Productivity gains

Using its Web Open Data system, Bobst has connected machines it supplied to pharmaceutical packaging specialist company Rondo to the SAP management software package, using JDF as the bridge between systems.

Based in Allschwil/Bâle, Switzerland, Rondo is part of Körber, a group that employs 8,500 people worldwide and has a sales turnover of e1.5billion. Rondo is within Körber's Medipak Division and employs 200 people, specializing in paperboard packaging converting.

In order to meet the strict quality requirements specific to this type of pharmaceutical packaging operation, the company operates a policy of continuous investment in the latest production technology. As a specialist in short runs, Rondo believes it has to constantly optimize its operations, in particular to try to reduce the number of internal systems interfaces.

To make gains in productivity and in quality of service, Rondo's management decided to acquire an integrated business management software package, also known as an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP). The chosen software package was SAP, which allows the company to co-ordinate its purchasing, production, marketing and human resources activities around the same information system.

One of its criteria was that it did not want a mixture of separate software systems, instead insisting that all inputs be linked through to SAP. This is why Rondo chose JDF to act as a bridge between its ERP and its manufacturing processes.

Why JDF? Franziska Geiser-Bedon, chief information and project officer at Rondo, explains the reasons for the choice. "Eighty per cent of Rondo's customers work with SAP and already place their orders with us using this. Moreover JDF enables us to take a further step. Thanks to the bridge established between our ERP and the machines using JDF, we are able to monitor their orders from beginning to end. We get real-time information, of course, but we also get to analyze the productivity of the machines.

"One of the key benefits for us going down the SAP/JDF route was the bi-directional flow of data.” This, it was envisaged, would bring the plant worthwhile savings. Access to historical data, for example, would make it possible to reduce setting times on repeat work. As Franziska Geiser-Bedon says: "The data acquired through ERP is of higher quality, more complete, faster and more secure than we had before, allowing us to gain firm control of the production cost of jobs."

But the benefits go beyond sales and production. "In the world outside Rondo, our two principal suppliers of paperboard are already linked to us using the same software package and we plan that in the long term our banks will also use it for the receipt of payments."

Why choose JDF rather than a proprietary solution? She is clear that Rondo does not want to be locked into a proprietary system - they do not have any longevity. Instead the company wants standards - and for Franziska Geiser-Bedon, it is the customer who dictates the standard, not the converter. "JDF is affirming itself in packaging as it already has in commercial print," she says. "It makes it possible to create 'plug and play' connections in the production process, on the machine side, and allows us to rationalize the information flow between our machines and our ERP."

Having made the decision to implement the SAP/JDF solution, Rondo contacted its prepress (Esko), press (MAN-Roland) and postpress (Bobst) equipment suppliers to discuss how they could help with implementation. Bobst responded by offering the integration of its machines to the company wide system using its Web Open Data Solution (WOD Solution). With its bi-directional data flow, WOD Solution receives information from SAP and passes it on to the Bobst machines on the shop floor, then returns information to SAP.

WOD Solution comprises two elements, Shop Floor and Web Open Data. Shop Floor has a double function, being the interface that the operator works with and the link with the ERP, while Web Open Data is a hidden system, rather like a black box, collecting information from the machine.

For Franziska Geiser-Bedon, the Bobst WOD Solution is an automatic tool for setting jobs, providing help for the manual part of setting, and considerably decreasing the overall set-up time. "Without the two-way movement of data between it and the machine, the ERP would not function correctly. The data we are getting has already enabled us to identify downtime and setting problems and to rectify them. JDF now lets us know where sheets are lost, what happened and what is necessary to make us improve. We know our production will continue to improve because of it."