Lantek MES Wos to control production in the workshop and increase efficiency

Advanced Manufacturing

What do we ask of our factories? Efficiency and maximum quality. To do this, we need a plant data collection program at the operator’s post, the objective of which is the monitoring, control and validation of each one of the manufacturing processes, from reception of the order to the completion of production. And all of this, of course, in real time and automated, so that production can be performed with greater agility and optimization. Without administrative tasks that cause delays and can even lead to mistakes.

This software is Lantek MES Wos for companies in the metal industry developed to control and supervise production in the workshop. It provides the necessary tools for gathering data on the key factors of the productive process: status, labor, materials, machines, inventory, etc. It’s a solution that is able to overlook the labor, the status of orders, materials, machines, inventory, etc.

The production plant feeds the system with accurate data, in real time, thus guaranteeing that the information obtained is precise, reliable and up-to-date at all times. This way, the professionals have all of the data on the orders that need to be completed and are able to confirm pending and assigned tasks, select the machine where the work will be done and consult and monitor the stock in the warehouse. With Lantek MES Wos, operators at the work center have all of the necessary information related with the work in progress at all times. They can also consult and/or monitor the inventory in the warehouse.

This process is one of four in the quintessential MES manufacturing management program for all companies in the sheet metal industry which boosts plant productivity. Indeed, we’re talking about Lantek MES, a comprehensive solution for optimizing production and having everything that happens at the plant under control, in real time. As well as Lantek MES Wos, there’s the Lantek MES Manager solution, which manages the manufacturing processes, from sending a production order to finalizing the assignment; Lantek MES Capture, for data input at the plant; and Lantek MES Inventory, which provides you with all of the key stock information.

Holistic analysis of the production process

The program has evolved from a standard communication system designed to send files with CNC programming to primitive numeric controls with limited connectivity, passing through a phase as a hybrid system, also able to send orders to control the machine itself, to the current system, embedded in control, with a full graphical interface and able to establish bidirectional communication with the machine using the APIs provided by the manufacturer.

It’s designed to work with the CAD/CAM Lantek Expert system, the Lantek MES Manager production control system and the ERP Lantek Integra management system, providing a holistic visibility and handling of production in the workshop that had been unimaginable up until now.

For example, you can monitor nesting and operations in real time, finding out the status of each production order at all times. Equally, the system allows you to perform an exhaustive consumption control, so that you can choose the sheet metal in which the nesting has been cut, keeping track of traceability in the program. This way, the warehouse is correctly updated, removing the cut sheet metal and adding the parts obtained as well as the scraps generated. You can also register parts that are lost during production, managing their subsequent processing, performing quality controls, etc.

In addition to this, as Lantek MES Wos can register the data in real time, not only is it able to collect the activity generated by the machine but it can also perform a retrospective analysis with past data to better process the information, making it an essential tool for decision-making tasks.

It’s incredibly simple to use, with intuitive screens and you don’t have to manually input a lot of data as it feeds itself.

Ultimately, the biggest advantage is that the operator can find out what’s happening at the plant immediately in order to optimize production, making the plant or the workshop more agile and efficient. Indispensable virtues in a 4.0 ecosystem where those who refuse to digitalize lose out in competitiveness.