The data flow in the manufacturing process has taken to expressway with the digital format.
V.G. Sakthikumar Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India What do you think are the latest ‘smart technology’ trends in the manufacturing sector, especially in the manufacturing of construction and mining equipment and what do
– V.G. Sakthikumar
Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India
What do you think are the latest ‘smart technology’ trends in the manufacturing sector, especially in the manufacturing of construction and mining equipment and what do you think is the impact of this on the manufacturing processes, enterprise value chain and supply chain?
While the buzz word of Industry 4.0 is trending everywhere in the manufacturing industry, people have already started to think about Industry 5.0 where man and machine are collaborated to the work task. In the construction equipment manufacturing industry, the communication, the data flow, real time metrices between the shop floor and the management dashboard have become absolute real time. Any call related to the shop floor activity starting from raw material requirement to the finished good declaration in an ERP are integrated to the kiosk being accessed by the worker at the shop floor.
In Schwing Stetter’s Global manufacturing hub, we have currently installed Andon Set-up inside the production shop floor. The impact of Smart tech Integration is that tablets and kiosks have replaced paper documentation at the shop floor for real time status and traceability.
The data flow in the manufacturing process has taken to expressway with the digital format; they enable the manufacturer to deliver the goods and keep the customer track and get update on their delivery schedule.
Can you elaborate on the manufacturing philosophy and production principles of your company?
While Schwing Stetter‘s Global practice in providing reliable, quality products, and defect free, and delivered on time is the mantra practiced in the Indian facilities.
The production processes will follow the set guide lines in line with the international standards using the world class components in its machine build.
The built equipment will meet international standards and perform to its timely delivery is also one of the parameters. Whatever technology and processes that helps in giving a world class product are quickly and immediately adapted into our shop floor process. For example: the Double Column boring machine with integrated IOT for manufacturing Boom Structures.
How do these principles help in ensuring ‘zero defects’, ‘environment-friendliness’ and ‘safety’ in your production processes and supply chain? Brief us on the on-going / on-the-pipeline initiatives to make your manufacturing more sustainable?
Zero Defects: All work stations are equipped with and on kiosks to enable all dimensional reports, quality check at each work station enabling to curtails defects at source and any repeated erratic stations is escalated to the line manager, thereby eliminating defects at source
Safety: The entire shop floor at GMH is enabled with fire sensing alarm which is connected with a central server; All machines in our shop floor are connected with IOT which enables us to monitor machines in a predictive manner and arresting all possibilities of mishap occurrence.
To what extent has your company imbibed digital technologies on manufacturing and how have you been able to leverage the digital platforms / flexible and scalable technology in your manufacturing set up?
- Shop floor data management system.
- ANDON system at work station level to monitor and track.
- Datum related to PQCDSM are to be captured through ANDON.
- Automatic work allocation system based on prioritization.
- Performance and skill level monitoring based on ANDON data.
- No physical tracking of material movement, as live data is available on real time basis.
- UIN (unique Identification Number) for material traceability – manual entry on process sheets to be eliminated.
- ‘Bendtronic’-adaptive learning software in Haesler Rolling machine will reduce skill dependability on operation – this software understand the number of rolling passes used for the specific material and creates a program to do the same operation in an automatic mode.
- Welding Simulator – an AR based welding training simulator is put in place to train freshers on welding on multiple positions, guide them and rate their performance, All DETs employed are trained through this simulator, reducing the amount of steel plates, energy and consumables.
- Centralized Welding Fume extraction system is employed in the weld shop.
- Machining of boom pump components are planned on SHW Double Column boring machine – presently India’s largest machine in length.
- IOT system for all new and existing machines, Gas manifold system to capture run time data, monitor OEE and predictive maintenance
What do you think are the major challenges in replacing the legacy system with newer and smarter technologies?
The following challenges were faced during our Smart Manufacturing Set up at Schwing Global manufacturing set up at Cheyyar, while replacing the existing legacy system of manufacturing.
- A complete revamping of the Manufacturing processes at the Shop floor level.
- Banking on a reliable Internet system for seamless telematics connectivity 24/7.
- Re skilling of the Shop floor personnel on the smart manufacturing methods. Training them on the best practices in Smart manufacturing processes and sensitizing on the long run benefits.
- The huge capital expenditure, while the complicated process of scrapping the machines related to old legacy system of manufacturing.
Fortunately, since the Global manufacturing Hub in Cheyyar is a new set up; it was easier to implement the smart manufacturing technology from the scratch.
Hits: 101
