Saving €300,000 per year

It soon became clear that the recommended optimization measures had to be implemented as soon as possible. The task of the Tebis consultant was to establish a project plan, define milestones, manage and verify task lists, coordinate the measures and support FMF throughout the entire implementation process. In doing so, he also assumed overall responsibility for the realization of the potential savings. Müller is convinced that this approach is a valid one: "Tebis Consulting has to guide the process on the right track. Each company is responsible for internal implementation. But if these tasks become lost in the daily routine, Tebis Consulting is charged with keeping the ball rolling!" However, the project manager's most important task is to focus on the goal and to continuously monitor progress.

A steering group formed of the people responsible for the areas of design, programming and manufacture was responsible for the entire project phase. The first step in the process structuring phase was to define standards for drilling and milling tools. This step alone resulted in a 50% reduction in machine downtimes, thanks to a significant decrease in tool setup times.

Then the 2.5D machining was structured by creating machining templates in the Tebis CAD/CAM system. At the same time, the Tebis consultant optimized data transfer between design and programming. Thanks to the automated flow of the technical manufacturing data, additional information outside the Tebis files became largely unnecessary. This minimized sources of errors and considerably improved the company’s process reliability. Just the optimization of the 2.5D process chain alone saves more than €70,000 annually. A more efficient integration of the Tebis Viewer technology as the central information channel makes it possible to access all data from any station. This reduces the number of requests for clarification by 60% and also avoids potential errors. The late shift profited most from this step, because they’d previously experienced frequent machine downtimes due to missing information.

The introduction of Tebis 2.5D programming by the machine operator at the Tebis front end brought considerable relief to the programming department, because they no longer have to purchase external NC services. Overall, the standardization also had the effect of enabling the NC programmers to stand in for each other, which resulted in a lot more flexibility in the event of illness, vacation and other absences.