Download the most recent issue of the Ajax Innovator and get caught up on the latest Ajax Metal Forming News. This special issue leads off with a great story about the convergence of capital, technology, and know-how. Don’t miss it! (more…)
Since the publication of “The Machine That Changed the World” by James Womack, Daniel Jones, and Daniel Roos in 1991, companies have sought to improve on the workcell idea. Also known as the kaizen process, workcell benefits are undeniable: minimal waste, reduced production bottlenecks, and — best of all — lowest possible final cost of production. What’s not to like.
The first beneficiaries of workcells were automakers. Their huge production runs of similar, internally planned products yielded immediate rewards. But companies like Ajax face different challenges. Ajax produces products specified by our customers. That means Ajax’s workcell development must be responsive to customer requirements.
Using RIEs To Implement Work Cells
RIEs (Rapid Improvement Events) isolate key departmental managers and tasks them with improving a single business process in a short amount of time. The event is not considered complete until the process improvement actually takes place. RIEs require quite a bit of advance planning to be successful. Most of the prep work involves gathering decision-making data so that the process does not stall. Top management must also make sure the RIE team feels free to make important decisions. Some of these decisions may require significant changes within the organization. That can cause disruption.
“REIs aren’t necessarily easy,” said Ajax Vice President of Sales and Marketing Don Wellman. “It’s all about making our processes better for our customers.”
“We place emphasis on the rapid part of RIEs,” Don continued. “Corporate speed makes a big difference when working with world-class OEMs. We need to move as fast as they do.”
Don said Ajax plans on doing at least three RIEs this year. “Workcells are a priority with our RIEs, since they yield so many benefits that directly improve customer service and value”.
HR Manager Courtney Mickelson and Director of Operations Curt Jasper
”The Ajax team is proactively learning how to grow the company’s talent pool by volunteering on local organizations’ boards or discussion panels to understand colleague and employer issues.“ We always look for new avenues to approach our next career objective,” Curt said.
The Company’s #1 Talent Builder – The Skills Matrix
Ajax Plant Manager Brandon Holmes is a perfect example of how development programs can identify and grow talented people quickly. Brandon joined Ajax in 2007 and worked his way up through production, fabrication, logistics, and management roles to become the company’s newest Plant Manager.
HR Manager Courtney Mickelson and Director of Operations Curt Jasper
Brandon is a credentialed Class A Journeyworker whose professional development includes creating, attending, and instructing the M-Powered manufacturing program at Hennepin Technical College and the sheet metal program at Anoka Technical College, both in Minneapolis. Brandon has completed coursework in lean manufacturing and six sigma process improvement and is a Certified Professional Project Manager (CPPM).
The Ajax Skills Matrix is a color-coded grid that shows a composite of production skills needed and mastered by members of the Ajax workforce. This at-a-glance talent management tool, posted prominently in the company break room, inspires workforce members to learn new skills and become the multi-skilled team that boosts production efficiency. Managers can also assess the available skills at any given time and contrast that to the production schedule, enabling them to quickly identify and correct any future gaps.
Benefits To Workforce and Customers Alike
Put yourself in the Ajax customer’s shoes (if you already have, thank you!) and imagine you’ve just handed off a critical project on a tight timeline. Wouldn’t you be happy to know the many ways the Skills Matrix improves performance on your project? Here are just a few examples.
Ajax Production Manager Brandon Holmes
It Starts At The Top
The Skills Matrix only works when company management is committed to seeing it through and keeping it embedded in the minds of people at all levels of the company. Vice President of Sales Don Wellman said the Skills Matrix must become part of the Ajax core culture. “It starts with us,” he said. “Management needs to prioritize the Skills Matrix in order to get the most from it.”
Don said once people begin to see the benefits of the Skills Matrix, the cultural embedding gets easier. “The good news is that everyone can see how well it works,” Don said. “That gives the entire Skills Matrix project plenty of momentum to keep it rolling forward.”
The Ajax Metal Forming quality assurance team has continually invested in new scanning technology that enables them to meet and exceed tolerance specs.
The FARO ScanArm, a technology that the Ajax QA team has been working with for more than a year, features opticallysuperior blue laser technology with fast scanning speeds to deliver high resolution point cloud data and the ability to seamlessly scan challenging materials.
The device is lightweight and very maneuverable for convenient desktop mounting in the QA lab. This is ideal for metal formed parts scanning.
What’s new these days is that the Ajax QA team can now use the latest ScanArm software to generate CAD files and documentation as part of a reverse engineering process.
The QA team can quickly digitize a part and create a fully surfaced CAD model which can then be used for tooling, manufacture, project costing, and redesign.
This process is ideal for a multitude of metal forming and reverse engineering applications including the development of virtual simulations, rapid prototyping, and composite surface inspections.
The ScanArm’s PolyWorks software is a full-featured reverse engineering software that combines history-based CAD with 3D scan data to create feature-based, editable solid modeling.
2017 Issue #1 of the Ajax Metal Forming newsletter is ready to download! This issue includes a feature story about tool design and tight tolerance machine tooling. Plus updates on our 2017 events and a message from Erick Ajax. (more…)
We’re Americans. It’s in our nature to want to make things better.
For example, advanced manufacturers like Ajax Metal Forming Solutions have become experts at tight tolerance manufacturing. In this manufacturing environment, the parts the company produces cannot vary more than +/- .002 of an inch. Parts produced to tight tolerances can reduce and even eliminate final product assembly problems. That, in turn, reduces production costs (and headaches).
But let’s be practical. Tight tolerance manufacturing is really all about skilled professionals teaming up to find new ways to exceed customer expectations. More parts in less time, better quality, more consistency, and faster turnaround. That result is measured not in thousandths of an inch, but in happy customers and business growth.
Jayson Marcott, Tool Designer and Sales Engineer at Ajax, was assigned to produce a four-nut backing plate for a refrigeration unit hinge. In this case, the tolerance specification was +/-.005 of True Position. The solution he arrived at is impressive.
Jayson created a pneumatic feed system that can weld four locations on a material blank with only one electrode. This method produces far more parts than could be done manually, and with terrific quality results. A single operator can load material blanks and hardware into individual hoppers, initiate the production cycle, and the tool runs until the hoppers are empty.
“To me, the pilot pin on this tool is what makes it special,” Jayson said. “It can pilot the blank and the nut hardware at the same time before applying weld pressure. If there is. 001 of clearance between the nut and the pilot and the part and the pilot, then we’re at .002 inches of nominal. That’s excellent.”
Jayson designed this tooling solution using SOLIDWORKS CAD/CAE solid modeling software. SOLIDWORKS enables Jayson to create production tools rapidly while bringing creative solutions to bear on any design challenge. Computer simulation capabilities in SOLIDWORKS helps compress the design process and avoid costly delays.
Jayson believes that tooling innovation will be increasingly important as tolerance demands increase over time. “At times in the past, we measured parts that were borderline on tolerance,” Jayson said. “That’s not good enough. With the tooling and other production improvements we’ve made, parts are very close to nominal all the time. Our non-conformance reports these days are minimal.”
This tool needs to be kept in perfect operating condition, and due to the high volume of parts, it requires troubleshooting and a well-trained operator to meet production goals.
Tight tolerance manufacturing tends to affect departments throughout the organization, Jayson said. “We prefer a team approach at Ajax,” he said. “Getting the part right for our customer involves not only tooling, but materials selection, procurement, quality control, and especially customer and team communication.”
Care has to be taken during the initial phases of the project to avoid cost and time frame issues, Jayson said. The benefits of tighter tolerances to the customer are obvious. Customers want their final assembly process to go smoothly with very little assembly fallout. “Costs can get out of line if we hit difficulties along the way. That’s where planning and good team communication comes in.”
Jayson plans to continue pursuing new tooling ideas related to tight tolerance manufacturing. “There’s just no stopping advancements in metal forming,” Jayson said. “Our customers will continue to want more precision in their metal formed parts. The technologies are there. Our job is to learn better ways to apply them.”
Jayson designed this tooling solution using SOLIDWORKS CAD/CAE solid modeling software. SOLIDWORKS enables Jayson to create production tools rapidly while bringing creative solutions to bear on the design challenge. Computer simulation capabilities in SOLIDWORKS help speed the design process along.
Tooling Innovation
Jayson believes that tooling innovation will be increasingly important as tolerance demands increase over time. “At times in the past, we measured parts that were borderline on tolerance,” Jayson said. “That’s not good enough. With the tooling and other production improvements we’ve made, parts are very close to nominal all the time. Our non-conformance reports these days are minimal.”
This tool needs to be kept in perfect operating condition, and due to the high volume of parts, it required troubleshooting and a well-trained operator to meed production goals.
Jayson sums up future manufacturing challenges in two ways: quality and consistency. “There’s really no standing still anymore,” he said. “Today, there’s ongoing market pressure to keep production costs low while improving the delivered result. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
Jayson Marcott is a tool designer and sales engineer at Ajax Metal Forming Solutions in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jayson is certified in SOLIDWORKS, Logopress 3D tool & die design software, aMastercam Mill CNC applications, Methods EDM (electronic discharge) machining. Jayson’s credits also include a Class A 4-year apprenticeship in sheet metal.