As part of its drive to increase efficiency, productivity and profitability through its Metal Digital Transformation technology, Lantek (www.lanteksms.com) is introducing three new products (at EuroBLECH 2018 23-26 October in Hannover) specifically aimed towards the sheet metal and fabrication industries.

Lantek Analytics, which is part of Lantek’s Synergy concept, analyses both customer and manufacturing key performance indicators.

The modules come with a set of standard KPIs that have been developed by Lantek through consultation with companies in the industry to meet most requirements, although customers can still specify additional KPIs to suit their individual business needs.

With Customer Analytics, KPIs include the percentage of accepted quotes, the best customers by accepted quotes and margins, deviation from estimated costs, and the history and location of quotes.

Manufacturing Analytics KPIs include availability of equipment, overall equipment effectiveness, number of parts produced and percentage of good parts over a specified period, percentage of remnants over total raw material, stock status and weight of parts produced.

Furthermore, a virtual model of the workshop and working practices fits this information analysis exactly to each individual manufacturer.

Lantek Analytics software has been designed to be ‘plug and play’ for most companies, minimising the installation time so that engineers and managers can quickly benefit from the information; and to further simplify installation, security and maintenance, the software resides ‘in the cloud’, removing the need for costly hardware and the know-how necessary to keep it secure and operational.

Moreover, the cloud offers military-grade data security and allows system upgrades to be implemented automatically; it also makes access possible from anywhere in the world.

Lantek says that with Analytics, companies can keep track of performance as it happens, and use the information to make decisions on changes to sales strategies, production processes and investment in new equipment based on facts — and to predict future performance.

Meanwhile, two new products — Metalshop and iQuote — allow sheet metal companies to respond automatically to quotation requests on-line.

Metalshop is a Web interface that enables customers to submit a request for quotation and place an order on-line, uploading all the information about material, quantities, required delivery dates, delivery methods and — most importantly — the geometry of the part itself.

This request then sets in motion a series of automated ‘queries’ within the Lantek software via the iQuote app; these include cutting times, the cost of material, stock levels and the margins to be applied.

Queries to Lantek’s MES (manufacturing execution system) can check the levels of work already going through the workshop, and schedule cutting and other operations — including out-sourced operations — to meet the required delivery date.

As part of the process, the iQuote App checks for anomalies in the data such as bad CAD data and zero weight of part, creating an alert for user intervention so that an engineer can resolve the problem with the customer.

This Lantek technology has been designed to automate the whole quotation and ordering process, delivering accurate quotations to the customer in a matter of minutes and then (with Metalshop) going on to automate order confirmation and release of the order to production, followed by delivery and invoicing — all through a Web interface.

The iQuote app is also designed to be used on its own as a rapid way for a manufacturer’s sales team to get prices for their customers, making it ideal where large volumes of quotations are required.

Lantek says that with its Metal Digital Transformation technology, Industry 4.0 is now a reality, with substantial benefits available for companies making the move.