upgrade to a multipallet automation system. Given the plant’s experience with a buffer-type cell for another operation, Miller Welding took the automation route with TIPROS FMS (flexible manufacturing system) and two FH630SX horizontal machin- ing centers from Toyoda Machinery (Arlington Heights, IL). With two loading stations on the 24-pallet cell, as well as a 200-tool magazine for each machine, the plant was poised to greatly increase production. “We didn’t have any specific parts that we expected to be processed faster,” said Eric Miller, vice president at Miller Welding. “What we did expect was to replace as many as four machines with the cell. These two Toyodas have already replaced five stand-alone machines. We’re working on number six, and quite honestly, we expect to replace more.”
It didn’t take long for Miller Welding to see an increase in throughput. One of the company’s executives walked past the FMS shortly after the automation cell had replaced just one of the stand-alone machines. He questioned why the company’s new investment wasn’t being put to good use, as the cell had already sat idle for an hour. The answer was that the machine started running from 5:30 am to 9:30 pm, finishing all the work for the day that had previously kept two machines and two shifts busy. It was then that Miller Welding began realizing the benefits they were going to see. Moving to newer technology, Miller knew cycle times would be reduced. He also understood that the spindle utiliza- tion an automation system provided would be much higher. However, the combination of increased speed and uptime was greater than anything the plant could have anticipated. In fact, the process of transferring work from a stand-alone machine to Toyoda’s FMS soon had made a name for itself among Miller Welding’s engineers and operators: “feeding the beast.” The system was so productive that the shop could not send parts to it quickly enough, Miller said.
This increased productivity proved to be beneficial in a breakdown situation on an older machine. Knowing the stand- alone machine would be out of commission for an extended period of time, Miller Welding was easily able to move produc- tion from the down machine to the Toyoda FMS cell. With this transition, Miller Welding met the customer’s production requirement with minimal interruptions to the FMS’s regular production schedule.
Within a year of installation, the FMS had 28 different parts with more workpieces being added to the cell every week in small quantities. This slow transition was no accident. “We
It’s not a quick 10-minute process to add a new part to the cell, but Miller Welding has put extra effort into a pilot program to see if better up-front instruction for each work- piece will prove to be advantageous at setting up the cell.
wanted to do it the right way and have consistent quality and consistent expectations coming out of that cell,” Miller said. Every part that goes into the cell has gone through a routine in which the operator ensures all tooling and docu- mentation are present. Programming for the cell is done offline. While the operator proves the program, he takes one of the FH630SXs off the cell to run in manual mode, while the other machine continues with the scheduled parts. Once the
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April 2014 |
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