C 2305 and C 2504—behind these seemingly unassuming series of numbers are invaluable lifesavers. Pharmaceutical companies around the world use Uhlmann Pac-Systeme’s cartoning machines with these designations to package sensitive products. This ensures the protection of valuable medications on the way to patients. Christian Ehe, the team leader in electrical assembly for the production of cartoning machines, points to the production line with six stations at the main plant of Uhlmann Pac-Systeme in Laupheim and describes it as follows: “These machines are in demand because they are powerful, reliable and low-maintenance. This is the reason why we have chosen to prioritise the construction of these units.” He then goes on to explain the process: Employees take meters of cable from the drum rack, assemble them into cable harnesses, and then install them into the machine housing.
However, Christian Ehe adds: “If cable drums run empty and we have no further stock, production will temporarily come to a halt, which will result in a loss of valuable time and ultimately money.” The master electrician explains that merely storing more cables on suspicion is not an optimal solution. “This ties up a lot of capital, and it’s annoying to have lots of cable reels lying around in the production area. We hardly have any space for an additional warehouse.”
Therefore, the family-owned company Uhlmann Pac-Systeme accepted the offer from its long-standing business partner LAPP, the world market leader for integrated solutions in cable and connection technology and became the first customer to introduce the LAPP eKanban solution: This digital cable inventory management system enables the company to digitally monitor the amount of cable used and to automatically reorder new cables when a safety stock is undershot. Christian Ehe is delighted: The solution is ingenious. It has solved the problem of empty cable drums. But how exactly does this system work, and why is it particularly beneficial for companies like Uhlmann Pac-Systeme?
“The Best Process is No Process”
Dominik Schmalzried is aware of the challenges associated with cable inventory management. In his role as Global Business Process Owner Digital Innovation at LAPP, he is responsible for developing innovative, digital services. To this end, he regularly engages with LAPP customers, whether on-site, at trade fairs, or in other suitable contexts. He reports: “In my conversations with customers, I have repeatedly heard about the challenges they face in managing and delivering their inventory optimally. The obvious solution—simply buying and storing more—is economically untenable.” LAPP eKanban is the ideal solution for this purpose: The cable drum is equipped with a system that accurately calculates the amount of remaining cable, notifies the relevant employees, and can initiate an automated cable reorder if necessary.
This concept had been under consideration at LAPP for some time. The breakthrough can be attributed to the initiative of Dominik Schmalzried to measure the amount of cable used with the assistance of an inertia sensor. The sensor is attached to the side of a cable drum, measures how often the drum rotates, and calculates the amount used from the measurement data and input data about the specific cable to within +/- two percent accuracy. The data is transferred to the cloud application, which provides a comprehensive overview of all inventories and consumption in a convenient dashboard. In this instance, safety stocks can also be defined, from which an automatic reorder is to be triggered. “That aligns precisely with my professional philosophy: For the users, the optimal approach is to remove any formal process, as this eliminates the possibility of human error,” says the innovation manager with a wink” By digitising and automating cable inventory management, we solve the problem across the board and offer real added value.” Uhlmann Pac-Systeme has become the first customer to implement LAPP eKanban.
Safe Medications Through Secure Packaging
Since its founding in 1948, Uhlmann Pac-Systeme has developed into the world’s leading system provider for packaging pharmaceuticals in blister packs, bottles, and cartons. The company offers flexible comprehensive solutions for international pharmaceutical companies, generic drug manufacturers, and packaging service providers. The company’s headquarters are in Laupheim, near Ulm, and it employs approximately 1,700 people. In 2019, the Uhlmann Group was established, adopting the motto ‘Beyond Packaging’ and combining expertise across a broad range of machinery, software products, services and innovative solutions for the pharmaceutical, healthcare, consumer goods, food and agriculture markets.
Uhlmann Pac-Systeme’s cartoning machines play a crucial role in ensuring the safe and efficient delivery of medicines and other sensitive pharmaceutical products to patients. The company is able to package a variety of products with great precision. These include blister packs and bottles, which are GMP-compliant, and are packaged in folding boxes. These products are characterised by their high flexibility and reliability, which ensures the protection and perfect condition of the pharmaceutical products during transportation. The company is well versed in mechanical engineering and is committed to meeting all its obligations.
Manual Cable Inventory Management Was Time-Consuming and Error-Prone
This also means that Uhlmann Pac-Systeme places high demands on the choice of all components—including the connection solutions, explains Christian Ehe: “We have always used cables from LAPP because only this provider has such a broad portfolio that simultaneously contains the exact technical parameters we need as machine builders—including all the necessary certifications. This reassures us that quality and robustness are in place.” The control cable ÖLFLEX® CLASSIC 110 and data cable UNITRONIC® LiYCY are, for example, essential components for Uhlmann Pac-Systeme’s cartoning machines. Employees of the company install countless meters of them every day. Two shelves with about 40 cable drums each are readily available to supply the production with cables. “However, managing our cable inventory was a challenge for us for a long time,” says Christian Ehe. “In such instances, where cable drums are depleted and no replacement is available, production is halted until the necessary components are replenished.” In the past, Uhlmann employees gained an overview of the remaining stocks through regular cable inventories and reordered as needed. ” However, this resulted in a loss of time and resources, ” emphasizes the electrical assembly team leader, ” The process was susceptible to mistakes, for example, if a colleague was absent due to illness and the order was not placed.” A higher inventory was quickly ruled out as a solution, adds Christian Ehe: “That would have tied up too much capital, and we lacked the space for it.” A digital just-in-time solution was extremely attractive for Uhlmann Pac-Systeme—and LAPP was able to perfectly meet this requirement with the LAPP eKanban cable inventory management.
Development to Market Maturity Together with Customers
Uhlmann Pac-Systeme was the first company where LAPP eKanban was used in ongoing operations—and that already in an early development stage. Christian Siegel, Global Digital Service Sales Manager at LAPP, explains: “Our patented solution via inertia sensor impresses with its simplicity, but the overall system of LAPP eKanban is highly complex. The sensor data must ultimately be correctly interpreted and forwarded. Then follows the integration of the system into the OCI, EDI, and ERP systems of the companies to fully automate ordering processes.”
To ensure that the system works reliably and smoothly in everyday production and does not cause new issues, LAPP tested it in a pilot project with five companies, including Uhlmann Pac-Systeme. Christian Siegel provides further insight on this matter: “We selected Uhlmann as our primary partner due to its strategic proximity to our company headquarters in Stuttgart, as well as our long-standing, positive and productive business relationships. Christian Ehe, the team leader for electrical assembly, is a valuable partner for us. His feedback on what works and where we can still improve the system is extremely useful.” Integration into IT systems in companies is a complex process that often requires significant time and precise coordination.
Reduced effort, Lower costs, optimized inventory levels and elimination of downtime
The advantages of the now market-ready system impress Christian Ehe: “Small sensor, big impact: Finally, we can save on manual inventory, reduce our inventory, and thus cut costs. At the same time, with automatic notification or reordering, I never have to worry again about production coming to a halt because of an empty cable drum.” So the team leader and his team can fully concentrate on producing high-quality packaging machines, in line with Uhlmann Pac-Systeme high-quality standards.
Dominik Schmalzried is also satisfied with the development of the LAPP eKanban cable inventory management: “As with any other project, there were challenges we had to solve. It turned out that the aspect of IT integration requires that LAPP eKanban must be a customized system—there will not be one solution that works for everyone in the foreseeable future.”
The solution is that the degree of automation of LAPP eKanban can be customized according to customer needs. At the first level, the system automatically sends an email when a certain remaining quantity is undershot. This does not require IT integration and already offers many advantages in cable inventory management for customers, such as more efficient processes and greater planning security. At the highest level, the system can be connected to the company’s EDI-ERP interfaces, so that the entire ordering and billing process runs fully automatically providing maximum added value. Dominik Schmalzried says: “No matter at what level— with LAPP eKanban, we can once again show that at LAPP we don’t stop at delivering high-quality components. We understand the needs of our customers and offer holistic solutions with real added value.”
