OGM's stop watches a thing of the past

Technical injection moulder OGM operates a modern manufacturing plant at Eynsham, Oxfordshire, designed to meet the exacting standards of the medical and electronics industries. The plant runs 15 Arburg and two Demag moulding machines, covering the range 25-400 tonnes. A high degree of automation has been adopted, with a view to world-class productivity. Managing director Paul Wightman commented: “Around 40% of OGM’s turnover comes from work for the industrial electronics sector, and 28% from medical – where we have yet to see any effect on demand from the current recession. Fortunately, one of our contracts is for moulding components for utility prepayment meters – a market which is roaring ahead at the moment!” Monitoring and reporting brief Until 2007, production monitoring and reporting at OGM lagged behind the rest of the operation in terms of sophistication and efficiency, with timing by stopwatch, pen-and-paper recording and manual data entry into spreadsheets. To improve the situation, OGM operations manager Wayne Holden championed the introduction of a more fit-for-purpose real-time production monitoring, reporting and planning system from Northampton-based Intouch Monitoring. Holden outlined the background to the brief to Intouch: “We run three production shifts, 24 hours per day, with 10 people per shift. Labour costs are therefore heavy. Our shift managers used to spend as long as one hour at the end of each duty – chargeable as overtime – on manual recording and reporting. Moving to Intouch’s automatic system would therefore provide an immediate quantifiable benefit – let alone improvements to our overall “leanness” from analysing the wealth of information Intouch provides on both machine and operator performance. Before Intouch, much of this information simply wasn’t available in accessible and usable forms – it’s a case of ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’” Fundamentals of Intouch The Intouch system uses very straightforward hardware – a relay fitted to each machine (with minimal disruption to production) is activated once per operating cycle. The other essential component is a keypad for the machine operator, which is configured for each customer according to their particular needs. Machine operators record specific events (e.g. a tool change; a shutdown due to a fault) with dedicated keys on the pad. Swipecard or PIN code security can be included. Intouch communicates with the customer’s computer system via a wireless or Ethernet connection, with real-time plant status viewable on any PC screen in a choice of formats. Intouch offers multiple data reporting options, in both tabular and graphical formats. Those used by OGM include a daily production sheet (statistics for each machine giving the number of products moulded, run time, balance of order remaining etc.); material handler’s sheet; analysis of machine downtime and causes of downtime; total plant downtime by cause; weekly average number of tool changes per shift; average tool change time. The production planning module can use any timescale required by the customer; perhaps daily (as in the automotive industry) up to 8-9 months ahead (for seasonal industries). Commissioning for success Wayne Holden recalls the installation and commissioning of OGM’s Intouch system in May 2007: “Several dummy runs before going live ensured successful preparatory troubleshooting. Intouch offers a combination of formal training for key staff on the system, and informal coaching as part of commissioning. The first few weeks were spent on honing and design changes, and we found ourselves proficient enough to implement a different reporting structure in-house. The buy-in to Intouch from our staff has been excellent.” Holden couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the favourable impact which Intouch has had on OGM: “We benefited immediately from the enhanced visibility and control which Intouch provides for our manufacturing operation. Intouch has definitely informed OGM’s continuous improvement programme. One key indicator is a halving in our average tool change time from 1.6 to 0.8 hours since adopting the system.” John Hardwick, Intouch’s commercial director, commented on the OGM project: “With around 70% of our customers drawn from the injection moulding sector, we quickly felt at home working with OGM, tailoring our software to the company’s particular requirements. We offer a customised, ‘seamless’ installation to each customer, adapted as necessary to their needs, rather than a choice of modules.” Customers come first with Intouch Hardwick enlarged on Intouch’s company philosophy: “Karl Edwin and I, as founders of Intouch, have between us a wealth of experience within manufacturing industry, with involvement in engineering, electronics and project management. My experience in production monitoring led us to the development of an easy-to-operate and understandable monitoring package that can be as flexible in its capability as a customer wants it to be. Our early research found that existing systems were usually expensive and too complicated. Often they were difficult for operators to understand and use, with superfluous functions that clouded reporting processes. There was also conspicuous user frustration at the lack of flexibility within these packages, and at poor support by suppliers and distributors. Intouch’s work since 1997 has been the antithesis of the ‘take it or leave it’ attitude of others towards the individual requirements of potential customers.” Intouch is doing well despite the recession, according to Hardwick: “There are now around 100 Intouch installations on four continents, and every system we’ve sold is in active use. Most of our sales leads come via word of mouth, when satisfied Intouch users move to other companies. Despite the present economic climate, this is a record year for Intouch.” OGM’s own Intouch system is set to grow with the prospect of expansion at the Eynsham facility – including new injection moulding machines.

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TP work 5 days instead of 7

TP MOULDING PRODUCE SAME NUMBER OF PARTS IN FIVE DAYS INSTEAD OF SEVEN WITH INTOUCH! Telford-based precision plastic automotive and air-conditioning components company, TP Moulding Ltd is experiencing a huge improvement in productivity and efficiency since installing a bespoke Intouch production montioring system. A first tier supplier to DENSO - a leading global supplier of advanced automotive systems and components to many of the worlds major car manufacturers - TP Moulding currently operates 280 tools and 18 moulding machines ranging in size from 25 tonnes for producing the smallest parts such as anti-freeze drain plugs to 450 tonnes for the production of larger items such as radiator tanks. The Intouch system has been connected into each moulding machine and at three assembly stations. Activated by bespoke designed operator keypads, it relays information to a data acquisition terminal that can be viewed via remote PC’s installed with Intouch software to give accurate real-time information on the status of any job in operation throughout the plant. This information is also displayed on six 50” plasma screens placed at strategic locations around the factory floor so that operatives can see at a glance the production status of each run, which, in turn ensures that any problems are quickly alerted and rectified. Dave White, Senior Shift Leader at TP Moulding comments: “The system has made an incredible difference to our productivity and overall efficiency. In fact since it was installed we have been able to go from a seven days a week operation to five days, yet still produce the same number of parts.” The system integrates with TP Moulding’s own database which is used for recording orders, planning, purchasing and stock control. Each time new information is inputted into the database the Intouch system is automatically updated. “The system makes scheduling so much easier and eliminates the need for time consuming paperwork,” continues Dave White. “We can now prioritise and accommodate large or urgent orders in a normal working week which would otherwise have resulted in working overtime at the weekends making us much more efficient and cost effective. Also operators can see exactly when a tool needs changing well in advance and can prepare accordingly saving a great deal of time and ensuring continuity. In fact our overall tool change time has reduced by approximately 50% since Intouch was installed.” “Intouch certainly lives up to its name” says Dave White “as we are certainly more in touch with our production processes than ever before which has resulted in far greater performance and substantial cost savings and has increased our capacity to take on more work.”

Imrpoved Performance at Plastique

Leading plastic packaging company, Plastique Ltd is experiencing substantially improved thru-put, more economic running costs and easier, more efficient task scheduling since installing an Intouch production monitoring system at its Nottingham-based manufacturing plant. One of the UK’s leading providers of thermoformed packaging, displays and components using state-of-the-art pressure vacuum forming and punch and die technology, Plastique runs a 24/7 operation producing innovative plastic packaging solutions to a wide range of blue chip companies operating in the cosmetics, stationery, pharmaceutical, electronics and drinks industries. As the plastic packaging industry is continually introducing new product designs the company currently has 2,500 tools in stock and produces at least a further 250 new tools each year. Plastique uses the system to monitor activity on eight thermoforming machines of different sizes and capability which currently handle a thru-put of approximately 90 tonnes of material per week. Trevor Drew, Operations Manager at Plastique comments: “We liked Intouch because they were able to provide us with a bespoke system which addressed our specific requirements. The system has been connected to each thermoforming machine and using specially designed keypads, relays up to date production status information to our database, which can then be viewed in a simple, easy to understand format on any PC in the company. “Our cycle times are extremely fast and therefore tool changing is very frequent. The system greatly improves visibility which helps us to keep tabs well in advance of tool change requirements which greatly reduces down time and improves productivity.” In addition to providing improved planning and scheduling the Intouch system eliminates the need for time consuming manual data recording. It enables Plastique to run off reports at any time by shift, day, week, month, job, machine or tool and highlights problem areas that need fast remedial attention. The reporting mechanism also provides valuable information on efficiency, utilisation, scrap and downtime. “We found the installation of the system surprisingly straightforward and it caused little disruption to our day to day activities” he continues. “As a result of installing the system, last year we increased our efficiency by 2,000 hours, which in turn has reduced the need for overtime and has allowed us to take on more work in the same time frame. Intouch is such an important and integral part of our operation and makes things so much easier and more manageable it is hard to imagine what it was like before we had it installed.”

Inject Plastics

Inject Plastics installed the Intouch Production Monitoring System in order to obtain better information to improve management decisions. George Vojtisek, Manging Director of Inject said “The general management of the company has been sharpened by the very virtue that we are looking at real figures. You could say the system justified itself from day one.” “We looked at several systems on the market and chose Intouch largely because of how simple it is to use.” “Implementing Intouch was very easy. The installation was extremely well done, everybody in the company adopted the new system immediately and support from Intouch has been first class.” “Planning has been greatly improved. We now have much better information for our customers. Operations meetings are based around the Intouch scheduling module. Now, everyone knows when any job is going to be completed."

Profitable Outlook for Harboro Rubber

Precision rubber moulding specialists, The Harboro Rubber Company has just completed a successful trial of the Outlook production monitoring system from Outlook Manufacturing Technology, and has reported excellent results. The three-month trial was set up monitoring five of the company's state of the art production centres and provided measures of efficiency for each machine on every shift. One immediate tangible benefit of using Outlook was significant increase in efficiencies during the night shift. Outlook is a considerable improvement on other monitoring systems that Harboro Rubber has run as part of its TQM programme. It is easy to install and can be run immediately. Training of production staff to carry out all job control functions can take minutes, and data from individual sections can be efficiently monitored, often highlighting areas of concern before costly problems arise. Derek Feltham, Moulding Manager at Harboro Rubber says, "The beauty of the Outlook system is that it is a flexible and cost-effective add-on. A significant additional benefit is the "real time" capability that provides instant data, whereas with existing integrated systems, such critical information can be as much as 12-hours behind production. As a result of our trial, we have now installed Outlook onto thirteen machines in our latest, ultra modern production hall and anticipate that the system will be extended throughout the rest of our plant." Specialists experienced in production techniques, engineering concepts and information technology have developed Outlook. It is a Windows-based, real-time production monitoring system capable of providing instantaneous status information for every machine in a manufacturing facility. It will optimise the utilisation of machines; improve efficiency and productivity, whilst reducing downtime, scrap and costs. It can be applied to most cyclical production operations such as moulding, extrusion, casting and so on and can be fully configured to the needs and budget of any organisation.