PROBLEM
The benefits of Lean
Manufacturing in high-volume low-variety assembly line-type manufacturing
facilities have been well-documented and extensively reported by industry. Forge shops differ significantly from those facilities
because they typically are jobshops that make anywhere between 50 to 5000+
different forgings. Also, the
Functional (or Process) layout of the typical forge shop, with
similar/identical equipment co-located in “process villages”, cannot support
one-piece (or small-batch) material flows.
Therefore, in order to implement Lean Manufacturing, the typical custom
forge shop must first simplify its material flows and design a flexible
facility layout.
PROJECT GOALS
·
To
develop and validate flexible facility layout concepts suited specifically for
custom forge shops.
·
To
develop a software tool – PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification
Toolkit) – for analysis of the large samples of component routings that are
typical of custom forge shops.
·
To
link the facility layout and material flow simplification steps in the forge
shop re-design process to other improvements, such as “right-sized equipment”
design, setup reduction, visual workplace design and process standardization.
SOLUTION STRATEGY
Software for Material Flow Analysis:
A computer package – PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit) – is under development to automate the manual methods of Production Flow Analysis. Production Flow Analysis (PFA) is a systematic manual method for material flow analysis that can be used to analyze and improve material flows in any custom forge shop at four levels: Factory (or Site), Building (or Shop), Cell, Workstation. PFAST can currently analyze a product mix with at least 1000 component routings[1].
Implementation and Technology Transfer:
To date, PFAST has been applied to
machining, pipe fabrication, electronic assembly and welding jobshops. The client emails a spreadsheet containing
the part routings and other supporting data.
This data is input into PFAST, analyzed and the outputs emailed back to
the client. Follow-up discussions by
phone and/or email help the client to translate the PFAST outputs into
efficient facility layout designs. The ultimate goal of this project is to make
PFAST available to all interested forge shops via a Web portal hosted on an OSU
server.
Expected Benefits:
PFAST
will enable custom forge shops to control the chaos that is caused by their
large product mix and organize their
facility layouts for short Production Lead Times, increased profitability, reduced inventory and efficient utilization of floor space.
RESULTS
A
pilot project was undertaken with Turbine Engine Components Technologies
Corporation (http://www.TECTCORP.com/)
located in Euclid, OH. TECT Cleveland, a division of UCA Holdings, specializes in forging
and engine-ready supply of airfoils, fuel nozzles and hardware components,
utilizing the full spectrum of aerospace alloys. In Summer 2001, TECT Cleveland hired
an OSU graduate student intern to work full-time for three months in their
facility. The intern reported to Haydn
Garrett (Manager – Technology Development) who leads the company’s
implementation of Lean Manufacturing.
The PFAST development team provided the intern with comprehensive
project support throughout his internship.
For example, the figure below presents one of the results - a Cluster Analysis dendogram – output by PFAST:
The dendogram helps to visually
identify two groups (or families) of forgings: {666666, 444444, 555555, 101010,
121212} and {111111, 999999, 222222, 888888, 333333, 777777, 212121}. If each family of forgings is produced in a
cell (or focused factory), significant reductions in Production Lead Times and
WIP inventory could be achieved for those forgings.
The Appendix shows the layout that was
developed by the graduate student intern using PFAST outputs and the block
layout software, STORM. This layout
promises a significant reduction in floorspace requirements over the 220,000
sq. ft. currently leased by TECT Cleveland.
In the current layout at TECTC, the floorspace allocated to forging
equipment and supporting processes is 150,416 sq. ft. Whereas, the proposed layout, with a requirement
of only 100, 313 sq. ft., promises a 33% reduction in floorspace. Hence, the proposed layout could
significantly reduce the annual facility leasing costs for TECT Cleveland.
It has been reported that, if the Production
Lead Time of an order could be decomposed into Value-added (VA) and Non-Value
added (NVA) portions, then only 5% of the PLT is VA. Also, material handling and queuing delays constitute a major
portion of the NVA portion of the PLT.
The proposed layout will significantly reduce the Production Lead Times
of some of the key forgings supplied by TECT Cleveland, as evident in the table
below:
|
Part No |
Travel Distance |
Time Spent (min) |
Reduction By% |
||
|
|
Current |
New Layout |
Current |
New Layout |
|
|
111111 |
8522 |
1128 |
17.04 |
2.26 |
86.77 |
|
222222 |
9444 |
1514 |
18.89 |
3.03 |
83.97 |
|
333333 |
20435 |
3363 |
40.87 |
6.73 |
83.54 |
|
444444 |
8462 |
1162 |
16.92 |
2.32 |
86.27 |
|
555555 |
8462 |
1162 |
16.92 |
2.32 |
86.27 |
|
666666 |
9605 |
1453 |
19.21 |
2.91 |
84.88 |
|
777777 |
10277 |
1460 |
20.55 |
2.92 |
85.79 |
|
888888 |
9444 |
1463 |
18.89 |
2.93 |
84.51 |
|
999999 |
10410 |
1453 |
20.82 |
2.91 |
86.05 |
|
101010 |
8462 |
1162 |
16.92 |
2.32 |
86.27 |
|
121212 |
8462 |
1162 |
16.92 |
2.32 |
86.27 |
PROJECT ASSESSENT
According
to Haydn Garrett (Manager – Technology Development, TECTC), “ ….. The
advantages of installing a “pull” system and one-piece flow (cells) are well
understood. However, it is not
practical for a traditionally batch-oriented forge shop, with ongoing customer
commitments, to have disruptions in delivery schedules while implementing large
changes in philosophy and working practices. What the involvement with OSU has
given us is how best to utilize and change our current systems, with minimum
disruption, while we work toward those ultimate goals ….. While our kaizen events are working well and
giving TECT Cleveland good improvements at specific places within the process
flow, the bigger overall picture was decidedly “fuzzy’. The Flexible Factory approach ….. has
provided us with a much clearer vision of where we need to be, and how we have
to approach the problems. The ability
of the Flexible Factory to accommodate stagnant machinery, such as our 12,000
ton Press, has shown us how to develop a very practical and efficient processs
without creating the ultimate “cell” concept”.
TIMELINE/MILESTONE
Start Date: February 19, 2001
End Date: February 8, 2007
FUNDING
Advanced Technology
Institute:
$ 409,457
COST SHARE
Turbine Engine Components
Technologies Corporation: $ 136,129
Ulven Forging Inc.: $ 3,520
Lehigh Heavy Forge: Participation is tentative
The Boeing Co.: Participation is tentative
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
¨
Haydn
Garrett and Craig Kaminski (TECT
Cleveland)
¨
Jon
Tirpak (ATI)
¨
Dan
Gearing (DLA)
¨
PFAST Development Team (in
alphabetical order): Heng Huang, Smart Khaewsukkho, Jin Zhou (OSU)
¨
Rajiv
Shivpuri (OSU)
¨
David
Winyard (DSCR)
