AS-CASTING

How MES SoftLi increased AS Casting’s production capacity by 200,000 EUR annually

AS-CASTING is a foundry manufacturing high-volume die-cast components using five types of aluminum alloys.
65% of the output supports the automotive sector, while the rest goes to the electrical and food industries.

The company focuses exclusively on high-volume production runs, with a minimum of 10,000 units per batch.

Production takes place on six die-casting machines, running non-stop 340 days a year, producing castings that range from just a few grams up to 7 kilograms.

The foundry collaborates with companies that assemble modules and supply them directly to car manufacturers. Its castings are used by companies such as Laird, Bosch, and Brano Group for components like radars, fuel pumps, and door systems.

Pre-implementation situation: relying on ERP, Excel, and honesty

The foundry relied solely on the Helios ERP system, which provided production updates every 12 hours – detailing output volume, scrap rate, individual worker performance, and how well the set standards were (or weren't) met.

But in reality, this setup caused two major problems:

1. Reports were always evaluated the day after the shift – or even after the weekend.

2. Employees entered the data into the system manually.

Every worker filled in how many pieces they made in the past 12 hours, the ERP did the math on how well they hit the target and the supervisor entered the results into Excel.

That gave management a number – but no clue why it wasn’t higher or why the plan wasn’t fulfilled.

"We simply had to trust the supervisors and their Excel spreadsheets. And sometimes, there were some interesting stories," says Jiří Zdražil, managing director of the foundry.

"For example, one machine kept jamming every minute for a hundred cycles. However, the shift supervisor only wrote 'fault' a hundred times in the spreadsheet. He didn’t investigate the issue, so it took several days before we discovered it was overheating," adds Zdražil, who recalls other similar issue.

„Manual entry of the number of parts produced tempted some employees to cheat. When the target was 1,000 parts per shift and they only had 900 or 950, they thought it would be overlooked and reported that they met the target. But the number of parts didn’t match, and it was impossible to pinpoint where the error occurred.“

At other times, employees made accidental mistakes when entering productivity data manually.

They filled it out incorrectly. So instead of reporting 1 000 parts produced in 12 hours, they mistakenly recorded that only 12 parts were produced during a 1 000-hour shift.

This caused significant disruption in the system, and an intermediate system had to be implemented to allow for retroactive corrections.

Relying on the human factor also encountered the physiological limits of people.

"In the beginning, when we had just two lines, it was still possible to remember everything that happened during the shift. But as production expanded, that became impossible. Reporting became incredibly slow due to the need for recollection and then manually transferring the data into spreadsheets," explains the managing director of AS-CASTING.

And when a sixth machine was added outside the main production hall, it became clear that a change was necessary.

A German MES would cause more harm than good

The foundry spent several years looking for a suitable MES. They initially considered a German system developed by a company that operates a foundry. However, the high price and language barrier posed significant challenges.

"Those who know foreign languages work in the sales department, while the technologists who use and manage the MES system don't speak German well enough," explains Zdražil.

„Ti, co umí cizí jazyky, pracují v obchodním oddělení, zatímco technologové, kteří s MESem pracují a umí ho obsluhovat, zase neumí dostatečně dobře německy,“ vysvětluje Zdražil.

Following a market survey at the end of 2022, AS-CASTING's managing director opted for MES SoftLi.

The implementation was fast, but could have been even faster...

...if the foundry had a full-time IT professional rather than relying on an external IT consultant on the phone. This meant dealing with issues related to software and hardware readiness.

Apart from these few details, which, according to Jiří Zdražil, won't be an issue for companies with in-house IT staff, the implementation went smoothly.

MES SoftLi increases the foundry's performance by 5%

Shortly after implementing the system, the foundry's leadership recognized that the MES SoftLi could both solve their performance tracking issue and improve overall performance.

"‘Aluminum must be melted at a precise temperature, which can’t be altered. However, you can produce more during that time," says Zdražil, explaining the focus of the company in Noviny pod Ralskem.

Although their production now takes place in several rooms, the technologists and managers can monitor the entire operation in real-time and have an overview of interconnected operations.

MES SoftLi, for example, shows them how much material is currently in each machine.

Employees only need to check the dashboard.

By looking at the colors, they can tell whether the tank is:

• full – green

• half-full – orange

• empty – red.

"Refilling takes 20 minutes, so it’s important to start early to avoid downtime. In the past, delays would occur, but now the color of any machine changes from green to orange, and employees know when and what to do. They used to complain about not knowing, but now MES automatically provides them with such basic instructions, " adds the managing director of AS-CASTING.

Downtime during shift changes has also been eliminated.

Employees now pass the machines on the go, without needing a handover process:

1. Shutdown

2. Smoking break

3. Turning on

4. Warming up and generating some scrap

As Jaroslav Ordelt from SumiRiko mentioned in another case study: The awareness that supervisors can track all machine activity in real-time and historically works wonders.

According to the managing director of the foundry, implementing MES SoftLi eliminated 30 minutes of downtime for each machine during every shift. That totals 6 hours per day.

• The machine operation costs 100 EUR per hour, so every downtime is significant

• 100 EUR/hour 6 machines = 600 EUR per day

• 600 EUR 30 days = 18,000 EUR per month

Therefore, the foundry's capacity increased by 18,000 EUR per month.

It is not always fully utilized, but it provides the opportunity to earn almost half a million more per month.

We achieved a 5% increase in productivity without much effort or having to pressure the staff, summarizes Zdražil.

According to the managing director of AS-CASTING, MES also has a positive effect on one purely non-production aspect:

Customer relations.

MES also improves the company's PR

AS-CASTING's customers conduct at least 10 audits annually to personally check where and how the products they purchase are manufactured.
In the past, they all had the same – and crucial – question: How do you plan production?
For the third year in row, they no longer ask this question.

“If you can convince customers during the audit that you have good organization, then you’ve won,“ explains Jiří Zdražil.

The foundry receives great feedback from clients regarding production tracking. They no longer need to explain anything, as simply turning on SoftLi Reporting, showing them their order, and everything becomes clear.

Paperless production is just as important as good planning

Zdražil felt pressure from clients for paperless production as well, to have everything in the computer. That's why, during audits, he also shows them how they use the Forms additional module.

Again with excellent feedback.

In the foundry, they previously struggled with the need to visit each machine every 2 hours for quality control, recording selected parameters, but:

• It wasn’t done exactly every two hours.

• The data was inaccurate or even completely fabricated.

• Another worker then had to spend 2 hours daily going through paperwork.

Currently, the operator terminals have "idiot-proof" forms defined, so during control measurements, each employee immediately sees that the tolerance is from-to and cannot enter a value outside this range.

The foundry is moving towards a fully paperless production process.

And besides paper, Excel is no longer used.

They only use MES SoftLi and ERP, where they just verify if anyone made a mistake.

Summary of MES SoftLi Implementation Results

• 5% increase in productivity

• Transition to paperless production

• Streamlined organization and production planning

Would you like to boost your productivity as well?

We help manufacturers of all sizes increase efficiency by up to 20%.

No paper. No downtime. No excuses.

We are the only ones offering a free and instantly available DEMO, as well as the option to test the system on your own machines, without any commitment.