High-quality and flexibility: the key to success in tool grinding
The Swiss company, TBS, shows how tool grinding can look at its best: strong customer orientation, quality and flexibility are just some of the most important factors that have been made possible by NUMROTOplus.
Marcel Beier is the son of the company founder and the future managing director. He speaks proudly of this company which will soon be his own.TBS Werkzeugschärferei AG (tool sharpening company) located in Flawil (Switzerland) was founded by Ruedi Beier over 35 years ago and together with its longtime employees has since become a recognised specialist for the re-sharpening and manufacturing of tools for the metalworking, plastics and paper industries.
Its positive development, particularly over the past three years, has confirmed the company philosophy of making the customer and the employees a priority. Marcel Beier explains the five columns on which their success is based: “We want to deliver to our customers just-in-time. We can only do that if we are flexible and have a well-trained workforce. Training our staff supports two other important points for our customers: precision and quality.” Regular training sessions are carried out on one Saturday of every month: Here colleagues can exchange know-how, skills and tips which also motivates at the same time. Training on NUMROTOplus is a focal point. New employees can work at a higher level far quicker and know-how is widely distributed. Despite all the new technology available, manual tool sharpening is still holds great importance. TBS places great value on the qualifications of his staff which can be also seen in his commitment to the professional training of apprentices in tool grinding.
In the production hall at TBS there are a variety of machines ranging from Saacke, Strausak, UWS Reinecker and others. They are evaluated and adjusted exactly according to requirements but all have one thing in common: they are all controlled by NUMROTOplus. Thanks to the basic principle of the company, every employee is able to operate all the machines, as the work environment is basically the same.
In addition, the work and staff can be moved from one machine to another depending on capacity and how specialised the work is – whether it is resharpening a standard tool or manufacturing a customised tool. This will become easier in the future as an investment is already in the pipeline for a multi-user-server which can then open the parts program via a central network. TBS values NUMROTOplus as a reliable high-quality product with particular praise for the button cycles. “Our customers have extremely high requirements of us and the tools and NUMROTO ensures we are able to meet these demands in an economical way. We provide a comprehensive service for the customer as a general contractor and we also work very closely with selected sub-suppliers” says Marcel Beier. Flexibility has successfully become an integral part of TBS.
(September 2007)