Quickly having the right tool at hand

21.07.2017

Optimum tool performance is a key requirement for the efficient processing of components. However, production costs can rise quickly if tools that are currently needed are not available.

A machine operator can spend up to 20% of his working time searching for the right tool. This can lead, therefore, to having "safety stock" at the machine, which can increase the tooling inventory by up to 30%.

A sample scenario at K&H Zerspanung shows how the onsite tooling inventory managed by a suitable tool management system can be sustainably optimized with support from tooling partners and experts LMT Tools.

"Our ambitious target for tool supply was, on the one hand, a needs-oriented provision of the most efficient cutting tools for the respective application cases and, on the other hand, a reduction of our tool diversity through standardization," explain K&H managing directors Jörn Knappe and Tim Horn in a statement.

K&H uses the Eboy® Twistline tool dispensing system for stocking primarily smaller tools with diameters from 2 mm to 20 mm along with indexable inserts. Their production now features three tool supply machines, which contain a total of 108 different tools seamlessly supplying their three-shift operation around the clock.

K&H is a young, innovative company headquartered in Gallin, Germany. Its team of nearly 30 employees manufactures customized turned and milled parts from steel, titanium and non-iron materials either in single item production or in small or large series production runs.