ODIN Engineering in Slagelse produces bespoke machines for large international manufacturing customers. The company is expected to deliver quality products on time, and at the time when production scheduling was a manual task, it was a constant headache for the planners. Not only was it a challenge to stay on top of events; it was very a labour intensive job to incorporate changes and difficult to detect the consequences.
In order to make scheduling more agile, accurate and manageable ODIN Engineering decided to implement ROB-EX. By upgrading to digital scheduling with graphical visualisation of production schedules ODIN now has a much better overview and the ability to react quickly, based on data, when disturbances like urgent orders, late supplies, lack of personnel etc. take place.
Even the CEO gets the picture
Before going digital, scheduling was a time-consuming process that took place inside a close circle of planners. It was difficult to share the plans with others as they were opaque and hard to decipher for outsiders. Now, with ROB-EX, scheduling has become transparent and visible to everybody.
R&D Manager Finn Schou Nielsen was member of the team that picked ROB-EX and he sees a clear difference between then and now:
“Only a few months ago it was our planner and me who possessed all knowledge about our schedules. Now everybody can take a look at the plan, which is shown on a display, and get an overview of what is allocated to each individual machine, what is placed with external suppliers and what we are not able to finish on time. The production floor is able to see exactly what is going on right now and what happens next. Even our CEO finds it easy to keep track – yes, it works for everyone.”
“ROB-EX allows us to keep record of how many resources we have at hand, and it is far more efficient to have a visual overview on a display than lists in a Word document like we had before.”
Integration with the ERP system
Further benefits are in stock for ODIN Engineering. Finn Schou Nielsen is looking forward to ROB-EX being fully adapted and integrated with the company’s ERP system as that will eradicate even more manual processes and make data exchange fully automatic.
“This will mean that we can get an even better project overview from A to Z. We are not there yet, but now we have the tool,” he explains.
Smooth implementation
“The way we have been guided and supported through implementation has been a great experience,” Finn Schou Nielsen says. “We had sessions locally on our production floor, but also on the remote, and it has all worked perfectly. All the way through we have felt that we were at the centre of ROB-EX’ attention and they had full control over every aspect of the process. Not all suppliers would be capable of managing such a big project like that.”
After successful implementation of ROB-EX the system is now an integral part of the daily operation at ODIN. When questions or problems arise, support is readily available.
“The supporters at ROB-EX are ready when we need them. They react quickly, follow up on things and get back with helpful responses,” Finn Schou Nielsen concludes.