Germany’s OLHO Technik Creates
Digital Factory with DELMIA
As a supplier to the automobile industry specializing
in the supply of parts for car interiors, OLHO Technik Oleff +
Holtmann oHG, Löhne, Westphalia, introduced DELMIA solutions for the
digital factory – and the results are positive. The principal parts
that OLHO manufactures are effusion systems, lever covers,
cupholders, ashtrays, central consoles and deposit cases. At their
Westphalian plant, plastic injection moulding articles are refined
by varnishing, chromium-plating, galvanizing, leather application
and mounting.
OLHO Technik oHG sitesare also found in Portugal, Brazil, England,
France, India and the Czech Republic.
The seamless DELMIA –CATIA link is an important plus The multitude
of products produced coupled with the large number of manufacturing
sites at OLHO Technik represents a continual challenge for those
responsible for planning and developing products and processes.
Looking back to early 2005, Jan-Philipp Rempe, a staff member of the
production technics/processes department also responsible for the
co-ordination of forward process planning, recalled, “We did not
find the decision to go with DELMIA an easy one, but finally, the
link to CATIA decided the issue. OLHO Technik combined the
introduction of DELMIA Process Engineer (DPE) and DPM Assembly with
an overall project to overhaul the company’s IT, including the
introduction of SAP.”
Instead of the usual implementation time of one and a half to two
years for SAP, this was underway as early as January 2006.
“We made a first step by installing a database, as we were prepared
to wait to gain additional functionalities,” said Rempe.
Installation and Training
“Compared with large companies, small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs)
are mostly characterized by a greater flexibility to adapt the
procedures within very short time to achieve a profit,” said Joerg
Schiebel, general manager of DELMIA Germany/vice president sales
Emea North. OLHO Technik is a superb illustration of a scalable,
successful SMB implementation. “With this DELMIA installation,
training began without delay and consisted of six days for DPE,
three days for DPM, and finally the three day training of the
administrators,” explained Rempe.
“As a first step, the standard configuration was employed, so we
immediately started with the software process planning in the
assembly department. Our long CATIA V5 experience stood us in good
stead, so that now all our CAD data and product information runs
together on the common database that, in turn, feeds the SAP system
and DELMIA .The data of the products is available in the form of
parts lists, with the basic material data originating from the SAP
circumference and the CAD data from the PDM circumference.”
The mental preparation of the staff members is crucial to the
success of digital factory projects, according to Schiebel.
“It is important to gain support from all levels and all
departments. There is no doubt that the new technology brings about
a cultural change: the transparency of the planning contents and the
requirements to deal with poorly defined information, causes changes
in cooperation. Therefore, such a project should always include a
plan that offers defined steps and milestones”
SMBs and the Digital Factory
Rempe is conscious that an optimum configuration of processes,
harmonizing of production facility capacity, optimizing of material
availability and labor, as well as factory layout, can contribute to
a reduction of production costs. Nonetheless, he advocates a policy
of small steps. “I am far from calling what we currently have
implemented a digital factory. However, it is true that we are
actually realizing individual aspects of the digital factory; in the
case of our plant in the Czech Republic, we are analyzing the
assembly area and considering the ergonometric aspects too. The
subject of material flow also plays a decisive role. At this stage,
we are content with a simple visualization.”
For the time being, OLHO Technik is limiting itself to the functions
of DPE and DPM assembly for mounting simulation. “Process planning
not only includes the planning of the processes but also the design
of and care for the production facilities, such as tool
manufacturing, so we are using DPM for this purpose,” Rempe
continues. “We represent rough concepts with DELMIA and then proceed
with the detail. In this way, all our people work with the latest
data, not only during the development process, but also in the
initial stages.”
Rempe adds, “The next step consists in developing the configuration
for the injection molding, surface treatment and assembly production
areas. We are making quick progress and are already productively
using the software. DPM in particular, presented no problems owing
to our use of CATIA. Also, those that at first were of the opinion
that Excel is quicker are rapidly diminishing in number! It would be
deluded to assume that everything would run without friction right
from the beginning, but considering the rate of our implementation,
it has run smoothly. With the help of the central database, we
continuously enhance the integration of process planning between our
various sites.”
Optimizing all the process planning has proved to be very
advantageous. As the data is shared, the waste of time owing to
redundant availability of data is reduced continuously. OLHO Technik
has shown that constantly monitoring the bottom line and therefore
aiming at “quick wins” is a legitimate and acceptable strategy.
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