Background information

A leading manufacturer of high-quality foam products in Europe has been using Clouver since the autumn of 2020. There are several production sites, of which each is independently organized. Strategic goals are set by the company headquarters and the achievement of these goals is controlled by monitoring a number of key figures. The task was to gain detailed information about which sites and individual machines are strong and why some of them produce more efficiently for what reason?

Why Clouver?

The challenge was to combine reliable key figures from machines of different types and manufacturers in a standardized way. These included machines from Fecken-Kirfel, Sitola and Bäumer or combinations of these.

From its collaboration as an automation specialist with Fecken-Kirfel, the expert for foam cutting systems, ProCom has extensive knowledge of the foam manufacturing process and associated requirements and productivity factors. The ability to integrate all industry standard systems and controls was a requirement.

Solution

After the first cutting system was integrated, the entire mattress production of one location was connected. Now, additional production sites in Europe are being connected to the data cloud one by one and at a rapid speed.
All production participants receive their individual dashboards, information and individual recommendations for action. The application of OEE methods provides easy-to-understand key figures that every employee in the company can use to track the productivity.

Feedback from the first Clouver site

“Colleagues welcome the fact that the quality of their work is measured. Almost everyone gets up in the morning and goes to work to do a good job. That is now not only valued, but measured and rewarded beyond that,” says one of the production managers.

“How many times have I told the boss, if the forklift was already here, as soon as the pallet is full, I’ll produce 25% more right off the bat. Now I can prove it and reach my daily target in a shorter time,” says the machine operator of the Fecken-Kirfel C67 cutting line.