Cappeller is a company active in the production of small metal parts, a sector in which it is necessary to maintain a high level of quality while minimising production costs as much as possible. The product is in fact characterized by large production volumes and a cost in which the most important item is represented by the material; for this reason it is essential to maximize the efficiency of the production phase.
With the intention of increasing competitiveness and performance, Cappeller therefore turned to Link Management, together with which it has innovated its production management tools and processes thanks to two modern, perfectly integrated software solutions: Opera MES and CyberPlan APS.
Cappeller, an important past and a present as innovators
Cappeller Spa SB is a company founded in 1969 in Cartigliano, in the province of Vicenza, as a mollificio. The company has grown over the years and today has a second production plant in the Czech Republic. Over the decades, Cappeller has also expanded its product range, which currently includes moulded and shaped parts, precision parts and assembled or welded elements. Today’s products therefore range from springs to coils and from processed wire and tube to sliced and moulded products that find application in the automotive, electrical, mechanical or sports equipment sectors.
The production of this type of products has seen the profit margins decrease more and more due to a greater competitiveness of the sector and this has made it impossible to continue planning production relying on instinct and elementary methods. The risk is to make mistakes in economic terms that cannot be recovered over time, unlike in the past. Companies that produce this type of goods must be able to make reliable decisions based on accurate and up-to-date production data, which is only possible thanks to solutions such as Opera and CyberPlan’s MES and APS systems.
CyberPlan: from planning to detailed scheduling to finite capacity
Cappeller adopted CyberPlan in the mid-2000s when, working with the previous MES system, it had replaced the sequencer and was being used to plan machining on individual machines. Later, also thanks to the advice of Link Management, its use was extended to other business areas where it is still used:
- planning department: where it is used by both the production manager and two planners, one dedicated to the spring production line and the other to that of the sheared components;
- sales office: to have access to updated order plans in real time;
- purchasing and logistics office: to manage the supply of production materials;
- area heads: to organise and manage production in the field.
Finally, CyberPlan is also used to convert the sales budget into a production budget, by verifying the capacities and resources available and estimating the purchase of the materials necessary to meet the scheduled deliveries.
According to Diego Vettorazzo, production manager at Cappeller Spa SB, “managing purchases with CyberPlan is very intuitive. The employee has an immediate view of what they need to buy and this avoids delays in tidying up or unforeseen shortages of material “. In this area, the graphic display with different colors is particularly appreciated, which allows you to identify at a glance if the stock of materials is sufficient or not to produce a certain order.
The adoption of a new Manufacturing Execution System
A couple of years ago Cappeller adopted the new and modern Opera MES to replace the MES system in use until then. The project took place in two phases. The first saw the connection of over 150 machines via Wi-Fi and the introduction of ten machines for Industry 4.0. Thanks to this system, Opera MES can collect production data and return in real time the status of each machine on a synoptic. The second phase of the project, which is finally completed, concerns the use of the most advanced functions of Opera MES for the analysis of the data collected in order to improve production management and achieve the level of efficiency desired by Cappeller.
Tools and methods: Lean Production and Six-Sigma
Cappeller is a company in continuous growth and therefore also the work management is optimized to compete with an increasingly international competition. To do this, the company has chosen to invest not only in tools and software solutions, but also in methods. For this reason, Cappeller has chosen to adopt the Lean Production methodology and Six-Sigma procedures, so that people also acquire a new working method. The effects of the involvement of people in the project were positive and evident from the outset, as being an integral part of the company’s evolution gives satisfaction and enhances the operators.
The future of Cappeller evolution
Today Cappeller uses the CyberPlan APS solution in an integrated and effective way, while the implementation of the MES project is being completed. The company already has additional objectives for the near future related to reorganization and technological renewal, two important issues to achieve the desired level of efficiency.
In fact, Cappeller intends to develop quality control plans on the machine thanks to which the operator will be able to consult the list of checks to be carried out on the product and declare the values detected on the terminal. In addition, the company intends to implement a batch traceability system in order to always identify the processing phase in which a certain product is found and record the information regarding the materials used.
In this path, it is followed by Link Management, a company with a solid and long consulting experience that supports numerous primary companies in achieving their objectives.
Open Data and Cybertec: two companies from the same large Italian group
The Opera MES and CyberPlan APS solutions are developed by two companies, respectively Open Data and Cybertec. Both these companies are part of the same company group, the largest in Italy: Zucchetti. For a manufacturing company, implementing these solutions means taking a big step forward in terms of competitiveness and management of its production department. Having full control of what is being produced is now a reality and a possibility that companies can achieve thanks to the Zucchetti group’s MES and APS solutions.
Discover the APS solution and how to evolve your business with these tools
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