ABOUT FAIST Mekatronic

FAIST, the Light Metals Division, is one of the four business divisions of the FAIST group. Faist is a leading supplier of  high added-value, aluminum die cast components for the mobile communications network equipment industry, for the global  automotive industry and other industrial fields such as energy management, power tools and households. FAIST Light Metals is a key supplier to the Telecomm Network OEM and Automotive Tier 1 worldwide. The division currently operates on three continents, having 7 manufacturing plants located in Germany, Italy, Romania, China, Mexico and the US.

Faist Mekatronic is one of the manufacturing locations of the Faist Light Metals. The company is situated in Oradea, having at present around 1300 employees.

Challenges

  • To reduce the current costs related both to the printer fleet and to the multifunctional product fleet.
  • To increase the equipment availability – by implementing a real-time monitoring solution for the equipment fleet.
  • To simplify the activities of the IT and Procurement Departments by offering a single, detailed and flexible solution to meet the requirements.

Methodology employed

  1. Assessing the current document production space:
  • Assess the equipment functionality;
  • Total quantification of the direct and indirect costs of document production;
  • Set reference points for the identification and assessment of the best solutions for optimal costs;
  • Understand the current document production system;
  • Identify the technological and productivity needs;
  1.   Design of an integrated document production strategy:
  • Develop a blueprint for the improvement of the document production;
  • Identify an ideal technology mix for the improvement of the operation system;
  • Balance the print and copy fleet workforce deployment – owning the right equipment, in the right places, at the right time;
  • Redeploy, improve or replace the equipment for the optimization of the operational system, reduce costs and increase productivity;

Audit Results

Following the audit, 42 pieces of equipment were identified, which use over 100 consumables and various parts. This entails the provision of a large buffer stock. Thus, the flaw of a piece of equipment whose consumables are not found within the fleet will generate unused stock and losses of the initial investments.

  • 22% of the amount of printed pages is color.
  • 90% of the equipment are oversized as compared to the volumes it realizes. This led to the purchase of expensive equipment, which is not used to its full potential.
  • There is no preventative maintenance for the printing equipment fleet. Thus, the cost of the entire fleet is seemingly low, yet, in case of an equipment flaw, the replacement costs for some components that might have been avoided via preventative maintenance will be significant.
  • There is no application for the proactive management of the fleet, which would automatically generate warnings if there is a technical issue with the equipment or a consumable is needed.
  • There is no application to hold the printed documents in the network until the user logs into any device at his convenience and withdraws the document, thus ensuring the security of the printed document;

Recommendations

The opportunities to save from direct costs are:

  • Migrating the printed volume from printers to multifunctional machines, which offer a lower cost per page;
  • A dramatic reduction or complete elimination of the equipment installed locally;
  • Challenging the users to take into consideration walking to the printing equipment, specially for small documents;
  • Standardizing based on duplex printing, thus reducing the paper costs;
  • Reducing the consumable stock;
  • Orienting the company to new, innovative technologies, which offer a lower total cost of ownership than the classic technologies. Such an innovative technology is the ink printing technology, which comes with a low cost per color printed page, a low cost of parts and consumables that might break, but also a low cost of power consumption.

Reduction of indirect costs

There is a series of other areas where cutting back and simplifying the document production could raise efficiency:

  • Reducing the number of calls related to technical support. As far as the Faist Mekatronic - Romania company is concerned this number will be reduced by proactive monitoring and regular maintenance of the equipment by ETA2U;
  • Reducing the order downtime and replacing consumables. This will be solved by ensuring a minimal stock of consumables within the institution and of a backup set at ETA2U's warehouse.
  • Temporary replacement of the equipment sent to service to ensure a continuity of the users' productivity.
  • Protecting the environment by using a pick up and recycling system for the consumables and the waste generated by document production. ETA2U, an ISO 14001- certified company, will regularly collect these consumables and waste.

For further information, please contact our colleague – Gabriel Manga, ETA2U Image&Print Business Unit Manager, at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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