Seco Tools, part of the Sandvik Group, is a global player in complete cutting tool solutions for industry. In , as part of a group-wide digital transformation project, Seco Tools launched a pilot project at its Bourges site. Through the collaboration with TDM Systems, part of the same group, Seco Tools has reaped many benefits: productivity gains, increased reliability, and optimization of consumable stocks.
In , Seco Tools launched an extensive digital transformation project. The goal was to implement an Industry 4. Launched in on the Bourges pilot site, the collaboration with TDM Systems, is part of this project. It aimed to leverage modules of the TDM Global Line solution to optimize production processes and streamline tool data, to maximize machine utilization and operator execution speed.
The objective was to move away from the predominantly manual management of tool data and make the complete list and characteristics of each tool available centrally and digitally. This data is essential to allow ad hoc programming of the machine before each production cycle. The machine must be perfectly adapted to each tool, otherwise it will not function properly. The downtime of the latter is thus minimized. Prior to the collaboration with TDM Systems, Seco did not have a solution for managing tool data within a production unit.
Each operator manually listed the tool data on his own Excel spreadsheet, copying it from existing and not necessarily up-to-date files. These data files were scattered, heterogeneous and did not communicate with each other. The good continuity of the operations thus often depended on the knowledge of the people who knew where the tools were and how to program their use by the machines.
The process was therefore time-consuming, potentially error-prone, and problematic during vacation periods. It also did not encourage the optimization of each machine. To implement effective data management and governance, Seco Tools wanted to streamline this process. Since TDM Systems is also part of the Sandvik Group and specializes in tool management solutions, collaboration was a natural fit. With TDM Systems, Seco Tools was able to have an application that was seen as a single source of information and that would allow anyone in the production unit to access the necessary tool data, according to each need, at the right time and in the right place.
