The digital, paperless windows & doors factory
Although many people are well aware of the benefits of paperless working, we would like to mention some of these advantages. Paperless working - read: fully digitized working - is primarily good for the environment. Less paper consumption considerably reduces the CO2 footprint. Another positive fact is that it also helps the entrepreneur to work faster, more accurately and more efficiently. Centralization of data, digital communication between office and production and making important data quickly available while you are at the machine are just a few of the assets.
The digital, paperless factory is on the rise and cannot be stopped.
For everyone
But how do you get to a situation where you can work paperless? We speak with Hans Storms, branch manager window frame industry at the Matrix Software in Nijmegen. “A paperless factory is high on the wish list of many companies, but they don't know how to achieve this. This is because people often do not have enough knowledge to proceed with this digitization process and people think too hard about it. Matrix Software has a very elegant and accessible solution for this. With our Manufacturing Execution System, MES for short, all data is immediately displayed. With that you can simply make the start to a paperless factory simple. All you need is the will to change. For a paperless factory it is really necessary to switch and people have to discipline themselves to no longer print. For many - we are routine animals - that is quite a task. But it is completely possible with our MatrixWindows MES.” Storms sees that companies that have now started the transformation to paperless working are so satisfied with it that there is no turning back. “The efficiency gains that are being made are so great that returning to the 'paper world' is simply out of the question. The benefits of paperless working are clear. Paperless working is a process in which all information flows from the office to the production . This way you have the digital time and attendance registration. You can even register hours at window frame level. Employees can indicate per part in the production how far one is in the process, or where the product is located. Damage to a product? This can immediately be fed back digitally to the office, where you can immediately order a new product - of course also digitally. ”
Photos at Kumij Kozijnen in Groningen: movable assembly tables on which the finishing of the frames is done. All required drawings and materials are shown on a screen under the tables, based on a barcode.
Ready for the future
The great thing is that paperless working is already available within MatrixWindows. Storms: “You just have to decide to use it. Everything is possible digitally, you have live data and you can enjoy digital two-way data traffic between all stations, from the office, production to logistics. In addition, you can arrange it as extensively as you want. Suppose a production employee needs an assembly manual for fittings that he must assemble at that time. He can request and read the manual in the system via the screen.
No special hardware required
No special hardware is needed to work like this, everything is web based and runs on any device with access to the Cloud, be it a PC, a tablet or a smartphone. A scanner is only required for recognition. This can optionally be based on a barcode, a QR code or an RFID chip. ”