Location: 77933 Lahr, Germany · Industry: Tool manufacturing, precision tools, metalworking, machining · Products: Precision tools, milling and gear cutting tools, special tools and components for machining · ERP: SAP ERP · Website: http://www.lmt-tools.de/ · S4P modules: FELIOS|BDE powered by 4BDE, FELIOS|MDE powered by 4MDE
Initial situation
LMT Kieninger GmbH & Co. KG, with around 500 employees, required end-to-end and transparent capture of operating and machine data in its tool manufacturing. The goal was a reliable real-time data basis for order and machine status integrated with the existing ERP system SAP ERP. As a manufacturer of high-precision milling and gear cutting tools, quality and on-time delivery are central priorities, making reliable digital feedback from manufacturing indispensable.
Challenge
As a manufacturer of high-precision tools with complex manufacturing processes, the company required reliable feedback from production. Manual data capture was error-prone and did not deliver timely information on current manufacturing progress. Machine states, downtime and utilisation KPIs were not available in a structured, evaluable form, which made analysis of bottlenecks and targeted optimisation of machine utilisation difficult. Seamless integration of shop-floor data into SAP ERP was mandatory to avoid duplicate entries and to create a consistent data basis.
Solution
With shop-floor data collection 4BDE and machine data collection 4MDE from S4P, LMT Kieninger GmbH & Co. KG captures order, operating and machine data directly at the point of origin. Both solutions are connected to the existing ERP system SAP ERP. At the shop-floor terminal, operators report order times, good and scrap quantities; 4MDE automatically captures machine states, downtime reasons and performance KPIs for OEE calculation. Shift supervisors and manufacturing management receive a current overview of utilisation and production progress via a management dashboard.
Results and benefits
Manufacturing now has a transparent and current data basis. Order and machine status are traceable at any time, data quality has improved and manual entry effort has been significantly reduced. OEE KPIs are available for evaluations and targeted improvement measures, faults are detected early and the foundation for data-driven optimisation of tool manufacturing has been laid.