Technology & People – These area of conflict is a core competence of afu-tech since nearly 10 years now. Only a few consulting companies can handle that topics at the same level in these days 

Author: CEO, Dipl.-Ing. Axel Fuchs, Bad Waldsee June 2019

The excellent cross-functional expertise of the technology consulting company afu- tech in production, qualitymanagement and change processes helped the customer to achieve tremendous and sustainable cost savings of nearly 3 Mio. EUR in total.

The customer is manufacturing small batches of high level special-vehicles/cars to exclusive customers and high volumes of classy exterior design parts for luxury sports cars. The customer requirements were high and so afu-tech was predestinated for that job.

This project again gives evidence to us, that there are huge potentials undiscovered in many companies. Those can not be found for various reasons, or they will not be tackled because there is a lack of time and internal expertise. The BoD‘s decision to hire the global approved and well-known expert for production, qualitymanagement and change processes Axel Fuchs, CEO of afu-tech, was the best he could do and a positive and clear message to all employees. 

By means of our proven and special analyse-tools and QM-methods all results were documented, systematically analysed and assessed in terms of money. Thus we were able to achieve 2 Mio. EUR of meaningful cost savings within the first week. In addition the benefits for the customer are tremendious quality improvements and highly motivated people.

Result:

afu-tech clearly outperformed the expectations of the customer. The huge potential for improvements which was undetected has been identified and uplifted by great support of afu-tech and now the customer has a really perfect foundation for a digitalisation.

Will digitalisation replace humans? – When does digitalisation make sense?

Author: CEO, Dipl.-Ing. Axel Fuchs, Bad Waldsee June 2019

Every hit of the presslines inside the press shops of the car manufacturer and TIER I suppliers, stands for the heartbeat of the automobile manufacturing companies. If one or more presses stand still unplanned at the same time, this creates a big alarm. Now it is important to do a structured root-cause analyse to find the problem quite quick and do an immediate and sustainable problem solving, to come back to production and ensure delivery of pressed parts to BIW.

Every action must fit perfect to bring the press back to production very quick, that operators at EOL can stack high quality pressed parts into the racks. The magic wordsare effectivity– means do the right things, and efficiency– means do the things right.

Effectivity is the main element of the performance of afu-tech. To generate a benefit for your customers, you have to be perfect in effectivity. Afterwards doing the things right (efficiency) is pure business. The ratio is approx. 60% / 40% between effectivity / efficiency.

The current topic of the symposium on the 4th of June 2019 at Sindelfingen townhall was „more efficiency at the press shop“. It was hosted and well organised by people from MM and blechnet industry magazines. Congrats.

afu-tech-CEO and productionexpert Axel Fuchs was curious for the lectures of the colleagues from BMW, SCHULER, GOM, ANDRITZ KAISER, Formhand, MISATI, Meusburger and Karberg & Hennemann. Already the first lecture by Mr. Saubiez from BMW showed very clearly, it is about efficiency by digitisation.

Digitisation and smartfactory are omnipresent in any media since many months. To miss the train to digital future, if they do not digitise their companies now, is a vast worry for most companies and it creates big pressure in the industry.

Previous to a digitisation of a process, we have to ensure that the massive potentials for improvements of each process has been identified and utilised. A comprehensive analyse and an optimisation of the processes is essential. The digitisation of a subopimal process results in a digitised suboptimised process. This is only a superficial help for the customer.

At the symposium I was surprised about the kind of comparisons about SMART PRESS SHOP and SMART HOME, where you can check via mobile phone or tablet, if the light is off in your flat or if the heating is off and finally if the door at home is closed. Smart home systems mislead people to be inattentive and to loose the ability to think on your own.

To manage the tasks ahead, we need people which are creative and able to think on their own and which are able to act conscious and attentive. Exactly this is the difference between humans and a KI and this is the reason why people and KI will complement each other in a meaningful way in the near future.

The experts of afu-tech have learned from many successful projects and discussions with people from shopfloor and from interviews at all management levels up to BoD at OEM´s in automotive industry, that the most important brick of the digital transformation will be the people.

From our perspective we are sure that all employees have to be supported and trained according to their skills on a regular base, to ensure that they are able to deliver their contribution and the company can succeed. 

Because of that fact, it makes sense to train and qualify people accordingly so that they match the future technology requirements on the work environment and work places of tomorrow. We have successfully utilised this in some projects already. This is the only way to create a real benefit for you as a customer, which has an impact on different levels.

If you are keen on knowing which Benefits and objectives can be achieved by high effectivity on your way to digitalisation, please give us a call +49-7524-9741-96 or send a message with our contact template.

We are pleased to accompany and support you and your entire team in doing your first step on your way to digitalisation. Finally you can decide on a good foundation what will be the next step for your company to your digital future.

afu-tech developed and implemented successfully a pathbreaking concept for quality improvement of pressed parts, for a famous british premium car manufacturer.

March 2019, Author: Axel Fuchs

Citation: “… Axel Fuchs did a great Job…"

Since March 2011, afu-tech played a key role in the most important project of a southern German premium car OEM in China. We planned all press shops incl. all press lines, scrap removal, logistic processes and IT-processes. Furthermore we did the planning, intensive consulting and gave assistence for all press projects at the DAIMLER AG group.

President Axel Fuchs was present for many months at the German plants of the premium OEM and especially at the Chinese plant of Beijing-Benz for operational consulting and implementing the planning.

afu-tech has made the planning for all new press shops, which will produce the complete Mercedes-Benz range of products, and the specifications of the press lines, the scrap removal, logistic processes and IT-processes. These press shops with their state of the art press technology equipment like XL servo tandem lines, XL servo blanking lines, servo transfer presses and mechanical try-out-presses are the base for the future success of the premium car manufacturer in the chinese market.

In addition we have given constructive consulting to our customer in the complete tendering process incl. supplier selection and purchase negotiations in China. During the project we have conducted the design meetings, we did the follow-up visits and buy-off procedures at the press manufacturer plants in Germany, Brazil and China on behalf of our customer.

The German team leader of the premium OEM and the team leader of the Chinese joint venture partner gave big compliments to Axel Fuchs, for the good cooperation, the impressive know-how and the great professionalism.