Demonstratie Hermle C 60 U dynamic tijdens
Originally uploaded by Metaalbewerking
I thought I would write this post for any company out there that is design, and engineering, oriented, that needs to standardize parts in order to improve the lead time on their products. I’ve worked with several companies that prided themselves on their design capabilities, and often took small to mid-sized volume jobs, with the intention of designing the product from scratch. There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with this approach, as long as you incorporate standard parts within your design.
Bottom line, just because it’s a new design, doesn’t mean you have to re-invent the wheel and design everything all over again. Your designs can still be custom, but shortening your delivery time by incorporating some standard sub-components, will not only reduce your costs, but also impress your customer. So, if your company prides itself on being able to make the things others won’t or can’t, then read on.
Does Your Business Design and Integrate Parts into Larger Assemblies?
I once worked with a customer that had 8 CNC machines. They ran what they believed was the best JIT manufacturing system, and thought they needed more CNC machines. Every order they received from a customer for an assembly product (this is a product with multiple parts assembled into one) was given a new part number. This happened because the envelope that this product would eventually fit into, was always different from one order to the next and therefore needed a new design.
These companies would create a new part number for the entire assembly and then create a new production package, where each sub-assembly drawing called for a new product for production. So, they would get an order for 5 of these “custom” made assemblies, create a work order for every sub-assembly in the total product, and release it to production.
The problem with their approach was that they ran a JIT production without understanding that many of the sub-assembly components were the same as others in different stages in production. Essentially, they were making the same sub-assembly components over and over again, each time with a new drawing, a new set-up time in the work station and a new allocated time for each production station. You could literally walk through the plan and see the same pieces being worked on for different customer orders at different parts of the process.
The above video explains how Dell uses its Push-Pull order fulfillment and supply chain strategy. Part of that strategy is to pre-assemble the majority of a product offering and then complete it upon receiving a customer order.
Don’t Fracture Production with Poor Planning
My solution was simple. I explained that I had seen companies with half as many CNC machines that could produce twice as much, and I was hired to show them why. So, I started by doing the following.
1. Identified standard sub-components that were present in 70% of the assemblies.
2. Took all production packages and filled out ECN’s (Engineering Change Notices) to have the production packages call out standard sub-components.
3. Reserved two CNC machines, reviewed three month rolling usage of these standard parts, and build up a min/max inventory of these standard sub-components in inventory.
4. Fixed the Work-Orders to call out these sub-components as part of their bill of materials.
5. Shortened the lead times for custom made parts by half, eliminated overtime, invoiced customers quicker, got paid faster, and secured new customers.
Now, in order to give you some idea of how successful this was, the company no longer had a backlog on their CNC machines, waiting for time slots to open up so they could make the exact same parts they just made yesterday. In addition, they actually sold 2 of their machines one year later.
Here is a pictorial view of an assembly drawing. While this is not the one I worked on, it is similar in its approach. This assembly can be broken down into a sub-assembly of common parts. There are still some parts that will have to be custom made and designed accordingly, but the end result is that using common parts will help shorten the lead time and cut down on the backlog. Now, some of you might think this simple and straightforward, but if it isn’t and even if it is, make sure you are using this approach. It will help.
The problem the company had was that every time they received an order for 5 units, they would create the part number, create the design and new designs for everything in the production package, release that package on a work order to production for exactly 5 units.
They would then watch as those 5 units went through the various stages of production – each with new set-up and manufacturing times. Worse yet, they would do it all over again the next day when they got another order for similar parts. It was a complete disaster.
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