Success story
Koller Formenbau GmbH

Koller Formenbau enjoys the reliable andtransparent planning of ProLeiS

ProLeiS permits manufacturing planners to efficiently schedule their valuable machine capacity. You can immediately see and verify with data whether capacity is still free to accept contract work, or whetherit‘s advisable to outsource partial orders on „extended workbenches.“ This gives the company “room to breathe.“Any company that wishes to be accountable about deadlines, availability and prices must have their numbers,
data and facts up to date. At Koller Formenbau in Oberbürg, Germany, the ProLeiS organization and planningsystem from Tebis delivers compelling results with a high degree of adaptability and transparency.

Until just a few years ago, all of the data andprocesses at die manufacturer Koller in Oberbürg
were “stored” mostly in the minds of the planners.
Coordination between planners and the actual
production was ad hoc. Even today, this still
isn’t an unusual situation in die manufacturing.

Excel spreadsheets were implemented as astopgap, but they quickly became confusing
as projects progressed. That’s because die
projects continue to become increasinglyextensive and complex.

“It even worked surprisingly well. But this system
kept hitting its limits,” explains Fabian Schmittlein,
one of the employees responsible for manufacturing and production planning at Koller.
“Coordination was a time-consuming process inmeetings or ‘on the fly,’ you could never becompletely sure you had the current data status,
and it was anything but transparent for ourcolleagues in production.”Thanks to ProLeiS, employees in assembly and try-out also have a clear overview of their upcoming tasks,
and they can plan optimally.

–1–Anwenderbericht
Koller Formenbau GmbH

Networking and reducing workload
through digital solutions
Those responsible started to search for asoftware solution that would support theirplanning capacities and processes in production,
always provide the latest data status and ensuretransparency all the way to the machine
operator. And because Koller’s accounting andordering uses SAP, a real-time interface to theworld of this standard business software wasalso a must.
At the AMB industry trade show in Stuttgart in
2018, a team with production manager Ferstl,
Georg Sippl,the head of the work schedulingand workbench department, and die manufacturing sales and production planner Schmittlein
got a comprehensive overview of all the relevant
systems on offer there.

ProLeiS integrates processes from real
production
There were ultimately two solution packages
that met their specifications. “One of them waspresented as a standard system with a relatively
rigid framework,” Schmittlein explains. “It wasadmittedly the much cheaper of the two options.”
Nevertheless, the decision was made in favor of
the other option: ProLeiS MES software fromTebis. And with good reason.
“With the system that initially appeared to be lessexpensive, we would have had to completely
modify our processes and procedures to fit thesystem’s structures,” Schmittlein says. “It wasdifferent with ProLeiS: The system accepted
and integrated our existing processes that we
had coordinated over many years of practice.”
Adjustments were only made in a few places:“We analyzed our processes along with theexperts from Tebis Consulting,” the manufacturing planner reports. “Where we needed to makechanges, the specialists transparently determined the added value for us and recommended
optimized solutions.”

Die manufacturers get access to a high-performance machine pool that includes two state-of-the-art
Trimill VF 3021 machines working alongside other large machines. ProLeiS helps ensure optimal
utilization of this investment.

–2–

Fabian Schmittlein, process planner at Koller Formenbau: „We
always find that ProLeiS has an open mind for improvements.
Anything reasonable and feasible is quickly implemented.“Success story
Koller Formenbau GmbH

Optimized processes through transparency
For example, each department was already
optimized on an individual basis, but the overall
picture was lacking. “Every department head
was interested in optimal utilization of theirmachines,” Schmittlein recalls. “And because
it was difficult to coordinate, it was typical forsome parts of a die to be finished and gettingin the way, while other necessary components
in another area of responsibility weren’t evenon the machine yet.” This was the result ofprioritization differences by those responsible.

now define the optimal solution for entire
processes and ultimately for the entire company– essentially with the click of a mouse.

Now the situation is completely different.
ProLeiS ensured optimization across the entire
process chain: other department’s circumstances
become transparent. This gives an overview ofthe process chains and the current status of all
projects, including all the individual components.
Armed with this data, planners at Koller can

No more guesswork: A traffic light system visualizes whether everything needed to start an order is available and how far the individual work steps have progressed. Individual employees can instantly see
where they can continue working.

“Armed with this data, planners at Koller can
now define the optimal solution for entire
processes and ultimately for the entire company– essentially with the click of a mouse.”
Revealing effects of deadline changes
by simulation“The biggest advantage from our perspective isthe ability to simulate processes and changes,”
Schmittlein emphasizes. “If the customer needsa die two weeks earlier than agreed, can wemanage it, and what will it cost us? In the past,this was a question we couldn’t answer
conclusively. Of course, everyone had their gut
feeling and a rough idea of the effects of thechanges, and what could be done in terms ofscheduling. But ‘rough’ also means that insome cases you’ll be off by just one critical step.
And then there’s sure to be trouble.”This has changed fundamentally with ProLeiS.
“Whether it’s a deadline change, a last-minuteorder or the failure of a machine or supplier:
Just a few mouse clicks in the system gives us
a transparent overview and we can give thecustomer a clear answer,” says Schmittlein.
“And internally, we also have a very precise–3–picture of what we can ask of our machine
operators – and whether it might make sense
to outsource partial contracts to reliable
partners. Or conversely, whether our capacity
situation would allow us to take on subcontracted jobs on our machines.”

Success story
Koller Formenbau GmbH

Cost planning and documentation
Even better: “All decisions are based on facts.
They can be transparently tracked and documented,” Schmittlein affirms. “This doesn’t justapply to changes and other events, by the way.”
In addition to time scheduling and capacityplanning, cost planning is also transparent: “Youcan immediately see in Euros and cents wherea project stands in terms of costs. and also theeffects of any changes. This means reliable longterm planning as well. It also strengthens ourrole over the long term as a reliable partner forour customers.”
In the past, Schmittlein recalls, the customer’sschedule often had very little impact on theagenda that die manufacturers followed internally. “We decided to implement a milestonesystem with ProLeiS,” the manufacturing plannerexplains. “With transparent controlling mechanisms, we can now very easily determine just
how far a project has progressed at this instant,for example. And how costs are developing,among other things. This also gives us confidence in our discussions with our customers. “Flexible processes and reasonableadjustments
Of course, the system wasn’t running thissmoothly from day one. “In the triangle of costs,
time and quality, ProLeiS weights the delivery

Optical instrumentation for quality assurance is now a part of daily life for large die manufacturers. The data are carefully recorded,
and not just for the customer.

date heavily and tries to match all processes
to this parameter,” says the production
planner. “Machining sequences were initiallyadopted rather rigidly. However, we view it asa more ‘fluid’ process: We need a little
flexibility in order to optimally utilize ourmachines while still focusing on the delivery
date. The ProLeis team has developed
extended options for us so we can provide
alternatives in the processing sequence and integrate them as needed.”

ProLeiS partners. “We find that they always
have an open mind for improvements,”
Schmittlein says. “Anything reasonable andfeasible is quickly implemented.”
Employees in production were also included in
the process from the start and could contribute
their ideas. “Of course, some had initialreservations and fears,” Schmittlein remembers.
“But the benefits quickly became clear, and now
no one wants to work without ProLeiS.”

Overall, those responsible in Oberbürg arevery pleased with the flexibility of their

The planner can now evaluate immediately the precise utilization of a machine and where there’s potential for optimization. Trusting your gut feeling is okay.
But facts are simply better.

–4–Success story
Koller Formenbau GmbH

Up-to-date data and paperless
manufacturing
Manufacturing at Koller had already reduced
its use of paper even before ProLeiS. Now, nopaper whatsoever is used. “Of course, we
initially had some veteran machine operators
who preferred to check off their bills of materials
on paper, and who didn’t want to place their full
trust in the software,” the manufacturing plannerreports. “That has since changed, and parallel
lists made by hand have largely disappeared.
The benefits of ProLeiS are finally completelyapparent to employees.”

Individual planning view
The machine operator can now see exactly
what’s waiting in the queue for processing on
their machine in the near future. It’s showntransparently if all the required material is available, if the programs are ready and much more.
“In the past, you had to go to the boss for thisinformation – and if he wasn’t there, you wereout of luck,” Schmittlein explains. “ProLeiS has
all the relevant information available by justglancing at the viewer. And it’s always up to date.”

A traffic light system displays the status
immediately. Red means that nothing isavailable for the order yet. Green means thatthe order can be processed, and yellow meansthat something is missing – and you can see
exactly what it is and who to ask about it. “Thisgives employees all the information they needto act independently based on a comprehensive
overview of the company,” explains Schmittlein.

Automatic data transfer into ERP system
The connection to SAP has also been implemented. “We have series production in our corporategroup, and SAP is in effect mandatory in theautomotive sector. Of course, we also wanted
to integrate information like die manufacturing
times into the overall company-wide system.
And in the past, one person was busy manuallyentering this information in SAP. Not exactly a
fun job,” Schmittlein admits. “ProLeiS hascreated a solution that enables this data to betransferred automatically. And I have to say that
this makes a lot of things easier here.”

The manufacturing planner can also clearly see the utilization of available capacities. Changes can bemade with a few mouse clicks – and the results are shown in real time.

–5–

Reliable order planning
Overall, those responsible at Koller along with
their contacts at ProLeiS have achieved a lot
over the past two years. “Our project processes
have become much smoother,” Schmittleinsums up. “Our cost and problem analysis has
also become transparent for every item. This
allows us to approach optimization in a very
precise and targeted manner. With the newly
acquired transparency and the comprehensive
options for quickly implementing changes, we’veacquired significant flexibility with ProLeiS andare now much more reliable, more precise, andfaster when it comes to quoting prices,deadlines and availability. The value of this can
not be underestimated, because this is the final
measure of a die manufacturing company. Bothinternally and externally.

Anwenderbericht
Koller Formenbau GmbH

ProfileKoller Group
This globally active technology company has its headquarters in
Oberbürg above the Altmühl Valley in Germany. It manufactures custom
injection molding dies, composite dies, equipment and fixtures in its own
die manufacturing facility for both its own customers and the needs ofits sister companies. The Group benefits from combining its solution
expertise in die manufacturing with many years of experience in series
production. Koller can cover the entire value chain, from the initialconcept and component development to industrial series production– worldwide.
Large dies for well-known automotive manufacturers: Koller is a specialist in injection molding
dies, multi-component technology and RTM molds in XXL.

Focus
MES ProLeiS
ProLeiS MES (manufacturing execution system) digitally represents the entire order flow for manufacturing companies. This includes all economic,
technical and organizational processes. Employees, machines and other participants in manufacturing such as suppliers need to tightly coordinate
their work. MES software like ProLeiS provides a platform for registering and coordinating all of these required activities. Among other things, itenables optimal fact-based planning, which can ensure smooth processing. But an MES like ProLeiS can do much more. It provides conclusive
data for costing, and therefore, for making informed, competitive offers.

Position
A necessary investment in reliability
For the planner who traditionally has done this work in their head, possibly with the help of a few Excel spreadsheets, it’s a real challenge to staywithin budget, ensure quality and last but not least guarantee that the delivery deadline is met. Die manufacturing projects are becoming more
complex, tolerances for costs and deadlines are shrinking – and it’s time to relieve and support the planner. An MES doesn’t just offer benefits forplanning: The entire manufacturing chain becomes more transparent, and employees get all the information they need to take independent action in
the interests of their company. In addition, all the necessary data are available to answer customers’ questions with a few mouse clicks: for example,
whether an earlier delivery date is possible, or what changes will cost. This puts companies ahead of the competition for lucrative orders.

Tebis AG
Einsteinstraße 39
82152 Martinsried/Planegg
Tel. +49 (89)81 803-0
info@tebis.com www.tebis.com–6–