Two smaller cupboards stand next to the big central one. They hold the calipers that are used to measure the diameter of drill holes, for example. In the past, calipers would often lie around for months at the workstation where they were last used. If someone needed calipers, he would have to make extended inquiries in order to find them. Today, a worker selects a caliper on a display, a green light indicates the right drawer, and that’s it. The worker can then use the calipers for up to 24 hours. If he still hasn’t returned them at the end of that time, he is sent a reminder. “That’s how we were able to reduce the number of calipers that we need in this hall by 30 percent,” Nagy says proudly. The new tool dispensing system also shows which tools are most often in demand or need to be reordered. This is exactly the kind of transparency and data networking that Lean System Manager Inotai aims to use productively. The benefits are twofold: The employees’ work processes become more efficient — and customers receive their machines and devices faster, in the top quality they are accustomed to.
Every department has the potential to reduce the waste caused by time-consuming processes. For example, until recently the procurement department would order a certain workpiece from a supplier and fill out the address, the work order, and any necessary changes by hand on yellow delivery slips. “The employees would spend a lot of their valuable time recording data and walking back and forth. Fortunately, that’s no longer necessary,” says Beáta Szolnok. Together with her colleague Regina Kövesdi, she has developed four apps and a small scanner. Today all the necessary information is entered via an app, and it is recorded at every process step by scanning a barcode. The delivery slips are created using a mobile printer. As a result, data recording proceeds much faster and the time saved can be used for other projects.