RGU - Solution for Foundry ERP Limitations

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Subject: What are the limitations of existing ERP s oftware to meet the requirements of the foundries?

This article explains in foundry language, what are the limitations today’s existing ERP has, and how foundry dedicated ERP/FRP (Foundry Resource Planning) software RGU could help to meet the expectation of the foundries.

ERP is not the new term for most of the foundryman. ERP was introduced with the main intention to handle large data of manufacturing. Basic term ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning, does not fit or suit to the foundry process. ERP works well for general manufacturing. Foundry needs are much beyond ERP, many foundries tried to develop ERP or add-on to include above factors mentioned in existing ERP they use, but most of them have burnt their fingers and end up paying huge cost and wasted time in developing this.

Does existing ERP fulfills the requirement of foundries? Probably not because today the biggest challenge of foundries are

(i) To optimize communications between different areas within a foundry, and

(ii) To have detailed knowledge about each individual step of the process.

RGU GmbH first time introduced term FRP – Foundry Resource Planning which is exactly what foundry needs not just an ERP. FRP includes all the cost of the foundries right from incoming raw material to final part/lot dispatched. RGU FRP software is virtual foundry with all the departments

Some limitations of the existing ERP:

1) Estimation and actual production cost of each or der:

If you are Foundry owner or top level management, the biggest challenge would be, to calculate the CTC (cost to the company) for a single part for the complete order booked. Most of the foundries never know this cost exactly, because foundry deals with so many possibilities, and nonlinear flow of process which are not part of the existing ERP. To calculate this foundries should consider all the resource plan and correspondent cost of all the foundry process e.g. core production, design & simulation cost, tool management, rejection, scrap, energy cost, material cost variations, labor cost, unplanned activities (machining, external machining/services or surface improvement), under utilization of man or machine, idle machine timeand cost, return circuit etc.


2) Resource planning:

Most of the ERP system cannot do the fully resource planning, because it does not have modules for production planning, Fettling & machining, quality check/test. If the foundry is able to specify each resources required for their casting part, and if ERP allows to record all the required resources in the system, the remaining job would be very easy for foundries to order, track, store, use and dispatch the required resources. But if ERP does not integrate with production, tool room, quality it would be impossible to streamline your production scheduling. Despite use of ERP it increases burden of lots of work, email communication or miscommunication, paper work.

3) Tool management:

Tool & pattern management is one of the biggest need of foundry which is missing in most ERP. For any production planning concern person should know availability of tool, mould box, or die casting machine. Tool & pattern manufacturing, required time for making, cost, maintenance time and cost etc. If ERP does not included this how could one calculate exact cost of part or total life cycle and tool cost?

4) Design & Simulation data:

Foundries do various trial and error, or try possible ideas of various gating system design for which they have various drawings for each trial, 3D CAD model, Casting simulation data, if it is not recorded on ERP it would not be possible to consider required time, effort and cost to for new development.

5) Production planning & shift planning:

Production planning is one of the biggest headache for any production head, to meet the deadline of various client. Most ERP cannot do production planning/scheduling of multiple order booked for any month/week, if ERP knows the capacity of machine, delivery date, required time for logistics, material availability, manpower etc. then it must do that. RGU software has capabilities to do the complete automatic disposition and scheduling for example if foundry books an order of 2000 casting part, RGU FRP software automatically gives the complete production planning, required resources, purchase order, machining planning upto dispatch fully automatic scheduling with date and time of each action/process.

6) Quality Management:

Foundries required various quality tests to be performed before dispatching the order. Even required to generate various quality certificates, which are required by end user to accept the


casting lot from foundries based on terms and condition agreed upon by both the parties while booking an order. But most of the ERP are not able to maintain record of various quality test for each batch, test plan, sample etc. – like chemical analyses, mechanical values (tensile and bending test, notched bar impact test), Hardness test, Thermal treatment with the temperature, Profile and the corresponding parts, Microstructure, Non-destructive tests (ultrasound, magnetic particle inspection, dye penetrant inspection), Industrial radiography, Dimensional tests.

How RGU-FRP software could overcome the limitations of the existing ERP?

Major highlights of the RGU- Foundry Resource Planning software:

• Product-Planning & calculation:

o Integrated operations schedule and parts list as a continuous resources plan with Integrated materials database

o Resource plan contains the time and quantity specifications for processes, workstations, equipment, assembly groups, pre-products and materials in the form of a task list with an integrated parts list.

o Simple, fast and exact to the last cent calculation of all manufacturing steps. o Calculation of production costs and pricing, User-defined formulation of

surcharges and conversion to customer dependent metal prices. o Takes just minutes to enter a new part by duplicating and adapting resources

plans o Provides enquiries with schedules while taking the complete schedule chain into

account o Automatic material requirements analysis o Workflow and release-controlled interdepartmental work o Foundry specific formulas for cast weight, moulding sand requirements etc. are

pre-defined o Furnace Planning (MES/Tap Planning) o Automated Process Information (API)

• Sales:

o It takes just a few days from receiving an enquiry to sending out the offer o Supports all types of order, such as sample and first sample, individual, series,

make and take orders for products as well as for patterns & tools o Saves all customer agreements, a wide variety of models, all metal pricelists. All

surcharges can be saved specifically according to customers, parts, materials or processes.


o Problem-free adaptation with inflation increases and automatic information to the customer about price changes

o Seamless interaction between the production and control planning - fast feedback regarding customer’s preferred dates

o Variety of logistical principles such as preview, firm order, consignment stores or trading goods

o Quick - up-to-date overview of all processes between the company - customer o Addresses and contact details, terms of delivery and payment are stored in the

customer master, with automatic currency adjustment depending on the country o Synchronize with any accounting system, monitor customer credit limit e.g. Tally,

BANN etc.

• Material-Management: o Inventory card (different stock/plant locations) Charge make-up order with

separate record of used materials (with shop-floor check-backs) o Plants, locations, quarantine store, external service providers, o consignment store, intermediate store, dispatch store o Incoming and outgoing bookings, inventory and stock evaluations derived from

production information messages o Evaluates semi-finished and finished stock o Item management, articles can be managed via ID and batch numbers as

inventory o Permanent inventory via operational sequence statements o Various evaluation procedures for inventory

• Purchasing:

o Automatic material requirements for BOM for generated scheduled orders or can be entered manually, considering available stocks and minimum stock level requirements, batch order sizes, restocking times and the orders which have already been initiated

o Administration of all the different types of order details such as framework orders, individual orders, manual and automated order tracking

o Detailed price sheet function with price conditions such as amounts, discount tables, delivery conditions and metal pricelists

o Material requirements, purchased parts and external services are recorded according to orders or generated automatically as accumulated weekly amounts or they can be recorded manually

o Takes into account minimum available stock requirements, order lot sizes, replacement times and the orders which have already been triggered


o Overview provided at an early stage in order to optimise order quantities from the point of view of costs and liquidity

o Integrated reminder and dunning process for suppliers.

• Pattern, core/Tool-Management: o Core production planning & scheduling including its resource planning o Pattern management comprising all the tools needed in the production and their

variants (die casting tools, pattern boards, core tools, moulds, CNC tools, inspection equipment etc.)

o Displays complex pattern structures and all technical parameters in the resources plan (with pattern parts list and tool card)

o Monitors tool-life, number of castings and maintenance intervals o All tool processes recorded, (fitting times, repairs, provisioning, cleaning,

dispatch etc.) o Monitors tool availability (casting limit exceeded during production, tool is being

serviced etc.) o Creates seamless lifecycle reports o Records and stores documents (drawings, photos, Office files) o Tool Release / blocking procedure

• Production-Planning & Controlling (PPC):

o Coordinates the moulding shop and core production, if necessary taking into account the pattern board and core box availability and combinations, provision of liquid melt for several moulding shop areas and material qualities, if necessary formation of casting batches

o Takes account of the required cool down and holding times o Process and capacity-utilization for finishing cast parts, if necessary with external

services o External or internal machining planning, Scheduling, tracking of machining

planned and work in progress on daily basis or for each order etc. o Provides foundry workers with information via the integrated foundry information

system with checklist functions, particularly for critical work-steps o Automatically generates comprehensive documentation o Displays all manual and mechanical mould processes o Automatic scheduling across all manufacturing steps taking capacities and

bottlenecks into account (MRP II-run) o Detailed planning for each day or shift using add-ons o RGU can be integrate with Spectrometer, and will save material composition of

each heat/batch produced. o Flexible, scalable feedback chains in production


o Integrated test planning and certificate generation o Seamless links between foundry-specific modules ensure synchronised

processes o Work in Progress of booked order, daily production and reporting of core, melt,

mould, fettling , & quality check o Both long and short term scheduling and capacity situations can be controlled

and monitored quickly and reliably o Check Tool availability, preparation and provisioning, and the availability of

moulding boxes and pits for mass castings o Provision of liquid melt to several moulding shop areas in differing material

qualities o Continuity and capacity of cast finishing treatment, possibly with external service

providers , Forming heat treatment batches o “Gantt diagrams” for clear scheduling and planning.

• Quality Management:

o Test plans for purchasing materials, tools and equipment, also for machinery, plant and test apparatus, even for environmental conditions and waste disposal facilities.

o Target and actual values for moulding material tests, sieve analyses or measurements of any process parameters such as temperature, moisture etc. can also be recorded.

o Maintain record of various quality test for each batch, test plan, sample etc. – like chemical analyses, mechanical values (tensile and bending test, notched bar impact test), Hardness test, Thermal treatment with the temperature, Profile and the corresponding parts, Microstructure, Non-destructive tests (ultrasound, magnetic particle inspection, dye penetrant inspection), Industrial radiography, Dimensional tests.

o If mandatory tests are fail - block production & prevent shipping, or it can request approval by an authorized member of staff.

o Generate automatic quality certificates which can be printed in Multilanguage forms, saved as pdf documents and can be sent by email.

o Valid Actual-Analysis (pre- and post-test) aggregation of different tests to one inspection drift (e.g. spectrometer and wet-chemical analysis)

• Reporting/GIS: o Integrated web-based GIS, (Foundry Information System) – continuous

information system about all data relevant for the product and production o Management information for decision-makers


o Comprehensive standard reports and real time evaluations o Visual planning using the utilization and capacity cockpit o Open database

• Comprehensive information system and evaluations: o Comprehensive, web-based information system, accessible from all masks o Integrated foundry information system covering all levels o Proactive management information, automatically fresh on your desk o KPI – performance figures for all sensitive areas o Workflow-components o Checklists to accompany processes o Foundry worker’s information cockpit

• System & Support:

o RGU software requires Oracle-Database so it can handle large database with all the possibility to expand your need and as your foundry grow in future.

Summary: This Article mainly highlights the shortcomings of the existing ERP, as many foundries struggling to find the solution of these shortcomings.

__________________________________________________________

Auto Design Online- Authorised distributor of RGU G mbH, Germany

Bhushan Bhatt – Business Development

Mobile: +91-9824247774

www.auto-design-online.com or www.rgu.de

[email protected]

Documents

RGU - Solution for Foundry ERP Limitations