Robert Bosch Packaging Technology GmbH, which is part of the world-wide Bosch Group, recently invested in Radan software (www.radan.com) to ensure that it could produce accurate costings for the packaging machines it makes for the food and pharma industries.

With only a small in-house production team, Bosch Packaging out-sources production of the sheet-metal parts.

Dominik Bach, who is responsible for managing sheet-metal products at the company’s headquarters in Waiblingen (Germany), says Radan helped to solve an important issue.

“Our suppliers weren’t able to give us accurate and fast calculations regarding the sheet-metal parts.

“We would often receive late and incorrect quotations, so we set up a fixed order pattern, using Radan.

“Instead of sending out a request to suppliers, receiving a quotation and then placing the order, we can now tell them the accurate cost of the component and its individual operations.”

To achieve this, Bosch Packaging bought several Radan modules — Radimport, Radprofile, Radmanager and Radquote.

“The engineering department produces 3-D SolidWorks models, which are imported into Radprofile through Radimport and automatically unfolded, showing laser cutting time and material usage.

Mr Bach said: “Pre-defined formulae are then inputted using pop-up menus for the costs of individual operations on the parts; these include bending, straightening, deburring, welding, glass-bead-blasting and drilling, as well as purchased parts, manpower and delivery.

"Radan gives us the ability to always select the best supplier for particular types of work, and we now send our calculations to specific suppliers, along with the order and the STEP files of the part.”

He says it’s a ‘win win’ situation both for Bosch Packaging and the supplier, citing major benefits for each of them.

For Bosch, the benefits are shorter overall lead times, consistent pricing and planning reliability, and cost savings through optimal placement of orders according to supplier strengths.

The supplier benefits from not having to undertake any calculations, waste sales effort on lost orders, and having multi-year contracts to produce parts.

Mr Bach says that if the pilot scheme proves as successful as early indications would suggest, it is likely to be rolled out to other Bosch plants around the world.