25/11/2023 | COMPANY
The Lafert case at the Global Summit Logistics & Manufacturing
On November 23 at the Global Summit Logistics & Manufacturing in Lazise, Stefano Montagner, our Production and Process Engineering Manager had a speech on the digitization of production at Lafert. The path Lafert Group is facing together with its partner Tesar stems from the need to evolve and innovate in a customer-oriented and international environment.
The manufacturing revolution starts with Software
In 2020 we started a cutting-edge digitization project with Tesar, a partner for more than a decade, in the new production plant in San Donà di Piave. Given the results achieved in 2021, we developed in the "historical" plant some assestment 4.0 actions by extending to all departments in San Donà the new control software, redoing the network and installing new Tesar modules.
Today we have achieved control of 80 interconnected machines with different interfaces. By data collection, analysis with dedicated dashboards, sending part programs/recipes and other parameters to the machine, we are able to optimize control and production optimization. Today we have complex interfaces with data on machine status, number of parts produced and rejects per station, alarms, and integrated process control.
Digital integration to reduce waste
The benefits already seen from the introduction of a technologically advanced and integrated system that interconnects state-of-the-art machines to less modern ones are: improved production planning, optimization of machine setup times, reduction of waste and more accurate quality control. Added to this are the savings resulting from the elimination of paper in departments where operations were manual.
The benefits gained from greater control and planning of production are considerable.
Controlling production makes us make data-supported investment decisions: how important automation is in terms of productivity and quality, and an awareness of what the impact is--on production--of product customization that is inherent in Lafert's DNA.
"Digital integration through the application of Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Software for factory management and 4.0 data connections in a manufacturing environment with very different and verticalized manufacturing processes is a multi-year challenge involving many resources. For 2024, we want to achieve even stronger integration between modules in order to cover all the needs of a reality as modern as ours through software growth shared between Lafer and Tesar." - Stefano Montagner, Production and Process Engineering Manager.
