Automation for hot efficiency

Well begun is half won. It is a philosophy that helps Barbas Bellfires from the North Brabant town of Bladel in the production process. In the very beginning the manufacturer of stoves and fireplaces did everything by hand: cutting metal sheets, bending and welding until there was a worthy fireplace or stove. Today, however, this is different and various automated solutions are just around the corner. Remmert takes charge of the beginning of this production process, allowing Barbas Bellfires to work more efficiently and effectively.

Fifteen years ago Barbas Bellfires outsourced production, but with little success: production costs across the chain proved quite high, lead time was too long - about ten weeks - and the reliability rate was only 40%. Barbas Bellfires set new goals: production costs down, level of lead time and reliability up. And so production was brought in-house. Production may have been in-house, but the process was still largely manual. This, too, could be taken in hand. The foundation for the automation was laid together with Remmert.

Bar ever higher

Barbas Bellfires started with one BASIC Tower to store its many metal plates. After the first success, the fireplace manufacturer decided to raise the bar even higher. Barbas Bellfires opted for a number of additional solutions, and 2016 the company from Bladel expanded with a LaserFLEX and a LoopFLEX. These additions to the production line provided the breakthrough in efficiency and effectiveness. The Laserflex takes care of transporting the metal sheets to the laser cutting machines, and delivers the cut material to the LoopFLEX. At the LoopFLEX, workers can pick up the material and work with it. They liked the process, and in late 2019 Barbas Bellfires expanded with a second installation of the BASIC Tower, LaserFLEX and LoopFLEX. So Remmert's solutions allow Barbas Bellfires to grow, and these solutions in turn grow with them.

The BASIC Tower provides orderly storage of all your metal plates.

A warm feeling

Among other things by using Remmert's solutions, an efficient flow of materials was realized and Barbas Bellfires was able to shorten the lead time from ten weeks to only a week and a half. Within a week and a half a metal sheet is transformed into a real and fully-fledged fireplace or stove. In addition, the original reliability rate increased from 40% to a substantial 95%. "We were looking for a supplier that could work in a one-way street," says Mark Spijkers, Operations Managers at Barbas Bellfires. "Remmert's products support us tremendously, especially at the beginning of production. And a good start is half the battle." Spijkers is also satisfied in terms of service. "In the quasi exceptional case that there is a small defect on one of the machines, the Remmert team knows how to solve it remotely. They can even direct one of our employees to fix the problem."

The metal is cut with extreme precision in a laser cutting machine. The cut metal sheets are finally delivered to the LoopFLEX by the LaserFLEX.

Flawless communication with other machines

"Based on many conversations with Barbas Bellfires, we knew what the requirements were and what they needed," says Jan Schwiertz, Account Manager at Remmert. "Remmert's strength is that we deliver modular products that are easy to coordinate with products from other suppliers. In fact, we sit down with many suppliers who work with our products to come up with the best possible plan. This only benefits the customer." Schwiertz continues, "Not only in the area of hardware, but also in the area of software, our solutions know how to communicate flawlessly with the products of other suppliers. Products and solutions that could be aligned with those already in place: then you've come to the right place."