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DOING MORE WITH LESS: By Hari Sridharan
Doing more with less has always been a favorite mantra, but not always one that has been put to practice. With the steep economic downturn we are experiencing these days, we all know that this time, it is the only way to survive. Here are the six S’s you can follow to guide you as you pursue the objective of doing more with less. Strategize While the economy will eventually turn around, some structural changes are here to stay. Once demand picks up again, material costs will continue to climb. As tooling specialists leave the profession during this downturn, finding skilled workers will get even tougher in the future. And needless to say, competition from overseas is not about to let up. Tool shops that view this economic downturn as just another bump on the road may find themselves derailed and unable to survive. The shops that will survive and thrive in the long run are those that view the current situation as an opportunity to make strategic and drastic changes in the way they operate. Scrutinize If we keep doing the same things we do now, our chances of getting different outcomes are slim. Current processes need to be evaluated with an open mindset. Do these processes support our business goals? What are the bottlenecks that hold up product delivery? Are we making a single task quicker at the expense of slowing down the final product delivery? Similar scrutiny should be applied to the technologies we use. Do we have the right machines in place? Does the software we use help us deliver a better product faster? How often do we translate data from one system to another? What is holding up the flow? Standardize Although many shops have standards in place, these standards tend to erode over time as new employees come on board and new technologies are introduced. Existing standards should be constantly scrutinized to ensure they are aligned with customer requirements and contribute to the goal of reducing cycle time from the first interaction with the customer to the final product delivery. One common culprit in many tool shops is the amalgamation of multiple systems and technologies. The intentions are all positive: it can be the pursuit of the latest application for a specific task; a new employee comes onboard and introduces new software that he or she has worked with in the past; or a new machine is purchased and comes with its own proprietary software. Standardizing on a single system enables the tool shop to ensure that standards are incorporated into every job in a consistent manner. With Quoting, Design, NC and Assembly on the same database, there is no need for data translation, greatly minimizing the risk of losing important information as the job moves from one department to the next. With standards for the material, design, machining strategies, and components available during the quoting phase, job quotations can accurately reflect the true cost of building the tools. As the job starts, standardization goes a long way towards increasing the quality of work and reducing delivery times. Standards can be applied to material specifications such as shrinkage and bend allowance, as well as to design considerations such as part rotation and tip position. Standard components can be reused, and machining strategies can be saved as templates and reapplied with a single click, saving time and ensuring consistency across jobs. Synchronize Standardization enables better synchronization across all phases of the tool production process, from design to manufacturing and assembly. Once again, it all starts with the quote: working on the same database and having access to the quote data, the design engineer can understand the assumptions and constraints built into the job and incorporate them into the design considerations. By employing a concurrent engineering process, multiple designers can work simultaneously on the same tool. When designing a mold, for example, one designer can work on the core while the other is working on the cavity; or one designer can work on the water lines while the other is designing the electrodes. A similar process can be applied to die design, with one designer working on the strip while the other is designing the die set, for example. Synchronization is critical for efficient shop floor operations. Providing machine operators and assembly personnel with direct access to the design data eliminates much of the time spent walking back and forth between the shop floor and the design room asking for more information. Detailed drawings and bills of materials can be automatically updated as well. Maybe most importantly, synchronization enables the NC and assembly departments to be notified in real-time with any engineering design changes, eliminating costly reworks that often result from lags in communication between design and the shop floor. “Solidize” Using 3D solids design makes it substantially easier to achieve standardization and synchronization across the design and manufacturing processes. It is a must-have requirement for tool shops that want to implement concurrent engineering. Working in 3D solids enables many of the manufacturing issues to be identified upfront, allowing the designer to detect potential collisions, verify correct shrink values, and determine whether parting surfaces are manufacturable. With 3D design, a fully detailed model is maintained throughout the design and manufacturing processes, keeping design and surfacing in sync. As a result, changes can be quickly and reliably incorporated from design to manufacturing and assembly. It is easy to see how 3D design helps shops do more with less by reducing errors, speeding up processes, and obtaining more reliable results. Specialize To maximize tool shop efficiency, we can no longer afford to use general-purpose tools of the trade. Effectively implementing the processes that will enable us to do more with less requires that we use specialized applications dedicated to mold or die design and manufacturing; applications that can support our requirements for standardization, concurrent engineering, and 3D design. How do we get there? We cannot guarantee success when we make a change, but we can guarantee failure when we don’t. As most tool shops are already spread thin, finding the time and resources to change the status quo is a major challenge these days. However, if we don’t take the time to do things differently, we are guaranteed to fail. Once we are ready to make a change, we need to look at the process, people, and technologies required to support this transformation. To do more with less, tool shops must establish a streamlined process that covers all deliverables and milestones – from the initial price quote to the finished product. We all know that by the end of the day it’s the people that make things happen. Give your employees the freedom to express their ingenuity and come up with innovative ways to get the work done. At the same time, people do need training and guidance. As we ask employees to do more with less, it is important that we help them keep their skills up to speed. Finally, these are not easy times to make investments in technology. When choosing where to invest, technologies should be evaluated based on their impact on the entire process, not just their suitability for individual task. Only then can the technology make a real difference in business outcome and help the tool shop do more with less. To view a recorded webcast on the topic of “Doing More with Less in a Sluggish Economy”, or for additional information on Cimatron, please visit www.cimatrontech.com.
About the Author Hari Sridharan is the VP of Engineering & Business Development for Cimatron Technologies, a leading provider of integrated, CAD/CAM solutions for mold, tool and die makers as well as manufacturers of discrete parts. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Hari began his career supervising a CNC milling department at Isro Satellite Centre in Bangalore, India. He was quickly promoted to Senior Supervisor and later acted as Senior Engineer and Scientist, while managing a tool room with 30 employees. Hari joined Tool Matic of Malaysia in ’94, and branched out into CAD/CAM. While in Malaysia, Hari also worked for Saeilo Japan as a CAD/CAM Application Engineer using Cimatron software. Impressed with the Cimatron software, Hari joined the Cimatron team in 1999 and has been leading the Cimatron engineering team ever since. Hari has contributed greatly to the company’s success through his leadership, dedication and expert skill set.
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