Length-based manufacturing with Advaris Cable
Standard, commercially available ERP and MES solutions were designed for discrete parts manufacturing or the process industry. The “meter” unit of measure poses great challenges for these systems and their users. In addition, there are industry-specific manufacturing processes such as wire drawing, bunching and stranding, which do not exist in other industries. Cable design and product data management are also difficult to address with cross-industry standard systems.
ADVARIS recognized this early on and started developing a comprehensive industry solution for length-based manufacturing as early as 1997. ADVARIS Cable is now successfully in use worldwide.
At ADVARIS, we take the “all-in-one” approach instead of “best-of-breed”. ADVARIS’ comprehensive software platform ensures a complete, seamlessly integrated solution from a single source.
ERP & MES Solution For Length-Based manufacturing
In addition to the cross-industry standard features provided by a modern ERP & MES solution, the ADVARIS Cable Solution gives you special features for the processes involved in length-based manufacturing. Get a brief overview of our industry package here:
ADVARIS Cable is the ideal solution for manufacturers and distributors of the following products:
- Electric cables and wires
- Power cables (low, medium and high voltage)
- Telephone cables
- Data cables
- Fiber optic cables
- Control and instrumentation cables
- Special cables
- Steel cord and wires
- Tubes, hoses, sections, foils made of rubber, plastic and metal
Peripheral products and production areas are also covered:
- Cutting to length, packaging
- Compounding (e.g. PVC compounds)
- Assembly of end pieces, e.g. plugs, eyelets
- Conduits
- Busbars
Features
- Cable design
- Length-related warehouse management and inventory control
- Planning of spool sizes and individual lengths
- Metal billing (DEL, LME etc.)
- Drum management
- Tool management (drawing dies etc.)
YOUR BENEFITS FOR LENGTH-BASED MANUFACTURING
Enterprise Resource Management
Procurement
- Overview of expected costs including metal surcharges and delivery times using article/supplier master data
- The spools or batches delivered are recorded individually and given an incoming goods label showing the automatically issued length/batch number, the weight recorded and additional information
Sales
- Quotation pricing based on full price lists or with separate pricing for the metal
- Specification of as many different lengths as desired with different packagings (spool types), customer-specific texts for marking and length tolerances
- Inventory planning taking account of any residual lengths in stock as well as the length distribution of ongoing production and procurement orders as well as the replenishment times
Drum management
- Stock management of your own spools/drums on customers’ premises and the stock of external spools/drums belonging to suppliers or customers on your premises based on loan container accounting
- Drums are managed with the storage location, event history and additional details
- Accounting by customer-specific drum terms (loan periods, reminder limits, loan fees, etc.)
Shipping
- Individual length requirements of customer orders are compared with the spools and/or cable lengths in stock
- Final assignment of in-stock spools to (partial) deliveries and cutting and rewinding orders with the corresponding manufacturing papers and picking lists for commissioning
Metal billing
- The billing of metal for customers and suppliers is controlled by various master data parameters, e.g. metal bases, metal prices (DEL, LME, etc.), country-specific metal weights, individual key date agreements or taking into account metal provided by the customer
- Customers’ and suppliers’ metal accounts can be value- or stock-based
The general features of the ADVARIS Enterprise Resource Planning system are available here.
Product Data Management
Material database
- Management of technical data and material/product specifications, e.g. for wires, strands, conductors (round, flat, sector-shaped), compounds and additives (color batches, catalysts, etc.), tapes, yarns and fillers, cores, optical fibers, bundles (pairs, quads, etc.) and cables
- Metal weights and physical, electrical and mechanical properties
Cable design
- Design and manufacturing processes of the cable and wire industry with mathematical formulas, e.g. for wire drawing, stranding, extrusion, stranding, taping, braiding, etc.
- Norms and standard tables for conductor classes, stranding structures, lay lengths, wall thicknesses (insulation, inner/outer sheath), etc.
- Preparation and administration of complex color codes and markings (rings, texts for printing, color helix, etc.)
- Calculation of metal and electrical properties
- Cross-sectional graphics with legends can be generated, also for representing special asymmetric cables
- Generation of technical data sheets with cross-sectional drawing
Compound recipes
- Recipe development for manufacturing insulation and sheath compounds (rubber, PVC, etc.)
- Multi-stage recipe structures, splittings
- Recipe comparison lists (raw materials, percentages, weight, density, price, etc.)
- Scaling to system-related batch sizes (mixer volume, filling level)
- Recipe sheets and work instructions for all manufacturing stages (raw materials provision, weighing, mixing/kneading, testing)
BOM and routing
- Automatic selection of standard and alternative machines for each manufacturing step
- Selection of the most suitable spool types for each machine with calculation of the filling quantities (max. length according to flange and core diameter, edge clearance, bending radius, etc.)
- Calculation of the target quantities for each operation taking into account start-up lengths, test lengths and other length allowances
- Determination of the take-up speeds [m/min] on the basis of the product properties and machine master data
- Calculation of set-up time (e.g. change of spool, addition of shield wires, etc.
QC test plan
- Direct access to design data and standard tables using a formula (e.g. tolerance values for wall thickness, wire diameter, tensile strength, etc.)
- Catalog of characteristics for cable and wire production
- Management of testing standards
Costing
- Manufacturing costs by lot size, delivery length and spool type
- Detailed breakdown of material and machine costs per unit length
- Calculation of metal weights (copper, aluminum, silver, tin, etc.) and valuation according to base prices
Variant generator
- Easy management of product families in tables
- Free definition of the variant characteristics of a product family, e.g. standard(s), number of individual wires, conductor cross-section, compound type of wire insulation, optical covering of the braid, voltage class, etc.
- Automatic generation of all variants of a product family with item master, design, production BOM and routing, QC test plan and cost calculation
- Automatic generation of data sheets as part of variant generation
- Gain in productivity for design changes or exchange of materials
All ADVARIS PDM features are available here.
Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
Production Order Management
- Management of as many different lengths as desired with different spool sizes, customer-specific texts for marking and length tolerances for a production order item
- Spool and length planning. The individual lengths to be manufactured for each operating step and the most suitable drum types are determined on the basis of supply lengths
- Length-based material requirements planning
- Split and merge of orders and / or operations on the drum and individual length level
- Reworking processes (rewinding, sheath removal, cutting out imperfections, etc.)
Detailed Planning and Scheduling
- Setup optimization based on product and machine-specific criteria such as wire diameter, conductor cross-section, number of shield wires, insulating material, wire color, thickness of the insulating layer, etc.
- Special algorithms for machines and production processes in the cable and wire industry (e.g. degassing/tempering, multiple drawing systems, galvanizing, overlapped production, etc.)
Shop Floor Data Collection
- Production orders are displayed in the scheduled sequence of execution together with the individual lengths and spool types that are to be manufactured.
- Recording of the manufactured individual lengths with actual length, spool assignment and quality data (test values, imperfections)
- Standard interfaces used for the various types of measuring instruments in the cable industry are available for the acquisition of test values (e.g. resistance, wall thickness, diameter, elongation at break).
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
- Connection of machine control systems (PLC) for automatic acquisition of machine speeds, spool changes, lengths, insulation defects, extruder temperatures, speeds of stranding cages and other machine and process signals
- Transmission of data to the machine control (write access), e.g. recipe number and parameter list at the start of the setup process
An overview of all of the features of the ADVARIS Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is available here
Maintenance
The ADVARIS MRO maintenance and repair management system gives you full control of your maintenance tasks and allows you to conveniently manage all maintenance assets. You can find all of the benefits here.
ARRANGE A FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION
In a nonbinding demo meeting, our experts will guide you through the ADVARIS software solution. Book your personal consultation now and experience the optimization potential for your company in an online meeting.