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Egelsbach, July 22, 2009
Production in Motion: Fleissner's FloW Project
Fleissner's FloW
Project Fleissner GmbH is a plant and machinery manufacturer located
in Egelsbach near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and today employs some 300
staff. They develop, manufacture and distribute machinery and equipment
for the production of nonwovens and for the production of man-made fibers
from thermoplastics such as polyester or polypropylene and carbon fibers.
Since early 2007, Fleissner GmbH belongs to the globally operating Trützschler
group with headquarter in Mönchengladbach and, together with Erko Trützschler
GmbH in Dülmen, forms the Trützschler Nonwovens Group.
Production
The machinery and equipment produced by Fleissner consists of single
units custom-built for individual projects: System solutions of high
customization and special machines for specific applications. Web widths
of up to 7 meters in nonwovens production and high production speeds
determine the respective machine dimensions. Lines delivered by Fleissner
quite often are 50 to 100 m long.
Fleissner production operations are based on the make (or build) to
order principle. As a result, Fleissner has at its disposal a range
of multi-purpose means of production, highly qualified staff and a high
degree of flexibility in time and capacity management.
Having completed a concentration process during the past two years,
the focus of production is now on the manufacture of shafts, rollers,
cubic components and sheet metal elements of comparatively large dimensions.
In this field Fleissner also offers parts processing as a service. Further
demands are covered within the Trützschler group and by external suppliers.
The typical challenges
today - even for complex machinery and equipment - in addition to cost
efficiency that constantly has to be improved are ever shorter delivery
times and coping with demands that may be highly cyclical.
To better meet these demands, the FloW project has been launched at
the beginning of this year: FloW is the flow of materials through the
Fleissner production. The acronym is composed of
Fleissner optimizes
material flow
and also symbolizes the flexibility a company must show today in order
to be able to quickly and flexibly respond to changes.
Transparency
of material flow
Based on basic concepts of value stream design and supply chain management,
a material flow is generated that makes maximum transparency a principle.
Each processing station is assigned specific pick-up space for stock
materials and space for processed components intended for further transport.
The amount of stock materials indicates the current workload to the
processing station where at the same time the best processing sequence
can be independently determined.
A component placed in the assigned space for further transport is moved
to the next pick-up space or for another working cycle is supplied to
a subsequent processing station, to an external finishing contractor,
to quality assurance, to assembly or shipping department. Occupation
of these spaces is already used by the internal transport service for
route planning.
The chronological
order of the production flow in FloW is determined by key dates fixed
by Production Control. This is done for useful component ranges such
as a machine assembly group ready for assembly, while further planning
is done in the individual production areas or even on the level of processing
stations.
To make this system
operable, a suitable operating data acquisition system was developed
and introduced, parts list and work schedule structures were adapted,
and also by rearranging machinery the transparency of material flow
through the production hall was increased. The main project was started
in spring 2009 and shall be mostly completed by the end of summer.
Improving
efficiency
Once completed, FloW is intended to show measurable results with respect
to improved process quality and cause a lasting reduction of production
costs by reduced machining and processing times.
In addition, a growing number of external production orders can be quickly
and flexibly offered and effectively processed.
Stylized material
flow through the production hall of Fleissner GmbH. Center: Q-zone which
is passed by all materials from internal parts production and from suppliers.
Dr. Dieter Zenker,
Managing Director:
"FloW makes transparent material flow a principle. Everybody at Fleissner
can take an active part in improving processes and reducing costs."
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