CONTRACT MANUFACTURING
Today, the family of companies demonstrates how smaller manufacturers are considering how to add advanced technol- ogy and lean manufacturing ideas to become more effi cient. “We’re trying to lean out our plant,” said Jim Troxtell, manager of the Modern Fasteners Plant in Brook Park, OH, near the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. It’s part of Ohio Nut & Bolt.
The plant is installing conveyors to cut down on heavy lift- ing. Employees and managers also are studying ways to use space more effi ciently.
“Once you get rid of some things you don’t need, you fi nd
you don’t need a new building,” Troxtell said. “It’s a constant improvement thing, we’re constantly tweaking.” The plant has a “split shift,” that comes in at 9 a.m. (the regular shift starts at 6:30 a.m.) and members are deployed to deal with bottlenecks or areas where extra production is needed on a particular day.
And the plant is starting to bring in more modern machin- ery. It bought a Shimazu tapping machine to tap small nuts
that are very hard to hold. The Shimazu replaced two older machines. The new machine came complete with a touch- screen display – a common sight at larger manufacturers but something new for Modern Fasteners. The touchscreen display provides more visual data for operators than the older machines in the plant with push button controls. It’s a touch of the 21st century in a factory that still has a lot of 20th century equipment.
Today, the family of companies demonstrates how small manufacturers are considering how to add advanced technology and lean manufacturing ideas.
Similar events are taking place at the Ohio Plant of Ohio Nut & Bolt in Berea. The factory is on Lou Groza Boulevard, named after the long-time kicker of the Cleveland Browns. The factory is across the street from the complex of the National Football League team. The factory has a new machine for producing welding fasteners for the inside of motorcycle fuel tanks. The machine includes an Epson robot. The work formerly was sent to outside job shops. By ac- quiring the machine, the work was brought in-house.
Almost Paid Off “In eight, nine months we almost paid it all
off,” said Tim Morgan, the plant manager of the operation.
“This is a very tough part to drill and tap,” Morgan said of the fasteners. Once the new device was up and running, “We load this and the machine does the rest,” he said. Other newer machines include one from Wafi os Umformtechnik that taps a fl ange nut and runs more than 100 pieces a minute. Another, older Wafi os machine taps about 30 pieces a minute. “We used to tap them one at a time, it was very
A technician at the Ohio plant of Ohio Nut & Bolt checks a part while standing near an Epson robot.
78
AdvancedManufacturing.org | April 2016
arduous,” Morgan said. Like its sister plant in Brook Park, the Berea factory is in the midst of installing conveyors to reduce lifting. In areas where conveyors are operating, “It freed up the operator to run more machines,” Morgan said.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186