ELABO GmbH is a specialist for smart solutions for the design of individual manual workstations as well as assembly, inspection and test systems in industrial series production. The company places a special focus on digitized solutions or Industry 4.0 ─ which was now also the subject of the current research project with KIT students. These students were particularly concerned with increasing efficiency by means of intelligent Industry 4.0 solutions, complete networking, and a consistent flow of information. The objectives of the project were to increase flexibility, employee motivation, and customer satisfaction.
In addition to ergonomic assembly workstations and the factory software ELABO Elution®, the software abas ERP and the IoT platform abas Connect, as well as innovations such as augmented reality glasses and Co. were also used in the test setup.
Process optimization by industry 4.0
In the Use Case designed by the students, a customer orders a self-configured power supply unit with an individually engraved front panel in the abas Webshop. This is then implemented in the production via the sales order processing. If the employee logs on to the ELABO FIM assembly table using an RFID card, the optimum table height for the respective employee is automatically set and the workstation is illuminated according to his or her wishes. After the employee has received the work order assigned to him from the ERP system, he is guided step by step through the assembly process and provided with information via the interactive worker guidance of the factory software ELABO Elution®. The level of detail of the instructions always depends on the employee's individual level of competence.
By means of augmented reality glasses, the employee receives additional information in his working environment, which is confirmed with a simple gesture control and thus the work progress can be designed intuitively.
Subsequently, the workstation at the milling machine receives the order for individual engraving of the front panel via abas Connect and provides the power supply unit with the desired lettering. Since unforeseen rejects can always occur during production, the real consumption is precisely determined and automatically transferred to abas ERP so that the stocks can be kept up-to-date at all times.
The experimental setup shows how flexibility and reaction speed can be optimized by means of real-time data on real consumption. In addition, employee satisfaction is increased by the use of augmented reality throughout the entire assembly process and customer satisfaction is enhanced by the possibility of individualizing certain components.
Project closing at ELABO in Crailsheim
To finalize the project, the students visited ELABO in Crailsheim on Thursday. Horst Maywald, Senior Advisor of the company, underlines: "We and also other companies in Crailsheim have the responsibility to do more to enthuse well educated people for our city and our companies". For this reason, ELABO has for some years now been maintaining numerous collaborations with research institutions and schools, in particular with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Following a tour of the ELABO Innovation Center, the Smart Factory and the company's production facilities, the Karlsruhe students visited the Groninger & Co. GmbH in Crailsheim.