Networked thinking – saving costs: Control units control high-tech production

Comprehending the enormous possibilities of networked production starts at order entry. At REFLEX, it has been - since 1997 ALBAT+WIRSAM´s order processing system ALFAK - the best-selling commercial software for the flat glass industry.

In a modern, fully networked company like REFLEX, the commercial and technical data entered in ALFAK and are directly available in all business areas - for commercial controlling as well as for controlling CNC machinery.
The production planning and control system ALCIM, an essential tool for production scheduling at REFLEX, imports the order data into the production database. The production scheduling department compiles the items in production jobs and controls - by allocating racks in the cutting area - the production process of every single sheet. The jobs are optimised for cutting and thus released for production.

This is where networked production shows it power: By pressing a button, the data are transferred to CNC machines and control units throughout the company. Cutting line and spacer bender are controlled automatically while the monitoring system XTV controls breakout and stacking. In the IG department, the control unit ProdTV IG at the start of the two big production lines is supplied with data: Sheet structure, position of the coated side, reference edge - ALCIM knows all the details and offers them to the operator at the start of the line via ProdTV Monitor.

But there is more: Another button pressed, and the sheet is registered at the PackTV control unit at the end of the line which shows the rack, rack number, and change of rack. And because networking works both ways, there is an automatic report at the end of the line via PackTV - „IG production completed" which changes the status of the sheet in the ALCIM database and in ALFAK. Customer´s enquiries can be answered without having to check with the people on the shop floor.

Tempered Glass Production - Automatic with ProdTV and PackTV

ALCIM also supports the tempering process. Scanning the sheet´s barcode label at furnace entry, the furnace manager receives a detailed, true-to-scale technical drawing at the ProdTV monitoring station; letting him re-check the sheet´s parameters, as well as the accuracy of the processing work which has already been completed. The rest follows automatically: by releasing the sheet to the furnace, the sheet has been simultaneously registered at the furnace exit. Here, the freshly hardened sheet is registered „finished" by PackTV, and receives a freshly-printed label and is dispatched - without detour! - to its pre-designated rack.

All this information is simultaneously available in both the ALFAK and production databanks. At REFLEX, everyone, everywhere, at any time knows just where each sheet is, in what stage of production and when it will be completed with which machinery. With ProdTV and PackTV, lost sheets and missed or faulty processing steps are as good as out of the question!