WITTE Automotive is an automotive supplier specializing in locking and actuation systems. The company supplies well-known car manufacturers all over the world. Christiane Franke, VP Logistics at WITTE Automotive, explains: “If there are new production lines or expansions in one of our plants, this can have such a strong impact that we have to expand locations or even set up new production sites. We were therefore looking for software that would allow us to better determine our space requirements and check how far-reaching the necessary changes would be.”
The AREAPLAN software from DUALIS enables cross-plant planning of space allocation in assembly and production halls. This allows production areas to be planned, managed and optimized efficiently.
WITTE Automotive previously used different tools for area planning and layouting in its plants – the area requirements analysis was previously only possible using Excel lists. With AREAPLAN, WITTE can map the changes to the area layout over time and export a report of used and free areas in the form of Excel files. The software also offers the option of taking into account the time component in the occupancy of the areas and displaying future occupancy through the start and end dates of the machines in the layout. Utilization reports support the decision as to whether locations should be expanded or newly constructed.
“The display of time components is very important to us so that we can plan precisely. The same applies to the uncomplicated export option, which allows us to continue feeding the existing reporting system with data without having to maintain Excel lists in parallel. Both of these factors significantly reduce the workload,” explains Daniel Ottosson, Head of Lean & Technology, WITTE Niederberg.
Unified database for global plant planning
The area management tool enables the company to harmonize and synchronize the IT landscape for global plant planning. AREAPLAN was easily integrated into the workflows at WITTE Automotive. The implementation phase took around four months. Another advantage was that the 3D simulation solution Visual Components, for which DUALIS is an authorized and experienced reseller, was already in use in some areas. This is another reason why AREAPLAN is predestined as an add-on.
“Thanks to the improved data quality, WITTE Automotive can optimize plant planning and now has a uniform working basis for all plants. We benefit from considerable time savings when determining space requirements and can now make more informed decisions, including forward-looking ones. The planning software has currently been rolled out to four plants, and another plant will be added next year,” says Christiane Franke.
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Further links
👉 www.dualis-it.de
Photo: DUALIS
