UK-based injection-moulding company, Talisman Plastics, has implemented Intouch i4 Cloud software in its 27 injection setting machines to help the company meet the increased demand for medical products during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ewelina Skalska, production manager, Talisman Plastics
Talisman provides secure seals to the NHS, with two of Talisman’s 27 machines producing this vital equipment. By applying Intouch’s system, this meant that Talisman could recently switch their machinery to operate 24/7 and facilitate the production of over 350,000 units a week.
The Intouch i4 Cloud software allows Talisman to leave the machines completely unmanned during the 48 hours of the weekend, and as a result is able to increase production whilst keeping staff safe.
Ewelina Skalska, production manager at Talisman Plastics, said: “Our efficiency target with producing NHS equipment is 95%, and because we are able to react quickly to any issues causing downtime through the InTouch alert system, the target has been generally matched and even surpassed.”
The software is believed to benefit all of Talisman’s customers, through improved scheduling, planning and monitoring of cycle times. It also monitors quantities produced against each works order and will result in increased productivity and lead times for customers.
Skalska added: “The software is available cross-department, so if a customer reaches out for information on their order, any team can look at Intouch to check the status and react to the customer enquiry without delay.
“Intouch’s detailed reporting times can provide elapsed time on each run of products and an ETA on when the injection setting will be complete, and whether the machine is running ahead or behind schedule.”
Intouch will allow Talisman to react to any stoppages almost immediately, and quickly attend to any faults which are causing a machine stoppage.
“Intouch will report the nature of the stoppage so that in our weekly status meetings we can see what needs fixing, whether it’s a tooling problem, being tight on resource or if there’s a consistent machine fault then we can look into swiftly getting it fixed,” Skalska concluded.