Minimize Manufacturing Energy Consumption and Reduce Environmental Impact with Seco Tools
Manufacturers seek to minimize waste across every aspect of business. Reduce part rework, optimizing machining processes and tooling can aid in energy savings.Manufacturers always seek ways to machine their products more quickly, at the highest possible quality and at the lowest possible cost. With today’s global economic and environmental trends, manufacturers are under additional pressure to minimize waste and reduce expenditure of energy. The most effective way to accomplish this is a focused effort on increasing manufacturing productivity, which, in turn, contributes significantly to reductions in energy consumption.
Reducing energy costs in manufacturing basically comes down to producing parts right the first time. Using the proper tools and machining strategies will cut cycle times and eliminate scrap and rework, saving the energy that would be required to make replacement parts.
The first steps towards energy conservation involve taking an overall approach to evaluating the entire manufacturing process. Improving parts of the process separately will provide some benefits, but examining the system as a whole will maximize rewards.
From a foundation of more than eight decades of experience in metal-cutting tooling and application experience, Seco Tools has developed a suite of consultancy and industrial internet solutions. These solutions combine lean manufacturing best practices, industry 4.0 hardware and software that enable manufacturing facilities of any size to optimize their present operations and prepare for the future.
The comprehensive array of services and solutions begins with an in-depth analysis of a shop’s operations that quantifies improvement potential and determines ways to achieve it. The review compares the shop’s tool usage and operational practices to industry norms in terms of tooling and machining costs, downtime, scrap and rework and reveals opportunities to increase productivity and minimize waste.
In addition to tooling and hardware analysis, the program includes engineering and simulation services that evaluate a shop’s machining processes relative to its present CAM programming practices.
As a real-world example of the program’s implementation, a typical shop wanted to reduce production costs without making large investments in new machines. The shop’s machining operations were based largely on parameters presented by its CAM system. The in-depth Seco Tools analysis covered all aspects of the shop’s operations, from machining procedures, engineering and tooling usage through procurement activity and materials management. Seco Tools suggested changes to the shop’s machining parameters based on the shop analysis and Seco Tools' application knowledge.
The changes immediately produced a 15 percent to 20 percent reduction in cycle time even before tooling updates. Then, application of advanced cutting tools brought the total cycle time reduction to
27 percent. That amounted to 9,875 hours of new shop capacity and a tool consumption cost reduction of $122,000.
The changes in this case not only saved cycle time, added new manufacturing capability and reduced tooling expense, they also reduced the amount of energy needed to run the machine and parallel activities.
Familiarity with the impact of every individual activity throughout an organization enables understanding of the entire manufacturing process. That awareness of shop activities and strategies must include shop personnel because the workforce is responsible for the success of all machining initiatives. Accordingly, Seco Tools provides a wide range of educational resources tailored to the needs of different shop staff disciplines.
Through machine monitoring, data is collected and shared in real time to enable rapid response to current situations, preparation for future issues and opportunities and measurement of overall manufacturing efficiency. Data collected includes detailed information on downtime, scrap rates and overall efficiency of the workforce and machining operations.
When it comes to efficiency and waste, shops often overlook tool inventory management. Missing, obsolete or misapplied tooling, bloated or insufficient tool inventories and inefficient procedures for getting the tools to the machines all contribute to wasted shop floor time and administrative effort. Tool management software and tool identification and tracking technologies such as RFID tags and use of secure mobile devices will minimize errors and maximize the speed of tool resupply. Internet technology supports supply chain initiatives like lean- and cell-based manufacturing, and enables vendor integration to ensure that supply issues will not interfere with production.
Energy saving traditionally has not been at the top of most shops’ priority lists. Today, pressure from government regulators, communities, shareholders and customers have changed those priorities. Initiatives like Manufacturing Transformation are examples of manufacturing shops and suppliers working together as partners, creating efficiencies and solutions that save time and energy.
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