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The company based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, specialises in stainless fabrication primarily in the petrochemical, process engineering, pharmaceutical, food and water sectors, along with many other industries. Initially it subcontracted the laser cutting but moved this inhouse in the early 2000s to improve supply line security and reliability. Josh Hall, Sales Manager says, “We generate around 230 quotations every month and we have checked the costs and prices generated by Lantek against the actual costs and it is really quite accurate. Additionally, during installation and commissioning, where the costs did not line up, Lantek engineers quickly fixed these discrepancies.” As well as costs for laser cutting, Lantek’s Integra Quotes software also generates prices for other operations such as folding and welding and outsourced operations such as powder coating. It also generates invoices for completed work and integrates with the company’s accounting software.
Typically, CAD data for a new job is either fed into Lantek Expert for flattening, or where there is an assembly of parts, processed in Solid Works to get the individual flattened components. Around 11 dedicated estimators and programmers use the Lantek software, overlapping responsibilities, pre-nesting parts into 2.5m x 1.25m or 3m x 1.5m sheets as part of the quotation process, prior to the final nesting and programming when the job is released for production. Josh Hall adds, “With Lantek we can track parts back to the individual sheet it was made from, which is very important for our ISO traceability requirements. We can also use up remnant material and trace parts made in these remnant sheets, improving material utilisation while maintaining quality standards.”
DMS Laser Profiles has just upgraded its Lantek software to include Lantek MES. This will enable the company to trace parts as they move through the workshop. The laser machines are directly wired in to the software so that real-time data is collected, further increasing cost accuracy and making it much easier to plan and execute the production process. Josh Hall says, “Expanding our Lantek software was an easy decision as the support we get is very responsive, so we are confident that this next step will be a success.”
The addition of Lantek MES will help DMS Laser Profiles integrate and automate its production processes further. Material costs will be updated as they change and the company will be able to anticipate workloads for all its manufacturing stages, enabling it to generate even more accurate costings while scheduling manufacturing flow through the workshop. This will result in precise delivery predictions for its customers’ parts. Furthermore, as data is centralised and accessible, quotations and delivery status enquiries will always be consistent irrespective of who deals with the customer. With Lantek’s software, all this is achieved while greatly reducing the administrative effort and non-productive hours required to maintain high quality information.
Josh Hall concludes, “The Lantek software is nicely set out and user friendly, it is much simpler than our previous system and a massive improvement. We will be able to easily track where parts are and the improved traceability is very important for our ISO compliance but, the most important improvement for us has been the service and response we get from Lantek, quickly fixing any issues we have with the software and its use.”