If you want to keep the reins in your hand, you shouldn't have a paper trail in production. The leading manufacturer of braiding machines Herzog relies on the Coscom Eco system and is successively linking its IT island solutions across the entire store floor and company to form a whole. All data is stored centrally in one place. Coscom takes care of the necessary interface management. The solution ensures reliable, reproducible, stable and consistent processes. All employees can access the complete company know-how. No more searching - all information is available at a glance.

Braids are the oldest known textile structures - there is evidence of braided structures dating back to around 24,000 B.C. The machine manufacturer Herzog has been producing braiding and winding machines since 1861 and has been using Coscom solutions for more than 15 years to take the digitization of production to new levels. The end products manufactured on Herzog machines include shoelaces, sewing thread or two-dimensional braids for the shoe and textile industry, technical braids for the automotive and chemical industries, such as sheaths for cable harnesses, hoses and seals. But people are also sometimes literally hanging by a thread from products from Oldenburg: the 150 Herzog employees are at the service of customized solutions for medical technology, for example for the production of surgical suture materials, stents and compresses, as well as for the manufacture of high-quality sports and climbing ropes.

Professional tool management

The company has received a new boost by replacing the tool management system previously in use with Toolirector VM from Coscom. Most of the expensive special tools are stored directly on the 30 or so CNC machines. A heterogeneous machine park is available on the store floor for small to large series: CNC milling machines from a wide range of manufacturers, including a large portal milling machine and cycle-controlled machines, as well as various different CNC lathes from Forest, DMG, Wemas, Emco, Monforts, Matra, Mazak, Hedelius, Maier, POS, Harrison and Weiler.

In addition to tool management, the Tooldirector has also taken over the handling of the operating resources processes as a whole. The Zoller measuring device and the Kardex lifts have also been integrated. With the previous tool management system, there was no question of effective IT-supported tool management. "With the help of Coscom, we were finally able to bring real tool management to life. We are now very satisfied with it," confirms Andreas Wiegner, Operations Manager at the braiding machine manufacturer. A new production site is currently being built in Oldenburg, so it is important that the IT processes work perfectly and can be transferred to the new plant.

Turnstile Eco-System database platform

The Toolirector VM is not a stand-alone software solution, but is deeply integrated into the Coscom data platform. The eco-system software solution works like a hub - like an airport: every arriving aircraft is docked and processed. Nothing is left behind and, if required, the journey can continue to the next station, for example to the CAM systems or tool presetting. The eco system supplies all the required process data directly to the info points on the machines. This means that Herzog has a central data and process hub "below" the ERP system, which acts as the leading store floor system. The Coscom platform sets the pace as the "heart" of the store floor.

"The key benefit of comprehensive, centralized digitalization of the store floor is that the user does not have to deal with countless different system providers or software solutions in order to get to grips with the interface issue. With the Coscom Eco system, it is possible to store the data centrally in exactly one place," says Ingo Kolberg from Coscom. You can only call yourself a platform provider if you also have the interface expertise for the individual satellite systems. Coscom has specialized in this and offers state-of-the-art technologies and neutral data bases for the integration of these system islands, so that no data format or communication problems occur when the individual satellite systems are released.