|
 It
is a common situation in industry. A manufacturer has been making
products that include many precision sheet metal components. The
OEM's punching and bending machines are old, but they are adequate
for current production levels. But now, a new line of products
is being marketed. Or possibly, production volume of existing
product lines is increasing.
In either case, there is
an opportunity to grow the business, but current production capacity
is just about maximized. Automation is probably the solution.
But investment capital is scarce. As usual, the best practical
strategy is to outsource the excess or new production to a company
that has already made the investment in the latest job shop technology
for sheet metal fabrication.
That's a major reason OEMs
increasingly outsource manufacturing to job shops to take advantage
of the latest manufacturing technology without making the capital
investment. One job shop in the Midwest, CGI Automated Manufacturing,
has made that investment, and has found its commitment to automation
to be the right strategy for its OEM customers.
Three years ago, the Illinois
job shop was the first company in the Chicago area to acquire
a six- shelf automated sheet metal punching cell from Amada America.
Last year, CGI installed the first Amada laser cutting system
in the Midwest with automated sheet loading and unloading.
The two automated sheet metal
cells give CGI a level of automation that is uncommon in the Midwest
for contract sheet metal manufacturers. Formerly Carson-Gee Industries,
Inc., CGI changed its name last year to reflect its position as
a highly automated job shop. The company produces sheet metal
fixtures, enclosures, and components for the pharmaceutical, electronic,
communications, food processing, transportation, lighting, and
store fixture markets.
Because of their experience with CNC automation,
and through strategic discussions with their OEM customers about
automated solutions, CGI executives have formed very definite
opinions about the value, and future, of flexible automation for
sheet metal fabrication.
"Automation is unquestionably the key to our company's
future growth, and I think it will be critical to the whole sheet
metal industry to stay competitive," says Gary Gurzynski,
CGI Vice President. "For smaller job shops like us, it's
a riskier proposition than it is for bigger OEM manufacturers
that are using it on longer production runs. But if you're willing
to take the risk, the technology has proven itself. Our systems
have given us advantages in many situations to serve OEM customers
as well as other job shops."
CGI's flexible automation
has saved several OEM manufacturers from having to pursue capital-
intensive solutions. A typical case is that of one manufacturer
of heating and cooling equipment for the transportation industry
that contracted its sheet metal components to CGI rather than
invest heavily in new technology to upgrade its capabilities.
"Nine times out of ten,
manufacturers come to us when they can't keep up with the volume
on their existing older equipment," Gurzynski said. "We've
had people tell us their lead times are 8 to 12 weeks. When we
can turn the work around in four to six weeks, they're thrilled.
"They may be trying
to grow their business without adding equipment or people, and
they use us to do that. Or they may have a high labor cost in
operating with aging technologies. We're very competitive in that
type of situation because we can punch and cut their parts with
very low labor costs and they can save their people for final
assembly."
Accuracy and reliability
were key concerns of Gurzynski. He sought better precision capabilities,
quicker setups, and improved machine up-time.
The six-shelf punching cell
can be operated around the clock, with unmanned operation on first
and second shifts and true lights-out production on the third
shift and weekends. During one stint recently, the Amada Vipros
357 punching cell ran for 38 hours straight without a shutdown.
The company's 2000-watt CO2 laser cutting system,
installed last year, also runs unmanned on the second shift. And
Gurzynski expects it to begin unmanned third shift operation within
the next year. A single technician runs the laser cell on the
first shift while watching over the unmanned punching cell and
supervising the operation of another stand-alone turret punch
press.
Besides the labor-savings
and savings in capital investment for OEMs, CGI also routinely
cuts manufacturing lead times in half for their OEM customers.
For straight punching jobs, a one-week turnaround is typical.
Just-in-time delivery is also easier because of the rapid response
of the automated systems.
Commitment
to Punching Automation
In its first 2.5 years of operating the punching cell,
CGI put 60 million tool hits on its 33 ton, 58 station, turret
punch press, with only one day of unscheduled downtime. The punching
cell incorporates a six-shelf material storage/retrieval unit,
a high speed loading device that feeds the turret punch press,
an automatic unloading device with a pallet that holds up to 6,000
pounds, a line control system, and computer peripherals to operate
the cell unmanned.
Each of the six material
storage shelves holds up to 4,000 pounds, with a maximum sheet
size of four by ten feet. CGI primarily processes sheets from
20 gage to 14 gage thickness. Although the cell is capable of
processing material up to 10 gage in thickness, material thicker
than 10 gage is punched on a manually loaded turret press, which
helps to extend tool life in the cell.
The cell consistently holds punching accuracies to ±0.004 inch.
The hydraulic press has a programmable punch cycle that is able
to control the punch stroke for accurate forming operations such
as louvering or punching knockouts.
First-of-its-kind
Laser Cell (Sheet Metal)
Installation of the laser cell, with automated load/unload
and part nesting, was completed in 1996. Because the system was
the first to these features, operation had a learning curve. Large
nesting programs required the addition of a buffer board to the
Fanuc control, which required a customized rewrite of the entire
ladder sequence.
"With part nesting, files become enormouslarger than
the control can store in its memory so the buffer board feeds
in the data in manageable chunks that are constantly flowing in
and out of the control," said Gurzynski. "We were the
guinea pigs to get this up and running. It's working well now,
so we can do our part nesting and material utilization on the
laser the same way we do in the punching cell.
"This kind of complexity is what causes many people to
shy away from automation, but we knew it would work out in the
end because of our experience with the punching cell. If we hadn't
had the Vipros cell running flawlessly for two years, we might
have questioned our decision a bit more."
In its first year of operation,
the laser cell has given the CGI flexibility to take jobs that
are better suited for laser than for a punch press.
"You go after a different
type of work with the laser," Gurzynski said. "Shorter
runs, and parts with more intricate holes, openings and shapes
the market for laser cut parts seems to be growing quickly."
Before the installation, CGI conducted comparative time studies
that showed advantages of the laser cell over punching for more
than a dozen types of parts. Several parts that were previously
being punched and nibbled on the punching cell have been moved
over to the laser because of its superior cutting capabilities.
The DNC controlled system
is a so capable of accepting .dxf files directly from CGI's customers,
enabling the cell to cut parts from programmed geometries. On
complex parts, the system is able to reduce programming time from
four hours to ten minutes.
New Capabilities,
New Markets in Sheet Metal Fabrication
The addition of the two fabricating cells allowed CGI
to cut its average lead time in half, a big advantage for a job
shop.
"We're quoting jobs for delivery in two to three weeks
that previously would have taken four to six weeks," Gurzynski
said, "and we're actually producing a lot of jobs in the
one-to-two week range. We don't advertise it because it puts a
lot of stress on the shop, but in tight situations, we can produce
some jobs overnight or within a couple of days. We never had that
flexibility before."
The laser is also an efficient
process for cutting 90 percent of the parts up to 0.25 inch thick
sheet metal for a series of truck bodies CGI manufactures for
railroad inspection vehicles.
Because the laser cell can
efficiently produce complex part geometries with the tight tolerances
required by the truck body assemblies, it has allowed CGI to enter
this new market and diversity its customer base.
The company has recently started using its new laser cell for
producing food processing equipment. Earlier this year, CGI established
a new division to engineer and produce continuous processing ovens,
batch processing ovens, and a wide variety of smokehouse products,
which are primarily fabricated from stainless steel. The precision
cutting capabilities of the laser give the company superior accuracy
in producing critical parts for these complex assemblies.
Supporting
Technologies for Automated Sheet Metal Fabrication Production
An internal computer network modeled after the Internet
is another key component of CGI's strategy to maximize efficiency.
CGI's 'Intranet' not only links the automated cells and other
CNC equipment to programming and CAD workstations, it also helps
with labor data collection, shop floor control and scheduling,
inventory control, cost estimating and financial functions, such
as accounts payable and receivable.
Vice President Janice Nieman
is currently streamlining CGI's internal networking to become
as paperless as possible. "Some of our customers are looking
for EDI invoicing and sending schedule changes electronically,"
she said. "We're able to receive CAD files via modem, and
we're receiving e-mail through our home page on the world wide
web (www.cgimfg.com). We feel
the types of customers that value our automated manufacturing
will probably a so want us to have a high level of integrated
information processing."
For more information
about CGI's capabilities, or to request a full color brochure,
send us an e-mail!
Article written by Jack
Broughton, Principal, Velasco-Broughton Associates, 815-397-6052,
fax 815-229-6080 |
