ABG Rubber & Plastics has revolutionised how they store and vend tools at their facility in Northampton. The investment into various GARANT tool cabinets and storage units from Hoffmann Group is helping the company save time and cost. Staff can find tools and equipment more easily and stock is managed more efficiently minimising the risk of lost tools.
ABG Rubber & Plastics are a sub-contract CNC machinist of Plastic and Rubber components, providing services from CNC turning, milling and routing to fabrication and pressed parts. With an increasing production load whilst trying to maintain a high level of quality, ABG needed a solution that helped them find tooling quickly and efficiently.
In November 2023, ABG invested in multiple storage and vending solutions alongside Tool 24, an automated software system, from Hoffmann Group– leading manufacturer of high-quality storage, tooling and PPE solutions. The GARANT tool cabinets with two depths, five widths and eight housing heights, offers the variety to store and organise any components used on a day-to-day basis – for ABG this was the perfect solution to streamline their production through organising their tooling.
Gavin Samwell, Machining Supervisor at ABG, found that time was being wasted looking for required tooling. He said: “We needed a system to enable us to interrogate our tooling stock and something that allowed us to ensure we had the required tooling for orders going forward. The system from Hoffmann has allowed us to be proactive rather than reactive in our production and therefore has saved us time and cost since having it installed.”
High precision manufacturing facilities like ABG Rubber & Plastic often use various jigs, fixtures and tooling. Previously the company used a manual system storage system for these items – basic drawers and cupboards. This was causing major issues as tooling clashed and ended up damaged. Gavin continued: “we knew that to solve this we needed a system where everything is logged and has its place. The storage solutions from Hoffmann have allowed us to streamline this process – staff can access what they with their login key and the drawers automatically open to what they need.”
The latest storage and vending solutions are also helping Gavin in his role as Machining Supervisor. Requests from customers can be answered quicker as Tool 24 allows offline access where employees can easily search what tool is available for the job. Gavin added: “It is helping the business overall save a lot of time. It’s been an eye opener for us because it works so well with what we do.”
Hoffmann Group is a manufacturer of premium industrial tooling and equipment – offering the UK manufacturing sector pioneering solutions from GARANT, HOLEX and other leading brands. With specialists is PPE, cutting tools and Workstations & Storage, Hoffmann Group UK, based in Birmingham, can support industry with simplifying procurement and optimising efficiency for any production facility. Find out more and browse Hoffmann products.
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