Agronic Oy is one of the first users of the Konecranes Agilon® material management system. Agronic wanted to simplify its material management, speed up inventory turnover, and ensure reliable deliveries of goods required in production and maintenance.
Agronic wanted to simplify its material management, speed up inventory turnover, and ensure reliable deliveries of goods required in production and maintenance
Founded in 1993, Agronic manufactures balers, crushers, feeder wagons, slurry tankers, and other agricultural machinery in its two locations, Teollisuustie and Kalliotie, in Haapavesi in Northern Ostrobothnia. Around half of its products are exported to other countries. The company is the market leader in slurry tankers in Finland.
Agronic wanted to simplify its material management, speed up inventory turnover, and ensure reliable deliveries of goods required in production and maintenance.
“Before Agilon, we didn’t have a separate inventory management system for the small components required in production, which were managed with Excel spreadsheets. We wanted a solution for this,” explains Mauri Autio, CEO of Agronic.
The second reason for choosing Agilon was related to the use of space. There were a lot of separate shelves for small utensils needed in production, and these items were stored here and there in both production facilities.
The third reason was inefficient time management. Continuous inventories of stock a few times a week and related orders to suppliers of small items took a great deal of time. Human errors occurred when calculating the balances. Occasionally, some items ran out because they had been left unordered.
“We saw that Agilon was the best solution for us,” says Autio.
No risk of running out of items
Konecranes Agilon automated warehouse systems were installed in both production facilities at Agronic. The systems are used by more than 40 production and warehouse employees, as well as a few people in office and managerial positions. Small components required for production and maintenance are stored in Agilon, along with protective equipment, chemicals, consumables, and spare parts, as well as welding, fastening and hydraulic supplies.
Agilon is integrated into the Ahlsell ordering system. Ahlsell provides Agronic with technical supplies, protective equipment, and industrial components for assembly, to name just a few examples. Agilon automatically sends a notification to reorder directly to the supplier’s system when the balance of a product falls below the set limit.
Orders are not processed manually at Agronic. Operations are easy at both ends of the supply chain when the supplier only needs to package the goods and deliver them to the customer, with Agilon producing the dispatch list. This ensures the best possible level of item management and service capability.
Easier goods management
The Agilon system at Teollisuustie is 12 meters long and 6.1 meters high. The system has already been expanded and contains more than 1,000 boxes. One of its two access points is located in the spare-parts storage facility upstairs, while the other one is in the assembly facility downstairs.
Agilon makes it easier to manage spare parts and components that are required every day.
Warehouse employee Kimmo Erkkilä uses the system daily. He enters incoming goods into the system, checks the accuracy of the automated order balances, and keeps track of orders and balances on a daily basis.
“Agilon makes it easier to manage spare parts and components that are required every day. It ensures the availability of less frequently required components. No one needs to ask a colleague where the parts might be,” Erkkilä explains.
According to Erkkilä, the user interface is so simple that anyone who knows how to use a smartphone can also use the interface.
The Agilon system at Kalliotie, Agronic’s other location, is 10 meters long and 5.6 meters high, with one access point. The system has proven its worth in day-to-day production.
“There is no going back,” says Production Foreman Esko Honkala.
Goals have been achieved
Agronic has good experiences of using the Agilon system. All goals have been achieved.
“We wouldn’t have these systems unless they benefitted our business operations.
“We wouldn’t have these systems unless they benefitted our business operations. We have simplified the order and supply chain of small components and eliminated manual work phases. We are now able to monitor orders, inventory balances and inventory values from reports, and optimize stocks and inventory turnover. Orders are automatically placed before the items run out of stock and cause interruptions in production,” Mauri Autio sums up.
Time is freed up from inventories of stock, which are no longer required. The space freed up from storage is used for production.
Agilon has simplified and rationalized material management, order tracking and delivery reliability.
“Employees know exactly where to find the components: always at the same access point. They no longer need to remember the places of parts on the shelves. They are also pleased with the availability of goods.”
Overall, Autio says that Agilon has simplified and rationalized material management, order tracking and delivery reliability. It has brought clarity to storage.
“We wouldn’t have these systems unless they benefitted our business operations. We have simplified the order and supply chain of small components, and eliminated manual work phases,” says Mauri Autio, CEO of Agronic.
Esko Honkala (left), Production Foreman in the Kalliotie location of Agronic, shows how storage information and reports are always easily available through the Agilon portal. Pictured here are Agilon Sales Manager Jarkko Hemmi, Konecranes, and Mauri Autio, Agronic.
“Agilon has made it easier to manage spare parts and components that are required every day. It ensures the availability of less frequently required components,” says warehouse employee Kimmo Erkkilä, the most frequent user of the Agilon system in the Teollisuustie location of Agronic.
