Kanban safeguards production

Individuality as standard: Brock Kehrtechnik combines the effective efficiency of a series producer with the customisation capability of an artisanal workshop. This is down to a modular system in which the series production vehicles can be individually configured and supplemented with additional equipment and options. Whether it is special double disc brushes, oil removal, foliage suction hose units, high-pressure water equipment or interchangeable body systems for winter maintenance: sweepers from Brock precisely fulfil the customer’s specific requirements. Brock even supplies super-strong permanent magnets for the reliable removal of ferrous foreign bodies. The list of customers is as diverse as the requirements and extends from municipal authorities and road maintenance organisations through airport operators and construction companies, right up to private-sector cleaning contractors. “We rely on standardised processes and products that make time-and cost-consuming, one-off solutions superfluous,” says Marc Scherer, Purchasing Manager at Brock Kehrtechnik, summing up the company’s philosophy.

Hydraulics, pneumatics, suction equipment, tipping systems, hydrostatic drives and much more: sweepers combine tremendously complex technologies in compact installation spaces. In addition, the vehicles have dirt and water containers on board. The largest sweeper, the BROCK VS14, has a 14 m³ dirt hopper and a 3000-litre water tank, which can be supplemented with an optional additional tank, taking its water capacity up to 10,000 litres. “The compact installation space calls for extensive experience in design and installation. For example, these machines incorporate a huge variety of different screw fittings and fastening systems,” explains Scherer.

“As a series producer with a high volume of orders, stoppages in production are never welcome. Therefore, we place great value on rapid and reliable parts availability and take specific measures to safeguard our production processes,” says Scherer. The sweeper specialist relies on having its own warehouse so that all regularly required parts are continuously available. A core element of this process optimisation is a Kanban-controlled warehouse, which is installed directly in the 15,000 m² production hall in Bochum. A rack with around 300 storage bins filled with screw fittings, pipe clamps and bulk hose. In a nutshell: all the articles that the installers require every day for the series produced vehicles configured to the customer’s wishes, always at hand right there, where the job is done. “The Kanban principle could not be simpler. There are two storage bins for each article. When a storage bin becomes empty, the article is reordered. In the meantime, the production staff use material from the second, full container,” explains Scherer. Two more Kanban racks in other production areas extend the continual material replenishment system. 

“Kanban has enabled us to sustainably strengthen our process reliability and eliminate stoppages due to lack of parts,” says Scherer. Before Kanban, we had to check the inventory manually, issue orders and coordinate new material deliveries. An onerous task that was almost impossible to keep up with in the case of frequently used items such as screw fittings. Nowadays, HANSA‑FLEX does the whole lot: Alexander Walter from the HANSA‑FLEX Willich branch comes to our factory every week, looks through the racks, puts the previous week’s deliveries in their places, checks the stock and issues new orders: “We don’t just deal with material supply. We assume full responsibility for it – so that the customer always has the right material available in the right quantities at the right place,” says Walter, concisely expressing how this differs from a traditional ordering system. Not every supplier could take on this role at Brock, the hurdles are set appropriately high. “It is a giant leap of faith, in effect to place the entire management of the whole supply chain in the hands of a supplier,” stresses Scherer. Whoever is in charge of the Kanban warehouse has a direct influence on the flow of production. One mistake – wrong article, too little stock, lack of quality – immediately affects manufacturing. This also shows in details such as the FIFO-organisation of the Kanban warehouse, which avoids, for example, O-rings or elastomer seals being kept for too long in the warehouse and becoming brittle during storage.

What Scherer particularly appreciates about the collaboration: HANSA‑FLEX never comes to meetings empty-handed. The sales representatives bring a current SAP evaluation with sales trends, material consumption changes and prices with them on every visit. “My customer adviser lets me know, for example, that there has been a 16.5 percent increase in consumption of heavy-series screw fittings and proactively enquires whether the figure is an exception or whether this higher consumption should be taken into account in future,” says Scherer, describing an example from practice. The Kanban warehouse is continually optimised based on these data. 

For Scherer, customer proximity is not a marketing term. “As the responsible purchasing manager, personal contact is indispensable. The Covid pandemic clearly showed the importance of good supplier relations and stable supply chains.” In his mind, one of the main arguments for long-term partnership is the fact that HANSA‑FLEX shares this view. The branch is a few minutes away, the HANSA‑FLEX contact is named and reachable, there is a management level presence – and the companies’ collaboration extends well beyond the Kanban warehouse: from solution-finding in design and technical support in enquiries about customised products to joint trialling of new components before they are used in series production. Both partners invest in the development of the relationship, always with the aim of strengthening and safeguarding the already high process quality. “The collaboration is a perfect example of how a customer-supplier relationship can work. It is always a continual process of give and take. And the basis for this is precise and trustworthy communication,” emphasises Christian Kirchholtes, who is responsible for the customer relationship on the HANSA‑FLEX side.