Schuler North America, subsidiary of Schuler Group GmbH, hosted a Digitalization & Modernization Workshop last week. The workshop was also the grand opening of Schuler’s Michigan Ave Service Facility.
Attendees included senior leaders, directors, and engineers from major OEM and Tier-One suppliers, the Supervisor from the Charter Township of Canton, Anne Marie Graham-Hudak, and senior editors from top trade publications.
“We want our customers to take tangible information back to their shop and know that Schuler is available to support them in their digitalization journey,” states Kevin McAllister, President of Schuler North America. “I can safely say we achieved this objective based solely on the feedback we received. We will certainly host more workshops to support those that could not attend last week.”
Domenico Iacovelli, CEO of Schuler Group GmbH and Member of the Executive Board Andritz Group, and Kevin McAllister opened the workshop with a live press conference. Session topics included:
The Press Shop of the Future, presented by Tiago Vasconcellos, Sales Director at Schuler North America, identified key technologies used at Schuler’s Smart Press Shop that reshape costs, output, and carbon footprint. The Press Shop of the Future was instrumental in laying the foundation for the entire workshop as it provided attendees with the current market status and future expectations of digitalization.
Optimize Shop Floor Operations, presented by Andreas Gebele, Product Manager of Digital Automotive Solutions at Schuler Pressen GmbH, provided solutions to achieve increasements in availability, performance, and quality with Schuler’s Track & Trace, laser serialization, blank measurements, and downtime detection.
Protect Dies & Prevent Damages with VDP, presented by Samuel Czyzewski, Service & Digitalization Engineer at Schuler North America, included a live demo of Schuler’s Visual Die Protection (VDP) and the immediate ROI from the camera-based system’s capability to detect foreign objects, inspect processes, and monitor die functions.
The Shop Floor Tour, presented by Robert Tyler, Facility & Operations Manager at Schuler North America, gave attendees an inside look at the 32,000 sq. ft. facility’s 50-ton crane, in-house press pit for rebuilds and assembly, specialized equipment, and team of field service and engineering support at work.
Press Shop Planning with Cloud Solutions, presented by Andreas Gebele and Flavio Rudiger, Lead Digitalization Engineer at Schuler North America, included a live demo of Schuler’s machine applications that provide predictive maintenance to avoid efficiency losses and damage risks.
Get Proactive with Service Agreements, presented by Andy Osborn, Director of Modernization at Schuler North America, provided value-add predictive maintenance, remote service, and spare parts with Schuler’s Service Agreements. Two supporting topics included Schuler Smart Inspections, presented by Rodrigo DePaula Branco, Engineering Group Lead at Schuler North America, and Schuler Connect, a live demo of the smart glasses and application for safe and cost-effective remote support and troubleshooting, presented by Flavio Rudiger and Samuel Czyzewski.
Future Products, presented by Flavio Rudiger and Andreas Gebele, covered all Schuler Digital Suite products coming soon to the USA. Solutions included DIGISIM simulation software to increase productivity, Smart Assist to increase output, Smart Monitoring System (SMS) to detect machine stress from older equipment, Visual Quality Inspection (VQI) to detect part quality issues efficiently, and Service Portal to access contracts, warranties, technical equipment data, inspection protocols, service history, Schuler’s 24/7 helpline, and spare parts stock availability.
“The Digitalization & Modernization Workshop highlighted our local availability,” explains Telvi Zanin, Vice President of Service at Schuler North America. “Schuler North America has over 300 employees. We are the largest local OEM service support, and the grand opening of our new facility greatly enhances our capabilities for the local market.”
