Bulten develop, manufacture and trade fasteners to the international automotive industry and must ensure that its production is consistent and regular. A keen eye must be kept on the quality of production lines, guaranteeing that high standards are achieved and maintained at all times.

Documentation is a key part of that procedure and this requires a clear view of all processes and the resulting measurements. With this in mind, Bulten looked to its existing supplier, Lighthouse Systems, for software that would deliver the necessary functionality on the plant shop floor. The implementation would start with a complete revision of how to control the manufacturing processes, devising new rules for standardised checks.

Lighthouse Systems Shopfloor-Online would play a significant role in this standardisation role, helping to make the new control structure visible to all levels of the shop floor staff.

Where it all began
In the mid 1990s Bulten implemented SPCLight from Lighthouse Systems across three of its plants. This implementation worked well for over a decade but, as the demands on the company changed over the years, the software was no longer fulfilling all of the organisation’s requirements.

In 2006 the decision was made to move to a more modern and flexible software system that would cater more fully for the customer demands for documentation and visibility of the production process. Other drivers for the change were in efficiency gains and freeing up operator time to deliver greater value to the company. Lighthouse Systems Shopfloor- Online was chosen to provide the additional functionality, extending an already successful business relationship with the supplier, through its partner Quality Systems Scandinavia AB.

The new software replaced a paper-based system and the old SPC software in Sweden and Poland. Its initial implementation was for item control in its cold forging, threading and heat treatment processes. However, moving forward, this will be extended to the heat and surface treatment processes and for process control in all departments, together with  the advanced water cleaning process that extracts clean water from the oils and metals. This will improve the consistency, control and documentation of the Bulten operators. The ultimate aim is to establish a similar process control system across each plant.
Göran Johansson, environment and quality manager at Bulten AB, comments, “We needed to set up a more precise control plan for our operators that would enable them to produce useful documentation for our customers. We had always produced measurements but had struggled to document them before. Moving to Shopfloor-Online solves that issue.

And, the software makes it very obvious when something is out of specification so we now have the benefit of much better visibility of issues. This is a huge benefit as it means that our reports are more accurate and honest now.”

Shopfloor-Online is configured to take measurements manually but directly connected to gauges to save time. This enables operators to see quickly if measurements are moving out of specification and alerts them to take action. The software also informs operators of their schedule for measurements, ensuring that all checks are carried out within the necessary time scales and that they are recorded for subsequent reports.

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