Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 15

CASE STUDIES 29 This planning required twice weekly meetings both at ICT Dualtech as well as with the engineering staff at Palmer for almost a month before the first FMM machine part was made. Once the machine conceptual design was finalized and the schedule set for manufacturing and delivery, there were weekly meetings with the engineering staff, the foundry manager, maintenance manager, and the production supervisor. At all meetings, everyone’s opinion was as valuable as anyone else’s. In this project, the opinions of the floor personnel were taken very seriously. Engineers can design and process/ operations people can plan and sequence, but the floor people live with the equipment and systems every day, all day and many times have valuable common sense ideas. The basic mechanical structure was quickly established. The programming required a great deal of effort, planning and testing. Each customer’s unique needs require hours of discussion and planning and a thorough review process even for production equipment that has been made many times in the past. PRODUCTION RUNOFF TEST Once the machine was up and running, a full scale production runoff test was specified. This is always an excellent idea, if possible, depending on timing, system size, and budget. In the world of custom designed machinery and systems, there are almost always unforeseen situations. If a full-scale runoff can be performed, most if not all of these can be identified, addressed, and corrected. Then, another full scale runoff can be performed if possible. For this particular customer, 3 separate full scale runoffs were performed. Even with hundreds of hours of planning and discussion, there were customer driven additions and changes once they saw the physical machine running, which is pretty predictable with a project of this size. While full scale runoffs are expensive and time consuming, the time is well spent. If changes and additions are needed in the field after installation, not only is it cumbersome and expensive to make these changes and additions (especially if the distance between the manufacturer and the customer is great), but production comes to a halt. Once the final runoff was finished and all changes and additions were made, the install weekend was selected and all personnel informed: trucking/millwrights/mechanical contractors/internal personnel both at ICT Dualtech and Palmer. The plan was to tear out on Friday and place the new equipment Friday afternoon, mount/grout/wire plumb Saturday and Sunday with an initial production run on the following Monday. The system was operational ahead of schedule on Sunday evening. Once the customer saw the speed of the system, there were some additional changes/additions made. The system was designed at 20 complete molds/40 mold halves per hour. This rate was achieved Tuesday. The next 2 weeks were spent tweaking timers, conveyors, and training operations personnel to increase speed. Of these 4 items, changing the operators’ perception of production was the most difficult. People resist change and therefore, it took some time to change their outlook from the existing 12 mold per hour mentality to what eventually became 40 complete molds per hour! When this rate of production was reached, processes are much different. Sand temperature control is critical and pumping system accuracy is critical. 30-40 cope/drag pattern changes per day are not uncommon therefore tools and procedures were put in place to make pattern changes as close to “in cycle” as possible. “In cycle” is defined as making the pattern change without changing production cycle time with an hourly production rate of 80. This equates to an available window of only 45 seconds. With safety in mind it is necessary to perform Innovative Casting Technologies Continued on next page