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Company
Aerospace Airframes & Hydraulics, Electronics
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Company Background
Terry’s Machine started as a garage shop some 20 years ago. As a manual shop they specialized in serving the prototype markets in the Pacific Northwest. Growing into a shop of many Bridgeport manual mills, the company bought their first CNC 15 years ago. The company was purchased by current management 9 months ago and now focuses on aerospace airframe & hydraulics, and electronics for the medical industry for production work. Terry’s is still competitive in the prototype “rapid turn” market as well. This company now operates with 14 employees in a 12,500 square foot facility.
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Challenge
Terry’s Machine identified that they had secured more contracts than they had capacity, before beginning to look for a new machine. They needed to consolidate machining processes into fewer machines, reduce cycle time and increase throughput. Additionally, they needed to reduce manned hours per finished part and required immediate delivery of the new machine. The machine needed program compatibility with existing CNC program library.
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Assessment
Customer was using commodity technology consisting of 3-axis CNC vertical machining centers and 2-axis CNC turning centers. Lacking automation such as barfeeds, sub-spindles and parts catchers, operations were very labor intensive. With batch type processing between these various workstations, many setups were required and resulted in high setup hours and significant WIP (work in process) cues.
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Solution
Ellison proposed the Mori Seiki model NL2000SMC CNC Turning Center. This product provides a 5,000 RPM – 20HP Main Spindle with a 6,000 RPM – 15HP Sub-Spindle, allowing the customer to machine both the front and backsides of the workpiece in one operation. This machine also provides a 12-station turret with 7.5HP milling capability at all 12 stations. This allows the customer to perform both turning and milling operations, thus eliminating an additional setup on another workstation and the associated work in process cueing. This machine is further equipped with a programmable parts catcher, allowing for automatic unloading of the finished part.
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End Result
Customer reports a cycle time reduction of 20%. Handling time was reduce by 35%. Number of setups are now down significantly. Throughput is increasing steadily. 50% reduction of WIP. 50% increase in unmanned operation. No increase in headcount.
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Before:
• Long Cycle Times
• Lots of handlings through process
• Significant WIP around the shop
• Occasional Unmanned Operation
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After:
Cycle Times – 20% reduction
• Handling Time – 35% reduction
• WIP – 50% reduction
Unmanned Operation – 50% increase
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