Technology Archives - CNC Industries

Precision Aerospace Machining and the seven wastes of lean manufacturing (part 4)

The 4th waste identified in lean manufacturing is Motion. Motion concerns the ergonomics of the workers in a process and any unnecessary steps or movement that they have in the process.

To again look at the difference of a high mix / low volume precision aerospace machining facility and a high volume production we will see a difference in the ability to reduce motion. In a high volume production environment you can count on a particular workstation being focused on a single task – even if that task is performed over a variety of individual parts, the motions and the ergonomics will be similar. In a low volume precision machine shop, the task on one day may be entirely different than the task of the prior day. While they will be related still – depending on the functionality of the machine at the workstation – the individual parts may require a significant difference in motion or handling.

To compensate for this changing process, CNC industries has designed it’s facility to accommodate a high mix of precision parts easily. While the information and documentation may vary from one part to another, we have standardized the method of getting that information into electronic information stations which are uniformly located near the workstations. Each worker in our facility may count on being able to get all necessary work instructions in the same way.

We have also standardized our machine setups with the tooling being handle off of the machine to eliminate unnecessary motion in the setup process. The advantages of removing extra motion include more productivity, less stress on the people involved in the process, as well as lowered chances of errors and mistakes being made. So even with a facility dedicated to fully custom machined parts and prototypes, we can easily remove unnecessary wastes.

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CNC Industries is a Fort Wayne, Indiana based machine shop specializing in precision CNC machining, fabrication and assembly of application-critical and custom machined parts for the Aerospace, Defense, Medical, Industrial and Transportation markets. The company presently employs approximately 55 people.

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June 14th, 2010|Tags: Aerospace Machining, Document Management, Lean Manufacturing, Precision Machining, Technology|

Document Management in a Precision Machine Shop

Document Management is a very tricky and important skill to have in a Precision Machine Shop. At CNC Industries, we deal with a wide variety of custom parts. Some are simple and some are very complex parts. Either way, each part that we machine has a variety of dimensions which may be very critical to the part. In addition to the physical dimensions, in dealing with aerospace or military manufactured parts, there may be a large number of quality specifications which need to be followed.

CNC Industries uses a component of our ERP system to handle our document management needs. Job Manager tracks all pertinent documents for all of the thousands of custom parts that we manufacture. The Doc Manager Module is fully searchable, indexed, and has security implemented. All uses may see only the documents that they need to, and any documentation that is needed is available quickly.

Gone are the days of the 50 page Job Router. With our Paperless Doc Manager system, we have been able to save time and money while ensuring that all of our information is kept up to date at all times. All documents are updated in real time allowing us to quickly react to any engineering or customer changes that occur.

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CNC Industries is a Fort Wayne, Indiana based Machine Shop specializing in precision CNC machining, fabrication and assembly of application-critical and custom machined parts for the Aerospace, Defense, Medical, Industrial and Transportation markets. The company presently employs approximately 55 people.

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March 9th, 2010|Tags: Document Management, ERP, management, Technology|

Continuous Improvement and Precision Machining

There is a lot of buzz about continuous improvement in the business world today. As a precision machine shop that focuses on contract manufacturing, CNC Industries has a different perspective than am office or a production machining facility. While we do have several production jobs, the bulk of our work comes in short term contracts.

With short term contracts we do not have the luxury of being able to improve upon our performance throughout a physical run of a job. Our customers demand a high level of precision, so we also cannot ‘dial the tolerance in’ over time. Instead we need to focus on getting a repeatable general process developed which allows us to quickly and efficiently switch between our various contracted jobs.

Our continuous improvement initiative needs to account for the fact that our machines may be running different custom parts tomorrow than they are making today. With all of this in mind, we allow each person in our company to suggest improvements both to how we run an individual machined part, as well as suggestions for the overall process of machining, how we get ready to machine parts, ability to keep precision, and any other facet of how our company works. Our Process Change Request system ensures that each employee has the ability to express their thoughts for improvement in a way that will be reviewed in a timely manner.

Through the use of technology – specifically our ERP system Job Manager, we are able to monitor how effective we are from day to day. We are able to track overall shop performance as well as any individual job performance. We make sure that all of our machinery is kept up-to-date with maintenance and we regularly purchase new equipment as needed. As we see areas that are lagging in performance we are able to quickly remedy any deficiencies.

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CNC Industries is a Fort Wayne, Indiana based Job-Shop specializing in precision CNC machining, fabrication and assembly of application-critical and custom machined parts for the Aerospace, Defense, Medical, Industrial and Transportation markets. The company presently employs approximately 55 people.

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March 1st, 2010|Tags: Continuous Improvement, Job Manager, Precision Machining, Technology|