At the AMB in hall 3, stand D77, Hoffmann Group will present new features for their digital manufacturing solution Hoffmann Group Connected Manufacturing. The software offers tool administration for tracking all tools on the shop floor in real time. In addition, it provides digital job management. This feature has just been upgraded. The advanced job step overview now additionally includes information on the status of manual and external jobs. Users can now also group workplaces, machines and service providers into job bundles and allocate them to an order. This allows detailed production planning, optimized use of resources and higher utilization of the machine park.

With the new job administration in Connected Manufacturing the user can assign manual job steps to a workplace and external job steps to a service provider. Components or assemblies located with a service provider are automatically tagged as such to help production planning accommodate this. To optimise resource allocation, the user can now also group workplaces, machines and service providers into what is referred to as job bundles. This makes it possible to structure production units. Creating jobs in the system becomes even quicker since all required resources can be allocated just by clicking.

A customisable job step overview adds extra transparency and convenience. Every user can hide or show various items of information using selected filters to set up their own personalised job step overview. The filter configuration can be saved and set as the default view. Because every user needs to use their own credentials to log in to Connected Manufacturing, everyone always gets their own, user-specific view. An at-a-glance overview shows essentials on its job steps. This is a major benefit especially for larger manufacturers with a more widely distributed workload.

Connected Manufacturing is particularly easy to introduce wherever there is already a well-maintained tooling database in the CAM system. This imports smoothly to Connected Manufacturing, forming a solid foundation for rapid implementation in tool administration. In addition, it is possible to integrate the GARANT Tool24 tool dispensing system into the tool management solution. This results in a holistic system that gives round-the-clock tool monitoring and cuts throughput times in the production department to generate extra savings. In total, Connected Manufacturing supports eight CAM programs, with ESPRIT as its latest addition.

About Connected Manufacturing
Thanks to the Connected Manufacturing software solution, small and medium-sized enterprises can manage their tools more efficiently, and optimally plan their use. For this purpose, Connected Manufacturing provides a comprehensive overview of all tools and their digital twins in real time – from project planning in the CAM system, to the pre-setting device, right up to the machine. Alongside the master data, movement data – such as storage location or place of use – and pre-setting values are recorded and permanently updated. Based on this information, it is possible to always have the right tool in the right place, thereby reducing scrap, re-working or machine downtime. A clear and intuitive interface enables users to operate the solution in the shortest amount of time using a standard Internet browser. Tool serialisation is managed using RFID chips. Connected Manufacturing is currently available in eleven languages.