Mockel

Founded in 1947

Manufactures complex, high-precision machined parts for a variety of sectors: 50% for defence, 30% for aerospace and 5% for space

50 employees

Challenges

The series ordered by customers can be relatively small (250 parts on average for the defence sector, 20 to 50 parts for prototypes) or very large (2,000 to 20,000 parts for the aeronautical sector) and share the same machine resources. Mockel must prepare itself to be able to deliver many more orders in very small series without seeing its operating costs and lead times explode. Additionally, Mockel has to be able to cope with different sources of variability over which it has very little control : frequent changes in the quantity requested and the delivery date, unavailability of the material on the planned date, failure of subcontractors to meet promised deadlines.

Solutions

Mockel decided to develop its ERP with Hi Pass by taming the QRM approach.The important thing is that all aspects of their production are taken into account in one tool. Information silos have been eliminated. A tracking table that shows the status of each step of an order has been set up. It helps to coordinate the efforts to reduce the white zones of the MCT (Manufacturing Critical Path Time). Also screens has been installed in each production cells. The operator finds all the needed information that helps him in his work and can give feedback on the advancement of his work.

Results

QUOTE Antoine Lecocq Since implementing the changes, we’ve noticed a lot of positive impacts:

─ We’ve gained production flexibility and reduced downtime. We’ve increased our machine production hours (by 7-8% at the current rate) and thus improved our productivity.

─ Better visibility for confirming our production deadlines to our customers. We can quickly demonstrate to them how our entire process is managed. Trust increases and discussions are easier

─ Staff are more independent and can anticipate certain production. They can also become more autonomous (less absenteeism).

─ The “manual encoding” part has been drastically reduced (0.5 FTE).

─ If there are slack periods, it is easier to interpose a production or a task via the Tracker.

─ It is difficult to estimate the exact impact on OTD because with Covid we have seen a certain reduction in activity, but we have improved compared with 2019.