Why a digital edge management tool makes workshop life much easier

Everybody knows this corner in the workshop where edging material stales and the shelf where the remaining edging strips pile up. Woe to him who now has to search for the one particular material...

A suitable solution for these everyday situations was presented in the pilot project by Adrian Hornberger in the 120-man carpentry workshop zieflekoch from the northern Black Forest in a webinar in May 2020. In addition, Jan Essig's digital material and tool management system twinio was shown live in the webinar.

You can watch the entire webinar in form of a video on YouTube. The webinar was recorded in German language.

##Valuable time elapses due to lack of transparency

Adrian Hornberger stresses the two problem areas in the workshop: On the one hand, there is a lack on stock overview, so that hardly any employee knows how much material of which type is in stock. Secondly, search times are productivity killers for the production process. If machine operators spend 10 to 20 minutes searching for the right edgeband, having to ask the purchasing department and the project manager, this costs time, money and above all, nerves.

Individuality in the twinio app

Product manager Jan Essig shows what the right digital solution looks like. With the help of the web app twinio, it is possible to show directly on the mobile phone and the desktop where the special edge band can be found and how much remaining length is still available.

Jan Essig emphasises that twinio can be tailored individually to the respective workshop requirements. This means that every company can create parameters itself, categorise and display them via the search function. Furthermore, twinio is not only suitable for material management but also for tool management.

"We keep twinio as open as possible, so that every workshop can make individual adjustments!" Jan Essig, Product Manager twinio

Tool manufacturer integrated in the app

You can create your own materials and tools in the twinio app. At this point, the beauty of the tapio ecosystem is shown because tools of already integrated tapio partners, such as LEUCO and AKE, can be created with only one scan. The tool data from the manufacturer is already stored. This saves time when creating tools and thus simplifies further handling.

Labeling the edge band

Adrian Hornberger displays photos to show how twinio tames the edgeband chaos in zieflekoch's workshop. In the installed shelves the edgebands are now standing upright and carry a small sticker with QR code. The warehouse clerk and machine operator generate this sticker from twinio, creates the specific data, as in the case of zieflekoch the length, edge type, panel code, storage location and commission name and number. Then the sticker is printed, sticked onto the edge band and stocked into the corresponding shelf.

If the machine operator now wants to use the edgeband, he can simply search for any parameter on his PC or mobile phone, receives the storage location and can start right away. This minimizes the problem of search times enormously and increases the transparency that is so urgently needed in the workshop.

With twinio, every tool and material becomes unique. This means that the assignment with the QR codes actually works for each individual item.

Conversion in small steps

At zieflekoch, the objective of the digital project could be defined quickly, because the pain points of the employees due to long search times and unpleasant stockpiling could be felt very clearly.

Adrian Hornberger emphasizes that the start should be made in small steps if possible. For example, on the basis of a customer project. In this way, practical experience can be gathered, for example on the individual parameters to be maintained in twinio. Once the process is complete with the edgeband and tools, all employees can be informed and trained about the new, improved process flow.

Jan Essig reports from experience that in this way, equally large improvements in workshop organisation can be achieved within a few days.

Make it easy!

With the action code "Digital Workshop" you can get a twinio license for two months free of charge. Simply redeem the code in the tapio shop.

Adrian Hornberger's pilot project shows that with the introduction of twinio digital tool and material management the following goals have been achieved:

• Search times were minimized
• Transparency and overview of existing materials created
• twinio makes simple software and individual parameters available

At the end of the webinar, Adrian Hornberger explains that he would like to see even more integrated partners in twinio, so that it becomes even easier and faster to use.

Many thanks to Jan and Adrian for their valuable insights into the digital workshop!

If you want to stay informed about tapio webinars in the future, don't miss the trend letter. Let's go to the trend letter registration!