Precast wall producer VaBe Oy compared four different suppliers and ended up with Elematic Plant Control system in production planning. Now all the information about the wall elements can be found in the same place in visual format and, at the same time, the possibility of human error is reduced.
Production planning and material logistics took a great step forward when Vabe Oy started to use Elematic Plant Control system to support precast production. Human errors are reduced, and all the necessary information can be found in one place.
According to CEO Markus Lehtinen, VaBe Oy compared tenders from four different suppliers, even though the plant has a long and confidential relationship with Elematic. All the equipment acquired in the 21st century has been purchased from Elematic.
“The price-quality ratio influenced our decision. We can also trust that the collaboration will work because we have a long experience of Elematic equipment and the team’s way of working. We have always received quick help whenever we needed it,” Lehtinen explains the choice.
From Elematic Plant Control system, VaBe Oy uses modules for the production planning of wall elements. Currently the modules for production planning and planning the shipments are being used, but the system is being extended to workflow monitoring and quality control. It was the extensibility that the modular system structure offers that weighed on the supplier selection.
The first Plant Control module applied at VaBe was the production planning module. It can also be used to monitor material demand, consumption, and stock.
” We have close to 1,000 items in stock. Now that delivery times are quite long, it is good to have real-time information about the stock situation,” says Lehtinen.
Project manager Tomi Mäkimarttunen and production designer Sampsa Laakso use the tool smoothly. They especially like how easy the software is to use, the visuality and the fact that all information can now be found in one place reliably and up to date.
In the past, element data was scattered in several Excel files. There were sometimes human errors when transferring and copying data. Data could be lost or misfeeds caused confusion.
“Now, once an element has been fed into the system, it can no longer be lost. Everyone has always access to the latest revision in a clear format,” says Mäkimarttunen.
One of the advantages of Plant Control is its visuality, which Laakso, as a production designer, is especially fond of.
“I really like the visuality and clarity of the user interface. I immediately see the dimensions of the element without always having to dig up the drawing. When I noticed that the system works and can be trusted, it took only a couple of weeks from me to switch to using the new system in production planning,” Laakso explains.
Project manager Tomi Mäkimarttunen and production designer Sampsa Laakso especially like how easy the software is to use, the visuality and the fact that all information can now be found in one place reliably and up to date.
Let others enjoy this article too:
To make deployment and transition even easier, the trio has three recommendations. In terms of information flow, it is clear that having a dedicated project manager is the key for project success. At VaBe, their project manager has played a central role in taking the change forward and actively communicated with Elematic. The old system must be kept side by side when testing and starting to implement the new one, but the transition time should be minimized. This is to avoid overloading the staff with two systems. It is also necessary to set aside enough time for user training.
“We would like to take in to use digital work hour monitoring and quality control. They would allow us to monitor real-time workflow and time as well as quality. We have high expectations for Plant Control’s ERP system and for improving overall efficiency, once we have full use of the modules and monitoring data,” Lehtinen sums.
More (in Finnish): vabe.fi
