Safety & Maintenance
Reduce Waste and Recycle Seco Tools Details How Data Matrix Codes Revolutionize Product Information Flow
W
hen Jan Gravningsbråten came up with an idea for how to reduce waste in the tool production process, little did he realize the potential effect it could have on the Seco business. Several years later, his idea has the ability to track ten billion tools that in turn can generate huge amount of insight into how our products are used. Back in 2018 Jan, who is an R&D technician in the Innovation Lab in Fagersta, noticed that when faults occurred in the production process, it was impossible to identify the individual tools that were affected as each tool was only identifiable by a batch number. “You could have 10,000 or 20,000 in a batch and it was impossible to work out which ones might have been affected by a production fault, so we’d have to start all over again. That’s not really economically viable,” Jan says.
Individually Identifiable The challenge was to find a way to make each tool individually identifiable, and that’s when the lightbulb went on for him – data
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matrix codes, which are similar to QR (quick response) codes. “We have chosen a series of ten billion numbers for our codes, and we can fully trace each tool marked with them using software where we collect all the codes from the machines that produce the tools,” Jan explains. Originally invented in 1987, data matrix codes are two-dimensional codes often used to track objects in industrial processes. The codes are put on each Turbo 16 tool, one of the most popular tools in the Seco Tools range, using a laser-printing process. Putting data matrix codes on each tool deployed out in the field will in the future allow both customers and Seco Tools to track it through its working life. The codes are also compatible with the Seco Assistant, an app which contains a wealth of useful information for clients and that allows them to make calculations and scan their tools directly to find out more about them. “Ideally, clients would input data about how they use the tool into the system – what machine they use, when it is installed, how long it is used for and for what purpose. Scanning
