Metalúrgica RAEI (RAEI Metallurgy company), an auto parts manufacturer with sixty years in the market, uses Extend IT software to optimize its production process, make the most of available resources and maximize efficiency.
Sixty years ago, Alejandro Rivamonti founded RAEI Metalúrgica with the aim of manufacturing auto parts. Currently, already led by the third generation, the company is heading towards the total optimization of its production process. “The same growth that we experienced pushed us to boost efficiency: the information we needed to make decisions on the use of raw materials or man-hours came to us very late,” explained Juan Pablo Rivamonti, director of the company and one of Alexander’s grandchildren.
The company, specialized in cold sheet metal processing and welding, a plant located in the town of San Fernando, province of Buenos Aires, and with a staff of 150 collaborators, decided to search the market for a software that would enable them to plan its production. This is how, after an exhaustive analysis of the various existing tools, and even two implementation attempts that did not come to fruition, they accepted Extend IT proposal. “We needed to handle two types of data, in both cases as close to real time as possible: those related to the production plan and those linked to quality,” explained Rivamonti.
We integrate a lot of technology in our operations, so this solution allows us to generate a kind of interface between machines and humans, so that the data produced by robots, PLCs and machining centers is transformed into readable information to organize production in time and form”, Juan Pablo Rivamonti, director of RAEI Metalúrgica. Control in all parts Metalúrgica RAEI, an auto parts manufacturer with sixty years in the market, uses Extend IT software to optimize its production process, make the most of resources and maximize efficiency.
The solution enables us to fully optimize the physical or human resources necessary to meet the customer’s requirements: if they ask us for ten pieces, we can now apply what is just necessary to produce them”, said Juan Pablo Rivamonti, director of RAEI Metalúrgica.
The ultimate goal of this implementation is, based on the director´s explanation, “to fully optimize the physical or human resources necessary to meet the customer’s requirements: if they ask us for ten pieces, we can now apply what is just necessary to produce them”. Rivamonti admited that before using Extend IT Production Planning, many overtime hours had been paid or raw material wasted due to miscalculation. “Many times, what is thrown away is understood as ‘waste’, but bad estimates also result in time wasted, invisible when they occur, which are only perceived when there is no way to remedy it”, emphasized Rivamonti.
Extend IT Production Planning provides end-to-end monitoring of the production process: from taking the customer’s order and allocating resources to auditing the work performed. If due to a certain reason the original program determined by the tool cannot be fulfilled, it automatically reprograms it and offers an efficiency report. Among RAEI Metalúrgica´s objectives with this solution are to accurately measure each element of the production process and optimize inventory levels.
“SMEs in Argentina are used to having a global view, to see if the business in general is profitable, if it is convenient, but when the analysis is opened to the finer numbers, the potential for savings and efficiency becomes infinite” Rivamonti concludes.
