Fårbo Mekaniska saves up to 1M SEK annually by implementing CRIBWISE

_{Fårbo Mekaniska is a Sandvik Lighthouse partner. Meeting with Sandvik’s Lighthouse team.}

_{How did Fårbo Mekaniska AB save more than 700K SEK and 2,000 hours in tool inventory?}

Fårbo Mekaniska AB, a manufacturing company operating in Fårbo, Sweden also a Sandvik Lighthouse partner, has a target of being Sweden’s best workshop by 2025, with a revenue of 500 million SEK. But during their growth they experienced many efficiency challenges across their tool inventory and management systems.

Since implementing CRIBWISE, Fårbo Mekaniska has been able to save up to 1M SEK and 2,000 hours in tool inventory management.

The problem

While Fårbo Mekaniska was on a growth trajectory with a fleet of machines that seemed to multiply years after working with the same solutions in place, new sets of challenges emerged. However, this growth also came new challenges, most notably related to tool tracking and inventory management.

Prior to implementing CRIBWISE, Fårbo Mekaniska’s tool tracking and inventory accounted for nearly 10% of their annual turnover, an expense they saw as unsustainable, as well as precious time lost.

The time lost equated to an operator hunting down tools with approximately 2,000 hours logged to this one task. Equivalent to paying a full-time, 37-hour a week, employee with only the main task of looking through inventory.

Other areas that amounted to a significant amount of time spent administrating inventory included ordering tools, receiving them, storing the tools, and auditing the inventory.

But it wasn’t just time wasted on the shop floor; administrative tasks associated with inventory management also became a problem to solve.

At this point Mikael Vetterskog, Partner and Managing Director, knew it was time to research manufacturing solutions that could bring efficiency and innovation to his company’s shop floor.

The solution

Implementing CRIBWISE. The transformation was palpable. Tools and equipment were no longer elusive. The shop floor had new energy because operators were able to quickly locate the right tools for each job.

The hours of frustration turned into hours of productivity. Saving time and money. These savings could now be used toward Fårbo Mekaniska’s 2025 growth plan.

Vetterskog, recalls, “Fårbo Mekaniska has grown significantly over the past few years. We have invested heavily in our machine fleet and in our team, but also in software and technologies that help us to improve the efficiency of our production.”

The results

The implementation of CRIBWISE and the placement of tooling vending cabinets in close proximity to machining cells helped reduce the amount of time, around 2,000 hours were wasted looking for tools.

_{Fårbo Mekaniska AB implements CRIBWISE’s cloud-based inventory management software and tool-vending solutions.}

Now with CRIBWISE in place the company automatically orders stock items when needed, vs raising purchase orders for these tools - a time-consuming task no longer required. As well as receiving items is now automated, saving the company more than 135 hours a year.

But the efficiency doesn’t end here. There’s more.

Färbo Mekaniska realized they could make use of the Monitor G5 purchase order integration, a function within CRIBWISE. This function optimizes running stock and gives a detailed report to help further problem solve quicker.

Additionally, the Monitor G5, a purchase order integration from CRIBWISE, helped reduce the cost of inventory between SEK 700,000 -1,000,000 and at the same time achieve reducing their consumption of tools by simplifying their pick and return operations.

_{Fårbo Mekaniska reduces the time its operatives spend looking for tools by 2000 hours annually and saving another 135 hours a year with tool automation.}

Fårbo Mekaniska’s journey into digitalization reaches a significant milestone with the introduction of the CRIBWISE software and cabinets, marking a transformative shift away from uncontrolled tool overstocking to a realm of perfectly controlled, highly automated processes.

Vetterskog reiterated, “a milestone in our digitalization journey is the introduction of the CRIBWISE software and cabinets, which has helped us move away from the uncontrolled overstocking of our tools to a whole new world of a perfectly controlled, highly automated process.”

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