Officina Meccanica Roselli, based in Villa Carcina (near Brescia), is an acclaimed leading company in the precision mechanics sector and the eFlexiMES solution, which we will focus on in these notes, owes a lot of its effectiveness to the co-design carried out in recent years.

The positive completion of the system used to manage data in the factory led the Company to state: ”we have always been a company with a focus on quality and efficiency, given the prominent position in the field of precision machining. Today we can say that thanks to the effective partnership with GP Progetti, we have a full system to manage production data, measured directly by the devices installed in the factory and noted a series of important advantages”.

History

Our relationship with GP Progetti stemmed years ago from the crucial need the company had of following the progress of orders with a simple and efficient instrument that could replace manual production planning, along with the need to manage a large amount of constantly growing data (material, processes, checks, drawings, images).

Therefore, the first step was to install and activate the GPNX Suite for the finite capacity programming in March 2006, which was achieved fully in line with the set timetable thanks to the active and positive presence of a Planning Manager with experience in using CRP systems.

After installing the software and training personnel, the company had an effective and flexible tool to follow its production processes.

The evolution towards data management.

During the same year (2006) and based on the level of satisfaction achieved, Officina Roselli agreed on the need of maintaining a shared programme with constant updated on the system designed for the gradual improvement of manufacturing performance.

By turning this intention into practice, it set itself the objective of obtaining feedback about how, where, when and how much was produced. The practice operators had of recording information on hard copy supports was replaced by logging it on electronic supports, which enabled operators to interact with the system in real time by declaring the production carried out, rejects and machine downtime.

By retaining a profitable collaboration w gradually went forward. The data collection system was first installed alongside some pilot machines in order to basically perfect a user-friendly graphical interface and software designed for ease of use. We then worked on the automatic connection of the machines and, in under 2 years, we gradually went from 1 to 12 workstations inside the factory. Moreover, we installed a monitor that shows all the machines in the department, so that operators can always keep the progress of production under control.

It is important to highlight how the company progressed from the simple statement to the accurate detection of data, by monitoring in real time and directly from computers of the production department elements such as the progress of orders, machine downtime and rejects, all of which are just a click away.

The Quality goal

After a period of assimilation of the system and adjustment in relation to the changed requests from the market, the company set itself the objective of adding an additional piece to the GPNX control suite as part of quality management, thereby making and completing the eFlexiMES system. In 2013 this forward-looking decision resulted in the beneficial functional and operating coverage of various fields: acceptance of material, generation of the Quality documents, generation of the control plans, management of process checks, management of internal and external non-conformity reports, management of preventive and corrective actions.

The results achieved were consolidated during 2014, which clearly shows the high partnership level attained, in the standardisation of the eQuality module, which integrated advantages in terms of intuitiveness, speed, flexibility of the software at the service of the intuitions of the user, as for instance in the instrument to log the process checks based on the construction drawings.

Management of Tools.

The last product in terms of time, the key piece to manage tools, which have a significant impact on costs. The instrument used is now a fundamental support for the operator, who before deduced values by comparing estimates and rough consumption data. Via a dedicated interface, the operator states the insert used for the manufacturing process directly on the data acquisition system with a constant interaction with the Workstation, which provides auxiliary features like the display of images to assemble the tools correctly.

In conclusion

When they were invited to consider the investment made and the results obtained, the contact people in the company highlighted the importance of effective collaboration and the determination to achieve a set objective as aspects without which it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain clear feedback.

In the case of Officina Meccanica Roselli one can therefore certainly say that the well-reasoned and joint development of the production system leads to long-standing benefits: greater awareness of how processes are managed, greater rationalisation of production, increased efficiency and accuracy, savings in terms of time and money.