Software cuts down raw material wastage

The adoption of JIT and Kanban methods within any manufacturing organisation calls for high flexibility and speed of response from production departments.

The adoption of JIT and Kanban methods within any manufacturing organisation calls for high flexibility and speed of response from production departments.

But nowhere is this more true than at Eaton Electric, where the consolidation of its sheet metal production facilities and standardisation on Radan manufacturing software have dramatically streamlined the company's operations.

Based in the Tyseley area of Birmingham, Eaton Electric (formerly MEM) has an enviable track record of producing high quality switchgear, fusegear and circuit protection equipment stretching back more than 90 years.

The 700-strong company has a further manufacturing plant at Hengleo in Holland and is a member of the US-owned Eaton Engineering group, which has more than 54,000 employees worldwide.

The company's products are characterised by their high sheet metal content.

So, it's no surprise that Eaton's punching and folding capabilities have become a focus of attention for the company's management.

During the past 18 months, the consolidation of its resources and updating of manufacturing methods have produced some impressive results.

According to Group Leader Technical - EEE Resource, Gary Carnall, Eaton operates three punch presses and seven folding machines at its Tyseley site.

"They include a number of Trumpf and Darley machines, along with an Amada Vipros punching machine with automatic loading and parts picker, which has been relocated from Devon", he explains.

"In the past, product design for our systems business was carried out using a combination of paper-based and 2D CAD methods".

"But more recently, we have introduced AutoDesk's Inventor 3D system, which provides significant benefits with our Radan implementation".

Likewise, programming of the company's CNC punch presses was previously undertaken using a variety of methods; ranging from machine-supplied software to third party CADCAM systems.

"However, each of these had their own particular limitations".

"It was clear that we needed to focus our attention on improving this area of our operations if we were going to achieve the goals we had set ourselves", adds Carnall.

One of the main areas to come under scrutiny was the nesting of 2D parts.

Existing methods were limited to nesting just a single part number on a sheet, which not only returned poor material usage, but frequently meant over-production of parts through the need to process complete sheets.

Carnall's investigations quickly led him to evaluate the nesting capabilities of Radan software.

He found that it not only enables users to specify the mix of components in the nest, but also allows smaller parts to be fitted within apertures in larger components.

In addition, parts can be orientated on the sheet, subject to user defined rules, to maximise material usage.

To assess what the Radan system could do, Carnall undertook an analysis of a randomly selected day's production requirements for components manufactured from 1.6mm gauge steel.

Using previous methods, this amounted to 134 sheets of nested products.

By contrast, the Radan system fulfilled the same requirement with just 78 sheets - a massive 56 sheet, or 42% saving.

"This alone would have been enough to ensure our standardisation on Radan".

"But, when its other capabilities were taken into consideration, it was simply no contest", maintains Carnall.

Today, Radan's software is at the heart of Eaton's sheet metal production.

Typically, new product designs are created in Inventor, which is also used to produce the required flat part developments using company-specified bend allowances.

Parts are then transferred in DXF format directly into the Radan system, where they are processed automatically to create "symbols".

These not only associate standard or defined tooling with the component geometry, but also parameters such as clearances for different material types and gauges, as well as in-house tagging rules.

In effect, the symbols are machining subroutines, which are held on the company's network ready to be compiled into individual nests.

Eaton's drive towards lean manufacturing methods includes a Kanban system that identifies daily production requirements.

In order to create the necessary NC programs, the relevant parts are selected by the programmer, along with press type and sheet size.

The Radan system then uses predetermined rules, along with machine-specific settings, such as clamping configurations and tooling details, to automatically produce fully defined nest programmes for the required production press.

"Typically, the whole process takes no more than three minutes to complete", says Carnall.

"It compares to about three hours per nest when we were preparing the 2D developments manually and processing individual parts with our previous software".

"Another advantage of the Radan system is that it instantly computes a material utilisation figure for each sheet", he continues.

"We aim to achieve around 80%".

"So, if the figure compiled using standard production rules appears low, the programmer can search through our Kanban requirements for parts from the same material, then simply rerun the updated component listing".

"Once the nest has been accepted, a click of the mouse is all that's required to automatically produce setup sheets for the operator, as well the required CNC program".

Further features of the Radan system include the ability to switch jobs from one type of machine to another with ease - in the case of a breakdown for example - simply by redefining the machine type in the Radan nesting application.

Carnall goes on to confirm that more than 6000 parts have been stored on the company's system since it was implemented just over a year ago.

Now, only newly designed parts need to be entered as "symbols" before they can be added to the library, ready for immediate use.

Commenting on the effect made by the Radan system, Eaton's Manufacturing Manager, David Newmarch observes: "It immediately increased our material utilisation by more than 10%, which is highly significant in the light of today's escalating raw material prices".

"But perhaps more importantly, because we now only produce the parts we actually need for production - rather than full sheets of components that we may only need a few of - our parts inventory has been reduced by 50%, with similar savings in storage space too".

"Production times have also been reduced significantly and there's a much higher availability of the correct products now".

"The benefits ripple through our whole production process, with cost and utilisation improvements all round".

Carnall is similarly complimentary about Radan's customer support.

"Essentially, Eaton's implementation uses standard Radan functionality that has been tailored to our needs through the use of customised tooling macros and the like".

"It also interfaces with our company scheduling and costing systems", he adds.

"In fact, that is probably the key to its success".

"On one hand, it is an extremely powerful system, producing major operational and financial benefits".

"But on the other, it is simple to use and can be tailored to work the way the customer really wants".

"In effect, it's an unbeatable combination".

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