacturing conditions. What made you choose the HOMAG Group as your partner for the project? In the HOMAG Group we found a partner who was willing to work shoulder to shoulder with the customer on a development even on something totally new. Throughout the joint development of the entire production line, we enjoyed the unstinting support of an expert, both in terms of technical equipment and software. Working with the HOMAG Group and my development team, we have created a complete work of art. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing your vision turned into reality and functioning just the way you imagined. Both I personally and the whole Hali company are extremely proud of this achievement. The plant has a number of outstanding technical features. What is the highlight for you personally, particularly as regards sizing and edge banding? One of the outstanding highlights for me is achieving the world s shortest resetting gap. No matter what part format is being produced, all the units involved can be reset within a maximum of 1.5 seconds. We had to reconcile extreme variant diversity with mass production, and we have done that by achieving a degree of speed and flexibility that are currently second to none.

6 No. 21 Page: 6 / 8 April 2014 Olaf Daniel, Head of Assembly Throughfeed Technology, HOMAG Holzbearbeitungssysteme GmbH When networking machines to create complex high-tech plants, everything has to fit together perfectly. Before any plant can leave the production hall on the way to the customer, it is completely installed and run in on the HOMAG Group premises. Olaf Daniel reveals why this is such an important process and talks about the aspects which require particular attention. He has been with HOMAG Holzbearbeitungssysteme GmbH for 22 years, and has been in overall charge of the assembly of single and double-sided edge banders and dealing with complex plants since Mr Daniel, you are in charge of dealing with all throughfeed plants which leave Schopfloch to be transported to the customer. What is particularly important in this process? The demands made on the project engineering business continue to grow all the time. To reflect these changes, we are continuously optimizing and updating our processes here in the company. We have become even more flexible and customer focused, and we are now able to ensure more efficient and faster project completion than ever before. Specialist project managers in the Assembly Department take over responsibility for planning and coordination functions, bringing the benefit of their outstanding technical expertise and experience. The relevant project team is supplemented by employees from our pool of control and process technology specialists, depending on the specific project

7 No. 21 Page: 7 / 8 April 2014 phase. We attach particular importance to ensuring that the same staff members work on specific tasks, for example in the field of control engineering. This guarantees a sound basis of technical expertise. The decisive benefit we offer: We have all the expertise we need gathered here under one roof, and everything is close at hand. If I calculate back over the past four years, for instance, over this period we have successfully taken care of over 80 batch size one plants here in the Assembly Department. Why does the HOMAG Group carry out complete plant acceptance here in Schopfloch before delivery? For one thing, this ensures that the customer will have a fully functioning plant available for use on their factory floor within a minimum period. Ideally, we carry out the acceptance procedure using original data generated by the customer. We try to reproduce the subsequent production conditions in the final location as realistically as possible here in Schopfloch. We also aim to ensure the portability of new technologies and concepts, and to carry out final quality and performance testing. What are the HOMAG Group s strengths over its international competitors? We offer concepts tailored to all performance categories. The challenge we face here is of course to deal with the rising number and complexity of plants. On the one hand, our assembly team works in close cooperation with the Sales Department, with HOMAG Group Engineering, IT and the R&D Division to ensure that the customer s specifications are fulfilled to the letter. On the other hand, we also engage in very close cooperation with our customers. We are prepared to enter into new developments in the interests of benefiting the

8 No. 21 Page: 8 / 8 April 2014 market and our customers. This is what sets us apart from our competitors, and it is the reason for our leading position in expanding markets such as China, where our products are in ever greater demand.