Background
Koni is known throughout the world as a manufacturer of high quality shock absorbers and related products for cars, trucks, buses, trailers and railway stock. Cars with Koni 'shocks' have won over 225 Grand Prix victories and thirteen Formula 1 world championships.
The Challenge
Like most manufacturers Koni is in a constant race to keep costs down and drive out waste and inefficiency in the manufacturing process. As part of this constant drive for efficiency, Koni embraced Lean Manufacturing principles. Koni identified that there was an opportunity for cost saving if the amount of material in work in progress in the factory could be reduced.
The Solution
Koni decided to introduce a Kanban system. Koni approached Modcomp to help design an IT system that could support the Kanban process. Modcomp, a Microsoft Mobility Solutions partner proposed using hand held Personal Digital Terminals (PDTs) from Motorola (formerly Symbol) running the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system integrated with the manufacturing system using software designed by Modcomp.
Now in operation, the Modcomp Kanban application works out short term replenishment processes and because it is connected to the back-office system it can also initiate a reordering process. Following the introduction of the Kanban application, Modcomp added further functionality to perform material handling checks. This enabled Koni to track materials across the shop floor providing useful management and operational data.