Your Competitors Can Do What You Do

The terminals at East Branch Engineering and Manufacturing’s machining centers run ProShop ERP software, which allows machine operators to document each machining operation and its outcome. The software turned out to be a key competitive advantage for East Brach after a key customer began streamlining its supply chain last year.

It is still possible to run an efficient machine shop without using comprehensive shop management software. During our travels around the country, we still encounter shops using paper job travelers and filing cabinets stuffed with job quotes, shipping documents, certifications, tool management archives, purchasing records and job schedules. The common thread for these shops, typically, is that they are small, family-owned business with stellar retention rates for employees who rarely take time off or get sick.

East Branch Engineering and Manufacturing in New Milford, Connecticut, used to fit this mold. Founded by Paul Guidotti in 1989, the shop today has 20 multi-axis machines for milling and turning, run by 16 employees, including Mr. Guidotti’s son, Chris, who joined the business in 2003 and today serves as vice president of manufacturing.

Chris Guidotti says that back in 2014 when the company had only 10 employees, he began noticing day-to-day problems that, taken together, were locking the company out of pulling in larger customers. While East Branch was using basic shop management software at the time, the system lacked several core capabilities. “Blanket orders were an absolute nightmare to manage,” he says. Paper-based travelers were static and often not updated. Certifications were managed outside the system and had no direct tie-in with the software. The software’s quality module was difficult to use, and there was no control of records or revision-control processes.

By 2017, these problems had reached a tipping point. After conducting research into several software platforms, Mr. Guidotti and the team at East Branch implemented ProShop, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system that promised to combine elements of manufacturing execution system capabilities with quality management system elements into a comprehensive platform. (ProShop points out that it also offers an on-premise option for customers who have concerns about cloud services.) Capabilities include software modules for tracking and managing work orders, material inventory, users, workholding and fixtures, work cells, certifications and audit reports, tooling, employee training and more. Paul Van Metre, co-founder and ProShop president, says that ultimately, the software is designed at its core to reduce tribal knowledge and “democratize everything in the shop.”

Among the features included with ProShop software are visual work instructions that can be accessed by machine operators at computer terminals located at each machine.

“As the Baby Boomers retire, it’s hard to find people to replace them,” he says. “It’s hard to hire minimally trained people and have them be successful. You need to provide them with a lot more information than just a paper traveler and some paper setup sheets that the programming department sent out. When it comes to shop management software, we feel like shopfloor users are just as valuable, if not more so, than the people in the front office.”

A recent encounter with a top customer at East Branch demonstrated to Chris Guidatti exactly what Mr. Van Metre meant.

Dual Sourced

Late last year, one of East Branch’s largest customers set up a one-hour meeting with East Branch management to discuss a slew of changes that had taken place at the customer’s business. The company had been bought out by an investment firm, and the new owners were drastically scaling back the approved vendor list. The company was dual sourced on many of its products, including the electronic housing components that East Branch produced via milling operations on its two Okuma machining centers.

“We did not want to lose these guys,” Mr. Guidotti says. “This customer was a really big key to our growth. The parts we were making for them involved a lot of hogging out — very unattended with long run times. For us, it was a way to really keep the machines running, and we made good profit because we didn't have a guy standing in front of the machine.”

Mr. Guidotti began the meeting with a tour of the facility. When it became apparent that the two company representatives were not familiar with general shopfloor operations, he decided to bring them right up to the Okuma mills that happened to be running their company’s parts. Adjacent to each of the Okumas is a terminal that, via ProShop, has access to all of the information regarding those parts. (It is worth mentioning that Mr. Guidotti insists that nothing was planned regarding this tour. It was simply fortunate timing, he says, that the Okumas were running the company’s parts during the representative’s visit.)

Here is an example of visual setup instructions that are accessible at any machine terminal running ProShop software.

While the tour group was standing in front of the machines, machine operators logged in and out of jobs on the machine terminals. They updated the work flow and added inspection data on the spot. “The buyers had never seen that before,” Mr. Guidotti says. “Usually, they toured shops that used paper systems, and the guys were writing stuff down on travelers that would get queued at the end of the day before being sent to somebody else who would enter data into the system. Here it was all live, in real time. And they were actually seeing it happen.”

After seeing the machines in action, the group made its way to one of East Brach’s conference rooms to continue walking through its operations. Using ProShop, Mr. Guidotti outlined the steps and control processes his company had put in place for estimates, work orders, scheduling, time tracking, quality control, inspection, shipping and more. He showed the visual setup operations that each machinist can access, as well as the steps that are outlined in case a problem arises. Mr. Guidotti told the customer representatives that since the operators are responsible for documenting each machining operation and its outcome, any issues that arise, such as a scratch on the part, can be sourced to a particular time and place within the software. “We were demonstrating this live,” Mr. Guidotti says. “We didn't cherry pick this stuff. We picked one of the parts that was running at the time and said, ‘Here's what we're doing with your parts.’ They had never seen that before.”

The fact that the customer was dual sourced for this family of parts never left Mr. Guidotti’s mind, he says. While he was demonstrating East Brach’s processes, the customer mentioned that East Branch’s competitor for these parts was using a paper-based system, and that this was causing issues in a few key areas. The customer also mentioned that its company was downsizing. So, there in the conference room, Mr. Guidotti loaded East Brach’s contract record with the company and began editing the personnel list based on what the customers were telling him.

“And that did a few things for us,” Mr. Guidotti says. “In front of them, in real time, we loaded their contract record. We ended up getting a handful of extra contacts at the customer. We got the new quality manager’s name, and we got a couple of engineers’ names. So not only did we show that we were willing to update things in real time and make sure the information was correct, but we got a little bit more information out of them.”

Compete on Process

As the meeting continued, it was becoming clear to Mr. Guidotti that the customer was not entirely satisfied with East Branch’s competitor, specifically regarding flow-down requirements for certifications. The customer began volunteering information about these concerns, essentially stating that the competitor was often late when it came time to hand in the certifications and supplier Certificate of Conformance documents. So, Mr. Guidotti loaded the customer's work order and, in real time, provided a cert package to the customers for their parts. With a few clicks he pulled up the material cert, the approved print, and all of the AS9102 forms. “That made a huge impression on them,” Mr. Guidotti says.

AS9102 reports can be easily and quickly pulled up in ProShop.

What was his evidence for this statement?

The planned one-hour meeting ended up lasting three and a half hours. More importantly, after the meeting, the customer informed East Branch that it would now be the company’s primary supplier. Its competitor would be the secondary supplier, only to be used when East Branch was overbooked.

“The number of orders we received doubled over the next 12 months,” Mr. Guidotti says. “And not only did they double, but the quantities on the orders doubled as well. And probably one of the best things is they postponed their quality audit for 12 months. They wanted to come in and do a two-day quality audit of Carbide Drilling Inserts the system. So, we were able to continue operating without interruption for that 12 months.”

Generally speaking, the barrier to entry for opening and running a machine shop has dropped in recent years. For example, there are perfectly capable five-axis machines available on today’s market for less than $120,000. As such, the number of start-up machine shops is on the rise — a fact that changes the nature of competition in this space. For Mr. Guidotti and East Branch Engineering, this meant that the ability to showcase tightly controlled processes — processes that were accessible and integral to the entire production chain for its customers — was tantamount to a competitive advantage for its business.

“When you're dual-sourced on a part,” he says, “your competitor has the same capability as you do. People can Cemented Carbide Inserts make the parts you're making. So, what are you competing on? You're competing on everything you do to get inside your company’s processes. That's what you compete on. And we demonstrated that we're good at what we do.”

The Tungsten Carbide Blog: https://estool.edublogs.org

A Custom Tool Data Station Eliminates Machinists' Guesswork

Every day, Fab3R — a welding, machining and refurbishing company in Trois-Rivières, Quebec — manufactures large parts ranging from washer drums to turbine shafts. The machinists there are experienced, and they know how to do their jobs well.

However, when it came to choosing an insert grade, geometry, chipbreaker and cutting speed, they were guessing, says shop supervisor Simon Bellemare,

“I spent some tungsten carbide inserts time wondering why our good machinists would keep improvising their cutting speeds and feeds,” he says. The reason, it turned out, was not the lack of information but rather the difficulty of getting access to the exact information the machinists needed.

“Virtual things are good, but people like to see and touch the real thing. Combining a virtual catalog with a real display of the carbide inserts was the best thing we could do.”

“We have cutting tools from about 10 manufacturers and as many big catalogs,” Mr. Bellemare explains. “All those catalogs are different when you’re looking for cutting specs. Websites and apps like MachiningCloud help with the research, but you still need to search for the tool. Some machinists are discouraged when they face a 300-plus-page catalog, Indexable Inserts and some others are not comfortable with computers.” It’s not a matter of laziness, he says, but losing 15 minutes of productivity every time the machinist has to search for optimal cutting data is just not acceptable.

Mr. Bellemare wanted a way for machinists to effortlessly search for cutting specs every time. The goals in developing a new system were twofold:

Machinists should be able to get the data they need in no more than one click.The information should appear in a single-page display.One-Step Access to Cutting Specs

Eschewing a standard catalog, judging that most people would respond better to a visual format, “we opted for the real thing,” says Mr. Bellemare. This meant creating a display panel with a sample of each carbide insert glued onto it.

Next Fab3R needed a way to provide direct access to tool information. After considering a number of options — a push button, an NFC chip, a barcode — the team settled on posting scannable QR codes next to each insert sample. “QR codes are simple to create and to use,” Mr. Bellemare says. “As a bonus, they are free.”

A computer was installed next to the display board, having only one function: to read the QR codes. The app is the only thing allowed to run on the PC. “At any given time, we scan a code and we get the right page. Even those who had never touched a keyboard or a mouse can easily use it in seconds,” says Mr. Bellemare. That’s because the keyboard is not even necessary except for maintenance, since the machinist uses a handheld scanner to acquire the info from the QR code. Goal number one was thus achieved.

Condensing Cutting Data to One Page

The next challenge was to get all the essential data displayed on a single page — no scrolling, no flipping. By “essential data,” Mr. Bellemare means only the information needed by Fab3R machinists.

“We don’t machine all the kinds of materials that exist, so we don’t need to show the cutting specs for those materials. It would only confuse the machinist and slow down research,” he says. So the team created their own cutting specs template. “We had an employee do the search for us in manufacturers’ catalogs and condense it in our template. We ended up with a very smart display with color codes and other visual cues.”

Another advantage of creating a template is standardization. Machinists face the same kind of display whether they are looking for specs on a carbide insert from Kennametal, Iscar, Tungaloy, Sandvik Coromant and so on. They don’t have to analyze different graphics, a new spreadsheet or various color code schemes. Goal number two achieved.

How the Tool Data Station Was Implemented

The tool information station has yielded the benefits of the two primary goals as well as others.

The station gives the shop the ability to display Fab3R-specific applications. If, for example, a carbide insert performs well on a specific job, those cutting specs can be entered so that the next machinist who does the same job can easily start with the optimal speeds and feeds right from the start.Another QR code brings machinists to a page comparing chipbreaker and insert grades from different manufacturers. Like all the other entries, this one appears in the space of one page for ease of access.The station is located right next to the shop’s Kennametal ToolBoss vending machine. “From now on, no machinist should withdraw a carbide insert without knowing exactly how to use it,” Mr. Bellemare says. “Machinists will also have no excuses for choosing the wrong grade or chipbreaker.”

“I know we didn’t invent anything,” Mr. Bellemare concludes. “We just found a good use of an existing technology. Virtual things are good, but people like to see and touch the real thing. Combining a virtual catalog with a real display of the carbide inserts was the best thing we could do. The system works. Since the first day we installed it, people were scanning their chosen insert. It was so easy to use that everyone adhered to it.”

The Tungsten Carbide Blog: https://carlingrid.exblog.jp/

In Plastics Machining, One Sharp Tool Does It All

With a business model sketched out on a napkin at the start of 2017, Greg and Shelly McArthur dedicated their home garage to a new business venture: a CNC machine shop. NTL Industries Inc. would be Greg’s opportunity to take everything he had learned in his 20 years of CNC machining experience and make a go Cermet Inserts at running his own business from the ground up.

After a year in the garage shop, the shop had the opportunity to upgrade to a larger space in Sterling Heights, Michigan. The move to the new facility was built on a culture of saying “yes” to as many RFQs as possible.

In some cases, saying “yes” involves working with whatever material the customer specifies, even if it falls outside the norm. One recent example was a small plastic part for the automotive industry. The size and shape of the part didn’t immediately lend itself to a fast cycle time, but McArthur was confident that he could make it a profitable part. 

NTL Industries Inc. serves a wide range of industries but is pushing its product development into the motorsport industry. TCGT Insert With each new job, the shop is quick to equip itself with machines and tooling that keep it ahead of the competition.Photo Credit: Jeannie Skirpan, NTL Industries Inc.

Plastic machining requires thinking differently than machining other materials, but McArthur has a simple approach: “I treat it like aluminum, but faster.” Asked for more specifics, he cites the following principles as key to plastic milling success:

 Avoid the Melting Point

McArthur’s “faster” motto mitigates the thermal issues that often plague plastic operations. This is because plastic — in this case, ultra high molecular weight (UHMW) polyethylene — often has significant problems during milling operations. The melting point is around 260°F, and thermal expansion happens rapidly. If the feed rate were too slow, the material could build up around the cutting edge and start to melt back together. These blobs and hanging bits of melted plastic interfere with the cut and lead to even greater heat buildup, compounding the problem. Running without coolant also promotes faster chip evacuation with the plastic material.

The right tool path enabled milling the entire part with a single end mill in three setups and 37 minutes on a 3-axis mill. 
Photo Credit: Jeannie Skirpan, NTL Industries Inc.

Sharp Tools Are Imperative

When cutting any kind of plastic, a brand-new tool is best. This ensures that the material will not absorb any additional friction as result of a dull cutting edge.

McArthur used a 0.25", 3-flute carbide end mill with a 0.030" corner radius for all operations on this part, from roughing to finishing. The rounded end of the bit enabled chamfering operations without changing the tool. A final cycle time of 37 minutes made this a profitable part for the shop. 

CAM From the Bottom up

McArthur also cites Mastercam’s Optirough tool paths as critical to making this plastic part a profitable part. This strategy improved? cutting efficiency by engaging a larger portion of the end mill’s length, thereby avoiding concentrating wear at the tool tip.

The plastic part was a good candidate for Optirough in part because it has features and faces at different heights, McArthur says. Such geometry facilitates aggressive roughing between the features using as much of the tool flute as possible. For this job, McArthur was able to maintain a 1.125" depth of cut with a 10% step over. Reducing passes is a common way that NTL Industries seeks to make their processes more efficient, “How can I create this part with the smallest number of passes to get the shape I need?” McArthur asks.

OptiRough is well suited for tall parts with significant horizontal steps. Deep, optimized cuts with a consistent chip load save machining time and reduce tool wear. Solid verification of the process not only lets the user check the results, but provides a solid model reference for the finish tool paths to work from. 
Photo Credit: Mastercam

The Tungsten Carbide Blog: https://cncinserts.edublogs.org

Nidec Acquiring Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool

Nidec Corp. develops and produces small electrical motors for a variety of applications, ranging from laptop computers to pitch control motors for windmills. The chairman and CEO of the Kyoto, Japan-based company, Shigenobu Nagamori, said last month when talking about April-December 2020 earnings, “The price of a car will drop to as low as 300,000 yen resulting in a spike in demand for cars.”

That’s about $2,900.

One of the reasons for this will be low-cost traction motors for electric vehicles. Nagamori said that motors “will become a commodity” and that “The price of EV motors will drop to a fifth.”

“We have to ready ourselves for that,” Nagamori said.

One of the ways they are doing that: Nidec is acquiring Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Cutting Tool Inserts Tool Co., Ltd.  The whole company.

According to Nidec’s explanation for the acquisition, “We expect utilizing Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool’s technology for our future insourcing plan.”

Nidec plans to produce more products, so they are getting a company’s worth of capacity.

Nidec pointed out that MHIMT has a leading position in Japan for its gear cutting and gear grinding equipment for automotive applications, and as it anticipates greater demand for its automotive E-Axle — which combines a motor, inverter and reducer, and which utilizes precision gears — it wants to have the capacity to produce them.

Nidec will be integrating MHIMT into its Nidec-Shimpo subsidiary, which produces power transmission equipment, ceramic equipment and stamping machines (e.g., Minster presses).

Presumably, the gear making equipment will play a large role in the company’s preparation for the production of inexpensive traction motors for electric Carbide Turning Inserts vehicles.

The Tungsten Carbide Blog: https://qskkmr742.uzblog.net

Job Shop Grows With Punch Press Technology

GP Precision, a New Jersey-based precision sheet metal fabricator, was founded in 1966 to serve the prototype market of the electronics industry. Their original shop in Morris Plains, New Jersey, was expanded three times before they moved to Hackettstown in 1985. This doubled their shop size and allowed them to expand their capabilities to include production runs. They moved again in October 1994, increasing their floor space from 5,000 to 20,000 sq. ft.

Today, GP Precision provides design engineering and production services for the telecom, medical, computer, fiber optic and audio markets with prototype and JIT monthly blanket orders. Parts are supplied complete, including plating, painting, silk screening, assembly and packaging. They have built their reputation on the quick turnaround of high quality parts in aluminum, VBMT Insert steel, stainless steel, brass, copper and plastics. Their ability to keep up with this growth is attributable to how they've applied new punch press technology as it has become available.

GP Precision's capabilities include shearing, punching, forming, deburring, welding, spot welding, and hardware installation. The key to their success, according to owner/president, Art Cubbage, is the use of computerized equipment to process jobs quickly and accurately and limit downtime. GP Precision can produce 5,000-piece runs in three-to-four weeks in just about half the time it takes the majority of their competitors. Prototypes are often produced in as little as a day. Much of their ability to respond quickly has been provided by the use of CNC punch presses.

GP Precision's original move toward automation was a Super 30/30 from Strippit, Inc. (Akron, New York), a semi-automatic hole punching machine that is still in use today for less demanding applications that do not require a turret press. In 1984, the company purchased its first CNC punching machine, a Strippit CAP 1000. This computerized machine quadrupled their output. The amount of work they could do in 70 hours on the Super 30/30 could now be done in two days on the CAP 1000. "This enabled us to take more high volume jobs," Mr. Cubbage says. It also necessitated the move to Hackettstown, so they would have room to handle the increased work load.

In 1992, they purchased their first 1000R CNC turret punch press (now called the 1000/20). Although the running speed on the 1000/20 was the same as the CAP 1000, the new machine offered faster set-up times because of the high-speed turret design and new features like auto indexing. This allows tools to be rotated via the computer control so that the machine can punch more with fewer tool changes. The 1000/20 also features multi-tool, which increases the tool-carrying capacity of the turret.

In 1993, GP Precision purchased a Strippit 1000 XP/20, which provided "50 percent more output in the same floor space," Mr. Cubbage says. "This was very important in our old building because there was limited space." In 1994, they added another 1000 XP/20. With axis speeds up to 3350 inches per minute and hit rates up to 330 hits per minute in 11 gauge material, the 1000 XP's were twice as productive as the 1000/20 press. Once again, GP Precision found themselves having to move to larger quarters to accommodate the work.

Because of the rapid turnaround, GP Precision is now able to help its customers accurately schedule, "Just In Time" deliveries and keep costs down. "We're much more competitive because the XP is faster," Mr. Cubbage says. "We can take higher volume jobs now. We were on the outside edge before we got the XP machines. There is a major difference in volume output and improved turnaround. This makes us a better vendor to our customers."

He is also very pleased with the speed at which his operators were able to learn and use the PC-based controls that drive the machines. Parts are programmed in the engineering department, downloaded via floppy disk to the punch press and modified on the press if needed. PC-based equipment has also proven to be easy to service, according to Mr. Cubbage. "If a hard drive crashes, you simply swap the CPU and you're up and running," he says, but was quick to add that in the nine years they have used these machines, they have only had to replace one bulb.

Increasingly capable punching technology has helped GP Precision increase their productivity from average lot sizes of 70 parts 10 years ago to averages of 250 today. The company plans to add another Strippit punch press within the next year to help them keep up with the work volume and maintain their rapid turnaround. "Most of our competitors have a six-to-eight-week turnaround," Mr. Cubbage says. "Our normal turnaround is three-to-four weeks." The technology enables them to do that.

Deep Hole Drilling Inserts
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