Pneumatics and Kanban system reduces downtime at SP Moulding

70 moulding machines and 30 special machines are distributed in the different buildings with the plastics moulding company SP Moulding that is located between Skive and Viborg. Here, Steffen Jensen is working as a mechanic and his most important job is to keep the 100 machines up and running. This means maintenance as well as breakdowns and repairs.

- The most important thing is that our machines are running and that we have the spare parts we need, he explains.

Therefore, they got a Kanban solution where various SMC pneumatic components have their own shelf. Everything is marked with barcodes and images which make it easy to find the right products. It may have serious consequences if the machine is at a stand-still for too long, Steffen Jensen points out.

- If the evening shift cannot find the right spare part, the machine is standing still until we come to work the next morning and then we have lost two-thirds of the production in 24 hours because of one fitting at the cost of about DKK 25.

Due to the new system, the company has saved a lot of time because the employees no longer have to look for the necessary items. Furthermore, the ordering time has been reduced significantly as you can scan the bar codes and thereby send an order directly to Solar.

- It's great that we do not go to work and meet a grumpy operator who has been going through all drawers being unsuccessful, the mechanic smiles.

In cooperation with Solar, the company’s systems were adapted to their pneumatic parts and after a thorough survey, they found a reduction of the amount of article numbers by approximately 30 per cent.

- The Kanban system was helping us create a quite different overview and in this way we found that several article numbers were duplicates or were located in other places in the stock. So now they have saved time, reduced their stock and made the goods more available, says Morten Kiel Gotfredsen, Account Manager at Solar.

And this is a big advantage, Steffen Jensen says.

- The risk of running out is now very small. This means uptime for the machines.