Slimming Down with Technology

Thursday, March 01, 2007

By investing in the right pieces of equipment, companies can take their lean manufacturing practices to the next level.

The concept of lean manufacturing isn't new- its roots, in fact, can be traced back to Ben Franklin and his Poor Richard's Almanack. Just because the concept has been around for some time, however, doesn't mean that most companies have implemented it and achieved its benefits. On the contrary, most companies that have embraced lean are still practicing it at its most basic level.

Lean manufacturing is the management philosophy of reducing waste in manufactured products or any type of business. Achieving the beginning stages of lean is fairly easy; it's taking it to the next level that requires hard work, dedication, and in many cases, the right equipment.

When it comes to the equipment component of achieving lean, one type stands out for its ability to take companies where they need to go due to their ease of operation: horizontal and vertical carousels, and vertical lift modules (VLMs).

"Lean manufacturing is all about managing your processes with the goal being a measurable return-on-investment for your efforts at implementing change, however simple or sophisticated that change may be," Dick Ward, executive vice president, Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA). "You can achieve the first steps of lean relatively easily, and then you reach a point where you have to look for the next opportunity. Many times, carousels and VLMs can help you make the most of that opportunity."

This equipment helps companies maintain the simple practices required by lean by delivering automation that easily boosts productivity. Ward says that many companies are missing the boat, however, simply because they are unaware of the role that technology can play and what it can do for them, and carousels and VLMs are no exception. As s space becomes scarce and the cost of real estate continues to rise, carousels and VLMs can help companies make the most of their existing space, all while achieving lean manufacturing and a rapid return on investment.

For the growing number of companies that have invested in the technology, carousels and VLMs have delivered as promised. We've compiled six examples of companies that have achieved their lean goals with the help of this technology:

Rogan Corporation
Faced with an evolving market place, Rogan Corporation, America's premier hand hardware manufacturer, began the search for a way to improve its manufacturing process. The company provides OEMs with 13,000 different types of products, including instrument knobs, clamping knobs and dials that can be found on products such as valves, exercise machines and office furniture. As some segments of its market cooled off and others heated up, Rogan knew that it needed to make some changes to stay current.

The company embarked on a lean manufacturing initiative in order to increase productivity, reduce labor and free up floor space. With high ceilings available, the company determined that vertical lift modules (VLMs) could play an integral role in its efforts to become lean. Rogan designed a solution that included five VLMs in three departments, freeing up some 5,000 sq. ft. of valuable floor space.

Rogan targeted three storage areas for improvements. The first was a 1,000-sq. ft. area of six-foot high racks buffering mold bases. The second area was a 4,000 sq. ft. footprint in the center of the plant supporting 250-ft. high pallet racks containing semi-finished inventory. The final area was 1,000 sq. ft. of six-ft. high shelving system storing sample stock.
Rogan replaced the pallet rack with two 21-ft. high VLMs for mold bases and used two additional shuttle VLMs for the semi-finished inventory. One more shuttle VLM is used for sample parts.

The space that Rogan gained with the VLMs has allowed the company to set up manufacturing cells using both existing and new equipment, giving the company greater control in process inspection and greater throughput without increased labor costs. In addition to gaining valuable space, productivity increased by 22 percent and Rogan dramatically reduced inventory, making lean manufacturing a reality.

 

Industrial Scientific Corporation
Industrial Scientific Corporation (ISC), located in Oakdale, Penn., is the industry leader in portable gas detection and a major manufacturer of fixed point gas detection systems. The company's products are used in a wide range of industries, including oil, mining, breweries and even space exploration. A rapid growth rate of 20 percent to 30 percent, however, threatened to slow production down if increased storage capacity and organization was not achieved quickly.

ISC was supplying parts to its production area with mobile carts. If its rate of growth continued, a new building was going to be required. The company considered several solutions to its storage woes, including high-bay storage and expanding its existing system of mobile carts, and automated storage. The latter option proved the right fit and the company worked with a systems provider to conduct a pilot study using one vertical carousel.

The results proved better than expected. ISC found that the 200 to 300 sq. ft. of floor space that had been consumed by mobile carts was reduced to just 67 sq. ft. with the system. Inventory control was also improved and payback was reached within a year.
With such great results, ISC decided to add another vertical carousel to manufacturing and three additional carousels in other areas. In manufacturing, ISC uses one carousel to provide ready access of parts to all workers and supports day-to-day manufacturing. The second vertical carousel is equipped with software to monitor inventory. It counts numbers of parts in and out and supports day-to-day inventory control. The software supports running two different assembly lines at once, and the total volume of parts stored in the two storage units includes over 1,000 different part numbers with a total part count of six to 10 million pieces at all times. The big-time gains of the system, combined with its flexibility, have made the new vertical carousels one of the most valued systems at ISC and made the principles of lean manufacturing a reality.

Unisys Corporation
Storage for Unisys Corporation products- thousands of computer diskettes, tape reel and cartridges that make up the company's work-in-process inventory- is a big priority. So when the company began its search for simple automation to replace its fixed shelving system, it laid out three requirements:

• The new system had to offer security and protection from dirt and dust for the products.
• The system needed to include computer interface capability in order to provide accurate, up-to-date inventory control.
• Most importantly, the system had to deliver sufficient increases in productivity and efficiency in order to justify its existence.

Unisys' search led it to a VLM that met the company's criteria. The system was such a good fit, in fact, that Unisys moved forward with a 13 VLMs.

The big selling point for Unisys on a VLM was the fact that it gave the company the ability to retrieve the items they were looking for with a push of button. If a pick list has a part on each of the 13 VLMs, each unit can be in motion at the same time, allowing for a fast retrieval.

Unisys has been able to realize significant benefits from the system, beginning with much improved inventory accuracy. Efficiency has also improved by an estimated 300 percent. In addition, the company has realized significant space savings. In the same square footage that housed inventory in fixed shelving, the company now has triple the storage capacity and projects a return on investment within 18 months.

TAESL
For Texas Aero Engine Services Ltd. (TAESL) having a lean approach to manufacturing is a must. The company is a 50/50 joint venture between Rolls-Royce global services and American Airlines. The company provides aero engine maintenance on several types of engines for American Airlines and other customers throughout North America.

Key to TAESL's operations is the ability to track inventory. They must know where a part came from, identify it, and know which engine it went into should the case arise that they need to track that particular part.

The manual shelving that the company was using, therefore, just didn't cut it. Employees had to search for parts, pick them, fill their carts and then take them to where an engine needed to be rebuilt. This led to far too much walking and wasted time- employees were often searching for parts in hard to reach places and the wrong parts sometimes ended up in the carts. In addition, TAESL was running out of space and considering adding more warehouse space.

To fix the problem, TAESL turned to an automated solution. The solution turned into six, 32-ft. high VLMs, eliminating the need for additional warehousing space. TAESL worked with its partners to design a bridge software package that connected the VLMs to SAP, further enhancing the outcome.

In addition to saving space, TAESL was able to better manage capacity than in the past, reducing transaction costs. The magnitude of savings in transaction costs resulted in a three-month return on investment, exceeding everyone's expectations.

Hayes Lemmerz
Hayes Lemmerz, knows well the demands required of a supplier to the auto industry. As the manufacturer of aluminum wheels for the industry, the company made lean manufacturing a priority recently.

During the manufacturing process at Hayes Lemmerz, employees paint or perform other value-added services to the wheels after they have been cast. They are then buffered prior to selection and shipping. After the casting step, the company had been queuing up wheels on the floor or on conveyors as they awaited their finishing touches. The process was not only slow, but labor intensive.

To improve the process, Hayes Lemmerz designed a lean solution to streamline their operations. Using a robotic inserter/extractor device, Hayes Lemmerz can grab wheels and move them into storage in horizontal carousels. The carousels provide one wheel per location storage in the carousels and allow for individual SKU access for a more dynamic pulling process.

The results have "trimmed the fat" for Hayes Lemmerz operations. The company has been able to reduce labor as the technology requires very little human intervention. The staff can better schedule their operations as well, and they have gained flexibility in their outbound selections. All add up to a faster, leaner manufacturing process, allowing Hayes Lemmerz to remain a top wheel supplier to the auto industry.

Siemens Electrical
Labor intensive operations can not only slow processes down, but add a great deal of cost to the bottom line as well. Siemens Electrical knew this all too well and turned a cumbersome process into a lean one.

Siemens handles large spools of wiring that needs to be measured and cut into various lengths for wire harnesses for a variety of customers. The wiring is stored on a large plastic or wooden spool and then fed into the measuring/cutting machine. In order to feed the wiring into the machine, Siemens was placing one large spool at a time on a table, and then hand feeding the wire. Needless to say, this was extremely labor intensive and time consuming.

In order to find a solution to the slow task, Siemens had a carousel manufacturer design a carousel system that can feed the wire into the measuring/cutting machines. The carousel system can handle some 100 to 300 spools of wiring at a time, and can feed the spools at a rate of 10 to 15 at a time.

Siemens has been so pleased with the results- which include a 200 percent increase in production--that it has added five new carousels to the original four it purchased for its operations.

Lean Is Where It Is
Clearly, in order to obtain true lean manufacturing, companies must put several wheels in motion. At the heart of a lean manufacturing approach, however, is the use of the right equipment: VLMs and horizontal/vertical carousels that can get the job done and lead to the rapid payback that all companies make a priority today.

These are just six examples of how VLMs and carousels can play a vital role in the lean manufacturing process. With the right equipment, lean can be accomplished in a wide array of industries with varying needs and processes.

See Equipment Photos »

For more information on lean manufacturing and the equipment that makes it possible, contact Dick Ward at the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) at or 704-676-1190.

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