In a co-operation with Weiss Technik Software S!MPATI, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is updating its IT infrastructure and data management for the manufacture of plastic products. Weiss Technik is a strategic partner of the company: The high-tech company primarily uses the heating ovens of the Reiskirchen-based supplier in the post-curing process. When re-engineering the IT, the latest S!MPATI version of Weiss Technik was introduced at several production sites, and further potential for increasing efficiency was recognised.
At Freudenberg Sealing Technologies plastic products are subjected to an annealing process in the heating ovens of Weiss Technik in order to achieve the required target properties. The company already uses a customised bar code solution from the S!MPATI software of Weiss Technik in its device control system. In order ensure continued compatibility with the latest operating systems, Freudenberg commissioned the experts from Weiss Technik Consulting to bring the ovens up to date. This was a challenging task given the large number of FST locations and heating ovens installed. First, the objectives and approach were discussed together.
Definition of the project goals
In the first step, the project participants formulated the minimum goal: the introduction of the latest S!MPATI version of Weiss Technik at the Freudenberg Sealing Technologies production sites in Europe. The integration of existing ovens from third-party suppliers also had to be taken into account. Further opportunities arose during the collaboration.
“We quickly realised that, together with the consulting experts from Weiss Technik, we were able to optimise much more for the reheating process at Freudenberg – namely the standardisation of IT infrastructure, connectivity, and hardware across all locations. This creates greater process reliability and traceability, which is increasingly being demanded by customers”, says Dr Christian Quick, Director of Process Advance Development at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies. Furthermore, redundant data storage in a cloud-based environment was defined as an additional project objective by Freudenberg.
Pilot installation for risk minimisation
A key question was how to launch the project without disrupting the ongoing production. A pilot project was chosen at the sample and small series production site of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies in Weinheim. Also this applied to the aspect of risk minimisation emphasised by Weiss Technik Consulting. “Possible damage to ongoing production as a result of the pilot installation could have taken on considerable proportions. The decision to gradually introduce the new software and start with sample production was therefore the right one”, says Quick.
Approach and roll-out
Depending on the project phase, the project partners chose a specific approach. Thanks to its many years of expertise and collaboration with Freudenberg, the Weiss Technik consulting team was able to put itself in the customer’s shoes right from the start of the project and take the individual circumstances into account in the best possible way. For example, the IT structures at the individual, decentralised Freudenberg Sealing Technologies locations had to be clarified.
Furthermore, neither ovens and bar code scanners were to be modified or replaced nor were established heating processes and familiar user interfaces to be changed. The roll-out has now been successfully extended to locations with ongoing production. All European Freudenberg sites with Weiss Technik ovens are now to be successively converted in order to benefit from the increased productivity, product traceability, and process reliability.
Cooperation between the project partners
The project partners have been working together openly and constructively right from the start. The project status was discussed in regular meetings every two weeks, open points were addressed, and the next steps in IT, infrastructure, hardware, and software were initiated. “In terms of Industry 4.0 and big data, connecting to a cloud solution is an important step. Weiss Technik Consulting is the ideal project partner for Freudenberg Sealing Technologies to transfer the post-curing production data to our cloud”, says Quick. And concludes: “A third party would have further increased the complexity of the extensive project. Instead, we have decided to continue purchasing both the ovens as hardware and the data management from one of our strategic partners for equipment.”
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