EROWA Report VICTORINOX AG

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REPORT - VICTORINOX AG

Sustainably successful They are so well-known and popular that they are virtually regarded as an emblem of Switzerland: the pocket knives of Victorinox. Their reliability, longevity and flexibility are proverbial. No wonder the company relies on cooperation with EROWA.

Many of them have worked for the company for decades; the fluctuation rate is extremely low. «Victorinox has never made even one employee redundant for economic reasons,» reports Bruno Spiess. He is Head of Tool-Making and has been with the company for

The world-famous firm was set up by Karl Elsener as a cutler‘s business in Ibach-Schwyz in 1884. As early as 1891, Elsener was supplying the Swiss army with the first soldiers‘ knives. In 1921, the firm was renamed Victorinox, a combination of Karl Elsener‘s mother‘s name, Victoria, and the designation of the only recently invented stainless steel, inox. After the Second World War, the «Swiss Officers‘ Knife» became a huge commercial hit with American soldiers. They called it «Swiss Army Knife» - and the rest is history.

30 years. His department manufactures the tools that are required for the production of the pocket knives. Numerous machines are crammed into very little space. The focus is on WEDM and EDM, where Victorinox relies on EROWA products with increasing consistency.

Tool-making Today, Victorinox produces not only a wide variety of pocket and kitchen knife variants, but also watches, baggage, clothing and perfumes with over 1,850 employees worldwide.

The firm‘s headquarters continues to be in peaceful Ibach near Schwyz, where numerous employees from the region earn their living.

Tried and tested cooperation «Our cooperation started in 1987 with the purchase of a Charmilles Roboform 400 EDM machine,» says Bruno Spiess.

«The man from Charmilles recommended an EROWA workpiece and electrode tooling system to us; I had never heard anything about this firm before, I must admit. But we acted on his advice and at the same time also bought an EROWA PreSet 2D measuring station for setting up and presetting electrodes.

Both have stood the test of time and are still in use today!»

In the 1990s, further products and components from EROWA were added; in 1992, for instance, a Robot X,

EROWA ITS electrode holder – The EROWA ITS tooling system is a seamless interface between machine and electrode or workpiece throughout the production process.

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REPORT - VICTORINOX AG

which serves a Charmilles Roboform 2000, and later more robots for the automatic loading/unloading of additional EDM machines. In order to be even more precise and more flexible with regard to setting up and presetting, an EROWA PreSet 3D measuring station was purchased in 1998, which had been specifically designed for the purpose.

The step towards integration What was far more decisive, however, was something that was acquired along with the 3D measuring station: the introduction

of the EROWA JMS system. «That was in 1999,» says Marcel Ehrler, Head of the EDM Group. «It was a pilot project with the usual teething problems. But the EROWA people always swiftly reacted to any emerging snags.» All in all, the introduction of the Job Management System produced the hoped-for success relatively quickly. Although new employees take a bit of time to familiarize themselves with the system, the flexibility and security with which it provides the production process easily make up for this. «Now, the data of a workpiece or electrode are read into the system by means of a chip mounted on the workpiece carrier,» says Ehrler. «This means that the robot always knows which part is in which magazine position, and so it is able to load the machine with an in-between express job at short notice. With today‘s JMS®Pro, the system that succeeded JMS, machine operators plan, control and monitor the manufacturing process and have an overview of individual working steps at all times.»

State-of-the-art products Cooperation between Victorinox and EROWA continues to this day. By now, several EROWA Robot Compact units ensure even faster and more flexible production - while taking up very little space. «Because of our architectural situation, one of the robots had to be equipped with a sliding door - which meant that Victorinox once again acted as an innovation driver for EROWA,» says Spiess with a smile.

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REPORT - VICTORINOX AG

Bruno Spiess would recommend cooperation with EROWA any time: «Someone who wants to be sustainably successful ought not to buy the cheapest products but those from a firm with a quality philosophy and reliability like that demonstrated by EROWA.»

Copyright © 2014 - EROWA AG Contact: Victorinox AG Schmiedgasse 57 CH-6438 Ibach, Schweiz Telefon ++41 (0)41 818 12 99 Fax ++41 (0)41 818 15 11 www.victorinox.ch

EROWA JMS®Pro enables the operator to plan, control and monitor the manufacturing process and provides an overview of the individual operations.

«And we also confront them with hefty challenges when it comes to prospective individual adaptations to our requirements, like a software update! But we are more than satisfied with EROWA as a partner. I mean, when cooperation lasts several decades, that really says it all.»

Quantifiable advantages Asked about the advantages of EROWA products, Bruno Spiess and Marcel Ehrler become even more specific. They say that the high repeatability of the workpiece carriers such as pallets and electrode holders is one of the great trump cards of EROWA‘s tooling systems - and, of course, the precision and uncompromising universality of the system in itself, with quality being objectively quantifiable. All this results in a clear increase in output. «Our productivity is measured in EDM hours, that is, simply by the question of how long a machine is really in operation, and here too, the advantages offered by EROWA can be quantified.» The department crew only have to work a single shift, the machines do everything else. «We can take off for the weekend,» says Ehrler succinctly.

EROWA AG CH-6233 Büron, Schweiz Telefon ++41 (0)41 935 11 11 Fax ++41 (0)41 935 12 13 info@erowa.com www.erowa.com