Panels & Furniture March/April 2022

FURNITURE MANUFACTURING
“The operating status of the equipment can
be tracked clearly on an hourly, two-week,
three-month or yearly basis,” said Oda. “From a
sales point of view, this data will be an indicator
of capital investment, and a weapon for the
company’s growth.”
SORTING PRODUCTION SET
HOMAG’s sorting assistant, the Sorting
Production Set, aims to help manufacturers
reduce the time-consuming process of
searching for the right parts for assembly,
packaging or further processing. Using
a barcode-scanning system, the Sorting
Production Set can automatically sort
workshop components into respective racks
and compartments and, via a tablet, provide
operators with an overview of the components
needed for each order.
At Simfur Design, an end-to-end woodworking
solution provider based in Malaysia, the
digitalisation of this process benefitted their
factory operations in multiple ways. Previously,
the sorting of parts was done manually on
the floor by workers. This not only utilised
a significant amount of floor space of their
1,500sqm factory and made it difficult for
workers to identify missing parts, but it also
increased the chance of damage to panels due
to excessive handling. Especially when multiple
batch-size-one orders run concurrently, their
workers found it difficult to keep track of all the
parts and tell each order apart.
By integrating the Sorting Production Set
into their workflow, they achieved a smart,
standardised sorting method that minimised
prolonged assembly time and any delayed
fulfilment of orders.
“A sorting task that used to take two workers
an hour to complete now takes one worker
just 20 minutes, as less time is needed to find
missing parts and match the correct batchsize-one
parts,” said Jason Sim, project and
factory manager at Simfur. “The Sorting
Production Set also completely removes
the chance of human error in the workflow,
as workers now sort the parts based on a
barcode scan instead of manually reading
the barcodes and figuring out which panel
belongs to which compartment.”
The digital assistant and digital job folder
ProductionManager were connected to
Simfur’s existing HOMAG iX 3D design
and production software and were fully
operational by the workers within a week.
Upon implementation, workers had an
overview of ongoing orders, the bill of
materials of each order, the sorting progress,
as well as where each component had been
sorted to at all times.
Legend
1 The MMR Mobile
application
2 The Sorting
Production Set aims
to reduce the timeconsuming
process of
searching for the right
parts
3 Using a barcodescanning
system, the
Sorting Production
Set can automatically
sort workshop
components into
respective racks and
compartments
2
3
“The Sorting Production Set is an extension of
HOMAG iX’s integration in our production, and
provides our assembly team with the additional
help to perform their job accurately and
efficiently,” concluded Sim.
LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR GROWTH
Amid this era of digital transformation, the
combination of engineering expertise, service
and software will be key to accelerating how
data is harnessed to make the manufacturing
process faster and more reliable than before.
The digitalisation of manufacturing processes
and the application of the Internet of Things
(IoT) can translate to better operational
stability, the ability to scale and adapt to
industry demands, as well as ensure consistent
product quality. By positioning themselves to
take advantage of the latest developments and
leveraging the expertise of technology partners
with integrated solutions, woodworking
companies will be able to reap various benefits
and open up new growth opportunities. P
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Panels & Furniture Asia | March / April 2022 49