Archived sheet metal fabrication blog entries

Globalization - increasing competition
Reducing production costs and increasing productivity is perhaps the most relevant issue nowadays. As the mechanical engineering industry has become globalized, the results of technological advancements and automation can be applied anywhere in the world. Today the major difference between users lays not in technology and automated technology but in technology harmonization, technology chain based manufacturing processes. This is an area where there can be a real difference between manufacturer and manufacturer, both in terms of quality management and cost effectiveness.

Automation of production processes
All of these demonstrate the relevance of Industry 4.0's goal, which is primarily to automate production processes, more and more non-human production management. The ideal result is to create an organic system that can succeed with digital support. This is not just an IT issue and it is not necessarily a question of big investment as it is not just about automation.
An important element of an organic production system is the connection of machinery and the collection of data through it to enable full flow of production parts. When the company has a mix of advanced generation sheet metal fabrication machines and earlier generation equipments, like Melior Laser, automation can be achieved through the development of smaller production steps or sub-processes. Sub-process improvement is a noticeable improvement a company can achieve.

Automation opportunities in quality control
In addition to the diversity of the machinery, there are also industries where people cannot really be left out of the manufacturing process. The control can only be solved with human force. One such typical area is sheet metal fabriation.
At Melior Laser, quality control steps and processes are directed and executed by our staff. Due to the capabilities of our technology, quality control is very important between each operational step. From an economic point of view, it is also important that we only work on flawless semi-finished products. We are constantly making effort to reduce production time by measuring and controlling these times, carrying out capacity analysis and reducing downtime . The introduction of digital measurement protocols brought considerable results in in-process quality controls where employees enter measured data into digital protocols with the touch of a button using digital calipers.

Digitization of technical documentation system
The use of the digital internal technical documentation can be mentioned here too. The system cannot function without fully digitizing the documentation system. Special internal drawings and instructions are made for each technology. The documentation is fully electronic. It is a significant time saver to apply them at any stage of quality control.

Operational control
Further areas for improvement include capacity analysis and factory control. At Melior, monitors in the production hall tell you which machine is processing what and who is working on it. It is similar to the information monitoring in conveyor belt manufacturing, measuring real-time serial production of the parts. As a result, we have realistic lead times for returning products. With the help of the data obtained, colleagues are able to control themselves in their administrative work. Support for quality controllers has also been implemented. Scheduling quality control and setting preference order after completed operations are reported by the operators supports employee engagement through optimization of the ERP system.
Of course, these are based in almost every area on the ERP system that is available at several points in the manufacturing hall, on terminals where manual reporting is done by colleagues. Specific system optimisation similar to the examples mentioned above can produce visible results for small and middle sized enterprises. Even if only partial processes are covered separately. The ultimate goal is to tune them into a production system, embrace the full flow of materials, and achieve the vision of a digital factory.