In the current economic climate can you afford to operate with inaccurate production information? Creating a leaner systematic approach to your manufacturing planning can result in significant capacity and efficiency improvements that can lead to real cost reductions.

Product Features

• Detailed capacity planning
• Appearance and functionality of a traditional planning board
• Simple drag and drop and "What-If" technology
• Set scheduling rules against individual operations

Product Benefits

• Identify untapped production capacity
• Reduce WIP and Inventory
• Achieve greater manufacturing flexibility
• Improve on-time delivery

We still have a few spaces available for our 7th July Scheduler workshop at our conference room in Brighton. The workshop provides you with an opportunity to see a full product demonstration and discuss your requirements with one of our product specialists. Book now to secure your place!

Date: Tuesday 7th July 2009
Time: 10.00am - 12.30 pm
Venue: Seiki Systems, Brighton - refreshments and a light lunch provided.

Following the introduction of lean manufacturing principles and the installation of powerful production scheduling software from Seiki Systems, railway electrification specialist, Brecknell Willis, has witnessed efficiency gains.

Based in Chard, Somerset, Brecknell Willis is one of the world’s leading suppliers of technology and equipment for railway electrification and for more than a century has been supplying equipment to rail operators across the globe. Initially the company manufactured overhead supply systems for trams and trolleybuses. However, today’s demands are far more diverse and include train borne systems such as pantographs and shoe gear, as well as fixed equipment which includes overhead trolley and contact wire systems. More recently it has moved into third (conductor) rail, and the company operates its own rail shop where it produces aluminium/stainless steel rail sections as well as the associated fixturing and brackets. 

Part of the Fandstan Electric Group, which has companies in North America, Australia and Europe, Brecknell Willis carries out all of its design and manufacturing at its extensive Chard facility. Many long running contracts and a large number of maintenance programmes are keeping the company busy. As production and material controller, Steve Crimp, explains: “Railways vary around the world and the reason why we have been successful is our ability to design and make bespoke systems for specific customers. For example, we are currently working on a large installation being built in Dubai.”

Developing next-level technologies as well as designing to match customer specifications, the company’s product expertise is evidenced by the fact that around 60 per cent of the 180 employees are directly involved in system and equipment design.

Both the train-borne equipment department and the electrification department (which looks after all fixed equipment) rely on the company’s machine shop for component parts, and it is Seiki Systems’ Networked Manufacturing System (NMS) and finite capacity scheduler modules that allow Steve Crimp to control the flow of parts through the machine shop. At present he uses the software for work planning of the machine shop, as Brecknell Willis has its own database system for stock control. The Seiki Systems integration software picks up all the parts from this database for both the rail and train-borne shops, and also controls the electrification parts that need to go through the machine shop.

There is a mix of new systems for customers as well as repair work, as Steve Crimp points out. “The amount of Brecknell Willis equipment out in the field means that about half of the work going through the machine shop at any one time is refurbishment and overhaul work. We are currently repairing and overhauling between 30 and 40 pantographs every month coming in from all the different train operators. These could either be damaged or just scheduled maintenance to ensure safe operation.”

Within the machine shop the company operates four twin-pallet horizontal and four vertical CNC machining centres, a manual turning/milling section with pillar drills, three CNC turning centres equipped with bar feeds and automated sawing machines that generate billets of raw material. It also houses a centreless grinding machine and a small boring machine as well as a router for composite machining.
 
The machines cut castings, billets and bar stock material as well as fabrications from the company’s assembly shop. For example, the cradle for shoe gear is a complex fabricated assembly that bolts to the underside of the train and is fed by an arm with a collect shoe on the end of it. “The collector shoe is a consumable item and we machine 1000s of them mainly, from cast iron but also copper for some systems. The shoes are machined, drilled and tapped in batches,” says Steve Crimp.

From his desk via the Seiki Systems software he can access live data from the shopfloor. Terminals within the workshop allow the machine operators to log on and off jobs, with up to 1800 jobs loaded on the system at any one time. “Although currently there are just 900 jobs you still would not want to do this any other way,” he says.

The software provides graphical views of each machine loading and enables the operator to view a queue of the work due on the machine. Steve Crimp can manipulate this queue from his office, so rush orders can be dropped in and projects on longer delivery deadlines can be pushed back. Scheduling is vital for Brecknell Willis because space is at a premium as there is little room for further expansion on a site that has been occupied by Brecknell Willis since the 1930s.

All of the company’s forward orders are input into the scheduling system to provide a long-term capacity plan for the machine shop. “It is a really flexible and easy system to use,” he says. “Projects can be put on a delayed start if we have, for example, a problem with the material supply or if there is an engineering concession raised by the customer.”

Full visibility on screen of each machine on the shopfloor means Steve Crimp simply rolls the mouse over the machine image to see exactly which job it is working on. Run over two shifts the manufacturing hours available each day are set by the machine shop manager. Any machine problems are compensated for by removing the hours available, in which case the software simply cascades the orders forward and re-adjusts the schedule. Steve Crimp says: “It will also highlight the change on the component screen, so I can see what the ramifications are. I can then make a decision to subcontract the work in order to hit the customer delivery timeframe if required.

One of the main benefits the Seiki Systems software has provided with its ability to accurately schedule work is eliminating the need to break down jobs. “Prior to installing Seiki Systems we were constantly fire-fighting and taking jobs off machines before the batch was finished,” Steve Crimp recalls. “Since installing the software we have not had to break a job down unless there is a shortage of raw material. We let the jobs run because the software gives us the ability to look ahead and forecast our production performance. It’s very visual and predictive, which allows us to act very quickly.”

Although the software has been installed at the company for two years, Steve Crimp recently attended a training session at Seiki Systems offices in Brighton. He says: “I had the initial training when the software was first installed and have been learning on the job. However, the refresher training has taught me a great deal more about what it can do.”

For example, he now uses the ‘set up marking’ function, which allows the user to pool together jobs that have similar machine set ups. These are typically families of parts, but they may be required by different customers. The software draws a line through each part in the schedule and allows the user to pull them together, thereby reducing the set up times required.

“Under our lean manufacturing principles we only make to order not for stock,” Steve Crimp explains. “So, we may require batches of the same part 20 times but for different orders. Using the set up marking significantly improves our efficiencies, and I’m really impressed by the difference that such an easy-to-use tool makes to the way we operate.”

For the management team it also provides performance measurement statistics for each job. “I can also see machine tool utilisation and quickly adjust any overload situations by moving work from one machine tool to another. Although the route card is set for a particular machine, I can move it from one resource queue to another within the Seiki Systems software and it will then alter what the operator sees on the shopfloor,” he says.

Prior to installing the software everything was done manually on Excel spreadsheets with paper ‘work-to’ lists. Now individual operators can see an electronic work queue for their machine. Because the stores have the same view of the Seiki Systems software as production control, the company introduced work station job packs. These allow the stores to kit jobs with the cutting tools and raw material required to complete the job.

Steve Crimp also uses the software to monitor trends and to check the lead times on the machines. “There are seven solid weeks of work loaded on to the machines at present, he says, “but I’m trying to manage them down to six weeks so that our projects people can work on a known delivery time – for new projects or spares/overhaul work.”

He concludes: “We have the proof that Seiki Systems scheduling system works and we know the benefits. Now we are considering extending the scope of the scheduling software to include the fabrication shop and the assembly shop to provide better visibility. I will be able to see the progress of work that is due to come into the machine shop and they will be able to monitor the progress of the parts required for any fabrications. As we subcontract on an overload basis, if we know it’s going to happen we can control it.”

The new DLoG device adding to the family of 15” touch screen industrial computers is at the cutting edge of technology. Combining the advantages of a robust 15" touch screen industrial PC with the low TCO (total cost of ownership) of a classical thin client, the launch of the DLoG ITC 7 comes at just the right time, as demonstrated by high demand by customers as well as a positive response from systems integrators after market introduction.

DLoG GmbH has begun delivery of the "Industrial Thin Client", the DLoG ITC 7, which was announced last November at SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2008. That concept bundles the application-relevant features of a robust industrial PC into an overall system with the low TCO of a thin client. This allows DLoG to offer an optimum solution for the requirements of industrial and commercial customers.

DLoG ITC 7: for continuous reliable operation in harsh environments

The Intel® Celeron® M-based device series with a fanless design is protected to IP 54 against vibration, dirt, and water. With a break-proof 15" touch screen, it is designed for use in harsh environments. Specifically designed to manage the technical requirements for applications like data entry, visualisation, and communication in production and manufacturing, the DLoG ITC 7 thus combines a very attractive procurement price with mature DLoG product quality and high-quality service solutions for the lowest possible total cost of ownership.

Innovations in the housing design are also convincing: with a space-saving depth of only 70 millimeters, the DLoG ITC 7 permits simple access to interfaces that are protected via an easily accessible service lid. A service USB interface, which is protected by the service lid, for mass storage and input devices allows simple configuration and loading of updates. An integrated Compact Flash® slot ensures application-specific expandability. Besides mounting using RAM mount brackets, DLoG GmbH also offers separate individual mounting brackets in its comprehensive accessory range. These provide the 15" device with a secure mounting under a variety of conditions in stationary use.

"Many customers in manufacturing and production are looking for solutions in the current economic climate which are within their budgets whilst offering the performance they need, and simultaneously generating planning accuracy with a low TCO. In the DLoG ITC 7, we have come up with a new device class that is just what the market is looking for," reports Thorsten Kraus, Head of Business Development & Marketing (BDM) at DLoG GmbH. "The new device series has seen great demand since its introduction, and now full series production has started. The response from our sales partners and initial users of the 'slim' industrial PC is very positive," summarises Kraus.

With more than 100 years experience, ABS offers one of the most complete wastewater technology portfolios in the world. Divided into three business segments – domestic and commercial wastewater, wastewater collection networks and wastewater treatment - the company’s wastewater products have to compete in a global market. The efficient manufacture of these products is supported by Seiki Systems’ Networked Manufacturing System (NMS).

ABS Production has been operating for 35 years at its facilities in Wexford, Ireland, producing wastewater pumps for a global market. Approximately 250 people work at this site, with two thirds employed on the shopfloor. A large research and development facility was opened three years ago where next generation products are designed and tested prior to launch, and larger existing products are life tested to failure.

Equipped with an extensive array of CNC machine tools the company’s workshop operates around-the-clock. The CNC machines are arranged as 12 manufacturing cells, with most cells containing a lathe and machining centre, as well as component washing plant. Operating a cellular system means that material flow is very efficient as all parts are completed within the cell. “For example,” says production support engineer, Sean Mahoney, “a main component like the cast iron motor housing is produced in a dedicated cell, while the oil chamber, which is also machined from cast iron, would be produced in another dedicated cell. This allows us to invest in the best machine tool technology to suit the part being produced.”

The cellular manufacturing method also allows one skilled operator to run all the machines within the cell to gain the maximum labour efficiency. Daily production meetings set the targets for the machine shop based on the global sales forecast by the company and works orders are issued to the cells.

Each operator has a PC in the cell running Seiki Systems’ Networked Manufacturing System (NMS) where all the NC programs required for that particular cell are stored.  Each program has associated operation notes, including tool types and positions, fixturing required and raw material.

The operator is also able to call down the part drawing via Seiki Systems software so that visual and dimensional checks can be made during set up. Sean Mahoney states: “This is a great aid to operators and gives them the confidence to produce the parts correctly.”

Any NC program changes are automatically logged via the NMS software so that engineering changes can be monitored and controlled. “Seiki Systems software ensures we have the correct revision drawing automatically available for each operation eliminating the risk of setting up and machining to an outdated drawing, which would waste production time and, in the worse case, scrap parts,” Sean Mahoney explains.

Updates are authorised in the engineering office so any changes, new drawings, or new components issued to the shopfloor will be done through the company’s central server via Seiki Systems software, so the only version that will be available to the shopfloor on the screen is the correct one.

Recent investment in the new impeller cell takes the engineering capability of the company to the next level, as parts are completed by just one multi-tasking machine tool. That said, there are two machines in the new cell and each is configured to suit a range of parts, controlled predominantly by the size of the finished component. The variety of impellers – there are 205 different impeller designs - require different jaws and back stops, so the cell operator can call up the setting drawing through the NMS software, which will contain a jaw and back stop number. Sean Mahoney has constructed a spreadsheet which is viewed by the operator through the Seiki Systems software. It contains details of the raw material type, the pump model it is fitted to, first and second operation jaw numbers, availability and storage positions for each of the first and second operation jaws, as well as the back stop required. The Seiki software also highlights if the component has been proven.

James Fletchmoore, director of JCNC, Seiki Systems agent in Ireland, says: “The Seiki software provides all the set up information. If it is a proven program it is literally a case of loading the jaws and back stops, setting the datum points and pressing cycle start, so efficiencies have been dramatically improved.”

Because the company works on a daily production basis to match order fluctuation the shopfloor needs to be able to change from one part to another very quickly. Sean Mahoney recalls: “The production batches are very small and there could be eight different impellers going through the cell in a day. Before using the cellular manufacturing system a change over might have taken 1.5 to 2 hours by the time the operator retrieves the parts required from the tool store and the fixture store. Now everything is contained within the cell, including the prepared raw material blanks, and all the necessary data is available thanks to Seiki Systems. This is one of the reasons changeovers can now be completed within 30 minutes. Although, the part-to-part target with the new impeller cell is just 15 minutes.”

Pumps produced in Wexford cover a wide range of performance characteristics to suit various applications supported by ABS. The variety could easily lead to mistakes so the information available from Seiki Systems becomes a vital part of the quality assurance system. New product introduction is also a lot more efficient and will keep improving, as Sean Mahoney says: “Any new products designed are done with single machining operation in mind.”

As well as sending information to the shopfloor the Seiki Systems Monitoring software is used to gather data on the machines’ performance, with relays wired into the machine’s controller to log run time, waiting and stoppages. From the engineering office Sean Mahoney can see a graphical plan view of the machine shop with the status of each machine shown in real-time.

He says: “Live data provides feedback from the shopfloor with the machine tools shown in green if the machine is running in production, amber for a maintenance/waiting condition and red for switched off.” Periodic analysis can be carried out on each cell to show production time, down time and waiting time in a chart form for the management team, the actual Resource Utilisation.

“ABS Production has migrated away from a produce for stock operation towards a much more efficient make to order business but to achieve this it has needed to cut the changeover times and introduce the flexibility required to be able to efficiently produce a batch of one. Seiki Systems’ NMS has been fundamental in aiding this transition,” confirms James Fletchmoore.

www.absgroupireland.ie

Read the latest news from DLoG (UK) Ltd in Issue 1 of their Keep In Touch newsletter:
DLoG (UK) Ltd - Keep In Touch Newsletter - Issue One

Planning to Improve
Tuesday 10th March 2009

A recession forces you to make tough decisions and brings your attention back to the basics. Now is the time to vision new process relationships and revitalise older and traditional practices in the face of challenging economic conditions. 

Seiki software can be used to integrate and advance the disciplines across the manufacturing enterprise, creating a trusted factory knowledgebase where performance and quality can be achieved through control and continuity. Creating a leaner approach to the manufacturing process can result in significant visibility and efficiency improvements that ultimately provide the flexibility needed to react to any changing economic climate.

Becoming a more focused organisation now should ensure that you are better enabled to make best advantage of the opportunities that arise when we start to recover from the current recessionary crisis.

We would like to invite you to attend a joint seminar by Seiki Systems, GS Productivity Solutions and Renishaw plc that focuses on reducing your operating costs without a large investment in new equipment. The event is to be hosted by Renishaw at their New Mills site in Gloucestershire.

Agenda

10.00 - Arrival
10.15 - Cost effective ways to become more productive
10.20 - Ways to improve your machine tool productivity
11.00 - Coffee
11.45 - Seiki Systems and GSPS - Planning to Improve
12.15 - Lunch
13.00 - NEW Enhanced PC-based probing software
13.30 - Calibration products—allowing manufacturing industry to  control machine performance and achieve substantial cost savings
14.00 - Close/questions

Renishaw plc
New Mills
Wotton-under-Edge
Gloucestershire
GL12 8JR
Tel: +44 (0)1453 524524
Web: www.renishaw.com
To download directions via Renishaw website click here

Spaces are limited so be sure to register early. Visit the Renishaw website and complete the online registration form* or email marketing@seikisystems.co.uk. *

Please note that you will need to select this event from a drop down menu.

An important reminder for all Seiki NMS users.

At the start of January you will need to configure your NMS calendar for the year ahead. Radio buttons allow you to view and edit the calendar shifts for last year, this year and next year. You will need to set your shift times for the new 'Next Year', which will be 2009 or 2010, depending upon how far in advance you have already set your calendars.

Procedure:-

Run the program calendar.exe which you can find from the Windows Start button. Then navigate through Programs > All Programs > Seiki Systems NMS > Office Tools > Calendar. Select the Default calendar or Machine Specific Calendar as required.

It is possible to configure your standard days by double clicking the coloured boxes on the right hand side and giving them a name/reference, if this has not already been done. Then allocate standard days in the year by clicking the required day and using the spray can pointer to select single days or blocks with the spray can. Any day(s) shown in red in the calendar indicate that this specific day is not a standard working day.

If you are experiencing any problems updating your calendar or require technical assistance then please do not hesitate to contact the Seiki Support Desk, Tel: 01273 680411 between 08.30 and 17.00, Monday to Friday. Alternatively you can email: support@seikisystems.co.uk

When it comes to investment, the shopfloor has always been key. Without the right machinery, tools and technology, how can manufacturers maximise the efficiency of their process or the quality of their products? Yet Seiki Systems sales director Paul Lane sees a strategic weakness - in that firms are failing to invest in systems capable of enabling them to measure and monitor how well (or poorly) production is performing. "Capturing manufacturing performance data to gain information about your business - a snapshot of its health, in a way - has been the poor relation. CAD/CAM/CAE systems have attracted significant outlay for front-end development and manufacturing preparation, but PLM [product lifecycle management], which gets closer, has failed to connect with the shopfloor. So too many manufacturers simply don't have systems in place to support and manage the effectiveness of their plant and machine tools."

Lane acknowledges that some companies have bought partial solutions - such as tool presetting and DNC systems - but not as part of a coordinated shopfloor management strategy. But that is changing, he believes: " We are moving into a phase where MES's [manufacturing execution systems] are coming of age, reaching a level of sophistication and maturity that Seiki Systems - and it's competitors, in fairness - is now providing to UK manufacturers on an expanding scale."

Certainly, there has been a major market push into this space, with some high-profile acquisitions driving things forward at the blue-chip level. But at the SME level, which is Seiki's main focus, he believes there appears also to be growing recognition of the need for a holistic approach among manufacturers. "While CAD/CAM was seen as sexy and attractive, the same cant be said for the swarf and coolant end of the business - the shopfloor. And yet there is real money to be made here, and that is increasingly being acknowledged. Firms are now understanding that they may be spending hundreds of thousands of pounds - millions even - on plant and machine tools to make high value parts, but without a good handle on how effective they are, they're limiting their return on investment."

Making real money

Why? It's all about capacity, and utilisation of that capacity, in production terms - which, he argues, is where Seiki Systems comes in, with it's capacity, post CAD/CAM, from ERP to real-time finite production capacity scheduling. "All of the essential data that drives the manufacturing process can be delivered to the shopfloor and, during the make process, live shop data - whether that be starting, stopping, pausing and finishing of jobs, the quality completed, reasons for machine downtime or non-productive time of resources - can be captured and recorded by our system. This is where money is made and lost, particularly with the rising costs of today of heating, lighting, plant and materials."

As UK companies look to bring more of their manufacturing back home, through improved efficiency and greater awareness of how effectively they are performing - both plant and people - Lane sees Seiki Systems as a key enabler in helping them to achieve their goals. " Our function is to bring together all of the disciplines across the manufacturing environment, so that production can be made as effective as possible. That doesn't happen out of the box : there is such a disparate range of skills and disciplines, But it's essential, because without measuring and monitoring the shopfloor, how can you ever know how well you are performing?"

Behind the scenes, it's all about the effective control and delivery of data across the business and, where problems occur, having the means to articulate that from shopfloor to top floor - back again. "What our systems do is provide the means for businesses to identify what will make them even more efficient, productive and profitable: How good were they with their estimated times for producing given parts? Did the operator have the right information at the time he needed it? Are we achieving perhaps just 30-40% of our total capacity?"

Lane believes a strategy for investments is becoming clear: "Some of our most successful customers are now pushing 85% capacity utilisation through the Seiki Manufacturing System [ a modular system that comprises both manufacturing and business intelligence software], which allows you to analyse your performances and effectiveness. This is not beyond the reach of manufacturing SME's.

This article was published in the Manufacturing Computer Solutions IT Strategy Issue 2008

DLoG GmbH will present its new DLoG ITC 7 – a totally new series in the 15-inch segment at SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2008 in Nuremberg. This industrial PC expands the existing DLoG portfolio of robust industrial computers for applications where “flat installations” are needed – regarding space requirements and for IT technical implementation options for machine terminals. The ITC 7 unifies the advantages of a robust industrial PC with the low TCO of classical Thin Clients.

The industrial PC DLoG ITC 7 has been designed for reliable operation in rough environments at low operating costs. The Intel® Celeron® M based system with 15-inch Touch Screen is protected against vibrations and - according to IP 54 - against dirt and water. The ITC 7 comes with an space-saving depth of only 70 millimeters, at the same time the robust industrial computer allows fast access to the housing protected interfaces. Thanks to the easy-access service lid, access to the service USB interface of an installed ITC 7 is simple and secure. USB devices such as memory sticks or input devices can be used quickly and in a straightforward manner. Even access to the Compact-Flash® card is effortless. New data can be transferred in a very short time or the system can be configured using an USB keyboard.

Flat Housing with Easy Access to Interfaces
Implementing the DLoG ITC 7 enables robust and efficient systems solutions for the entire chain of data acquisition, visualization and communication in assembly and manufacturing. “With its 15-inch Touch Screen, the newest member to the DLoG product family becomes the ideal product for secure and transparent work in demanding environments”, illustrates Robert Vasenda, Product Manager at DLoG GmbH. The new device class will initially be presented to trade fair visitors at SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2008 in Nuremberg (hall 8, booth 505). “The combination of flat stable housing on one hand and protected, easily accessible interfaces on the other is on top of the wish list for many customers. With the DLoG ITC 7, we are positioning a device on the market in which these combined properties are offered with the outstanding level of quality, our products are known for", states Robert Vasenda.

The new DLoG ITC 7 device series is available from the first quarter of 2009. Test devices are available now. Further information is available online at www.dlog.com.

At 3.30pm today Chancellor Alistair Darling will unveil to parliament his plan to kick start the stalling economy. It is expected that the government will be announcing a temporary cut in value added tax as the centrepiece of its plan to avert permanent damage to the UK economy. It has been suggested that VAT could be reduced to 15 percent from 17.5 percent for the next one to two years*.

In preparation for any changes to the VAT rate, please find attached instructions for updating your Seiki ERP system. Please contact our Support Desk support@seikisystems.co.uk or Tel: 01273 680411, if you require any further assistance in making these changes to your system.

Two new features have been added to the website.

Seiki Systems are continuously working to develop software that fulfils customer requirements and exceeds expectations. We recognise the value of customers' experience and opinions and are inviting input into this creative process to ensure that future versions of Seiki manufacturing software meet the needs of the users. If you would like to shape the future of your manufacturing system use our feedback form to send us your enhancement suggestions for future software release.

Furthermore, requesting the latest version of Seiki NMS has never been easier with our new online update request form. All customers with a current maintenance contract are entitled to a free update to the latest version of software but this form will also enable customers without a maintenance contract to request a quotation for the software update and/or a maintenance contract.

Seiki Systems are delighted to be able to offer DLoG's range of Rugged Industrial PCs as part of our complete manufacturing solution. DLoG® design, manufacture and supply world-class industrial hardware that has been tested and proven under harsh environmental or surrounding conditions.

Supporting the delivery of your essential business information direct to the operator at the point of use, our PC hardware can be configured with your choice of established and robust operating systems. With a range of screen sizes for mobile and static applications, coupled with the ability to develop solutions that are aligned with your build specifications, we maintain a strong focus on customer requirements, high quality and technical standards which enables us to supply and support customers in the successful implementation of even the most demanding computing infrastructure.

The full range of hardware solutions can now be found on our website www.seikisystems.co.uk/hardware.html

Our exclusive distributors in Ireland, JCNC Ltd will be exhbiting at Manufacturing Technology Ireland Show in November. A visit to the show gives you an unrivalled opportunity to see the very latest manufacturing technology and production techniques for your industry. We would like to invite you to join our colleagues on the JCNC stand 406 at Manufacturing Technology Ireland 2008, which is being held at Dublin’s National Show Centre, Dublin Airport on Wednesday 5th November through to Thursday 6th November.

Seiki Systems' extensive range of products and services will be demonstrated on the stand and as well as exhibiting the latest product information we are also providing the opportunity to speak with a member of our technical team, who will be available to discuss your particular requirements in greater detail and offer expert advice on a range of issues.

Mastercam, Matsuura and Takisawa UK will also be represented on the JCNC stand.

Exhibition details

Dates: 5 - 6 November 2008

Venue: National Show Centre, Dublin (this venue is a short distance from Dublin Airport)

Note: The NSC offers FREE PARKING for exhibitors and visiting companies.

Seiki Systems software provides the ‘backbone’ for communications at AESSEAL, one of the largest mechanical seal manufacturers in the world. As the only major new entrant to this demanding marketplace in the past 40 years, AESSEAL offers industry leading products backed by a strong service philosophy and next day delivery for standard seals.

Employing over 1000 staff in 49 offices around the world and with an annual turnover of £65 million, the majority of the cartridge mechanical seals produced by AESSEAL are made in the UK. The company operates three machine shops in the UK: Mill Close in Rotherham, predominantly machining components to top up stock levels in batches of 100 to 200; Mangham Road in Rotherham produces to customer sales orders – which may have plant-specific requirements; and Bradford which supports both these machine shops and also prepares the raw cartridge castings.

With a strong focus on customer service AESSEAL holds an enormous component stock level, typically six to 12 months worth. As the seal design is kept modular the parts can be rationalised to expedite final assembly. This brings enormous business benefits as Stuart Welsh says: “Our competitors will often quote 10 or more weeks for a replacement seal, whereas 70 per cent of our orders are delivered next day.”

Seiki Systems Networked Manufacturing System was initially purchased as a way of getting the CAM programs for the seal components onto the shopfloor. Today, it is used across all three sites in the UK to reliably feed CAM programs to the CNC machine tools. Customer specific seals go through the 30-strong design team using Solid Edge for modelling and following approval from the customer will be passed to the CAM department for the machining code to be written using Siemens NX v5 (Unigraphics) software prior to it being transferred via Seiki Systems DNC to the machine shop. The software links over the company’s WAN to shopfloor-based PCs, where the Seiki Systems HMI looks after a number of machine tools in a cell. The engineer will look at the job list and pull programs down as the machine and raw material becomes available.

Stuart Welsh says: “For the past six years we have also used Seiki Systems monitoring solution to get information back from the machine tools, so we can understand the utilisation of the machine shops. The Networked Manufacturing System provides real-time data capture of the shopfloor utilisation for the 60 multi axis turning and milling CNC machine tools we operate in the UK. Even the manual and semi CNC machines used for material preparation, such as sawing, are part of the data capture loop.”  The relays in the CNC machine controls are hard wired to show power and in cycle. “We then use the scripting within Seiki Systems software to use robust logic functions to determine the machine status. We know the status of the program, if it has been downloaded, and if the job changes then the machine must be in set up. A cycle start will show the end of set up and cycle stop puts the system into waiting. The software’s scripting language allows us, in conjunction with Seiki Systems, to write this logical sequence,” Stuart Welsh explains.

He goes on to say: “The software is very good at allowing you to link into other external systems, so it can hook into the product data management (PDM) and document management system, and even the ERP system via Seiki Systems front end. So the shopfloor has the visibility of the job required, the drawing file, the model of the part, and any supporting information – such as critical set up information. Tool lists are also shown along with visual aids to depict how the tool should be assembled and how it should look on the machine. This gives the engineer on the machine the confidence that the machine tool is set correctly and that the process will cut the material right first time.” Seiki Systems software also allows the machinists on the shopfloor to feedback information about how well the CAM program works. It interrogates the use of the CAM program so that any pertinent machining information is passed back to the CAM programmers, this may be something simple such as the need to reduce the feedrate slightly when machining phosphor bronze to avoid tool chatter. Stuart Welsh says: “It is good information that has significantly reduced scrap levels since it has been in use. For example, we machine specialist chemical resistant alloys for certain applications, such as Ferralium super duplex stainless steel or Hastelloy-C nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy, and until you start to cut the material you do not get a feel for how well it machines in deep bores or internal undercuts and so on. This communication backbone is invaluable with new products being introduced.”

Understanding the machine utilisation captured by the Seiki NMS system from a shopfloor management perspective is important to the future investment plans the company has. It provides hard data on machine capacity limits which become vital as more and more customer special seals with increased complexity and tighter tolerances are manufactured. The ability to interrogate data that has been collected in real-time directly from the shopfloor provides an enormous benefit. Essentially it provides a direct link between shopfloor activities and top floor production driven business processes, enabling the company to execute the manufacturing process more effectively and profitably. As Stuart Welsh confirms: “With a growing business you have to justify additional or replacement machine tools, and we have recently acquired new machines to meet the demand for more complex components. A 9-axis Mori Seiki mill-turning centre allows both ends of a seal to be machined in one hit. This reduces the set up time because all of the tools are available and reduces the machining time as the part comes off complete. As we condense the time needed to get into production it becomes even more important to know how long the machine cycle actually takes for accurate overhead recovery – to know that we are making a profit.” The Seiki NMS software supports this functionality by providing an immediate, dynamic and visual picture of production activities by collecting data from and reporting on shopfloor processes. Automatic collection of productive and non-productive events occurring on the resources is captured, to build a record of each operating condition or status change as it occurs. All the data collected is date and time stamped (including the duration of each event) and can then be viewed as an event list or exported for further analysis.

Recovering overhead costs, such as the operational cost and depreciation of the machine tools, allows AESSEAL to accurately cost the components and therefore set the selling price of the seal. As the product range expands it becomes more important to cost accurately. Material costs are straightforward to measure. How time and, therefore overhead cost, has accrued is more variable with set up, the machining cycle, stoppages, inspection, all adding up to give a cost of manufacture. Seiki’s Machine Utilisation Analysis module generates performance reports that are populated from data derived from the machine monitoring and shopfloor data collection. The reports are configurable so it is possible to undertake a detailed analysis of the entire shopfloor, an individual cell or even drill right down to the individual resource. It is then simple to identify trends in production, compare actual versus planned times and even see how many hours the machine tool has spent in maintenance during the month.

Stuart Welsh concludes: “The level of detail available enables planning and management of our production facilities as an internal profit centre, and is a key component in the delivery of ‘Our Purpose’: To give our customers such exceptional service that they need never consider alternative sources of supply.”

www.aesseal.co.uk

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The Kenard Engineering Group is pleased to announce the acquisition of DLoG (UK) Ltd. Effective immediately DLoG (UK) Ltd, manufacturing software and hardware solutions provider, will become part of the software division of Kenard Engineering, alongside Seiki Systems Ltd. The purchase was completed on Friday May 30th 2008. Financial details were not disclosed.

The acquisition of DLoG (UK) is a strategic move designed to strengthen the software division of the Kenard Engineering Group by extending the existing product and service portfolios. Managing Director of Kenard Engineering, Keith Ellis explains, “This is an exciting addition to the Group that will significantly advance our vision for pursuing future growth and investment opportunities. DLoG’s solutions, experience and customer base compliment that of Seiki Systems, enabling us to extend our ability to deliver innovative solutions and high quality services by leveraging the core capabilities of both companies.” 

DLoG (UK) Ltd will continue to operate from their headquarters in Birmingham under the leadership of John Davis, to guarantee that there is no disruption to the customer service provision and will continue to supply the same range of hardware and software. Existing customer service and support contracts held by existing DLoG (UK) customers will remain unchanged.

Seiki will continue to focus on the development of its high quality, innovative and cost-effective range of software products for the manufacturing industry. Their ability to supply a complete turnkey solution is further enhanced by the addition of the DLoG® industrial hardware range that will now also be offered as part of the Seiki portfolio.

It is our highest priority to ensure that we continue to provide the high levels of product and service quality that our customers’ expect.

www.dlog.co.uk
www.kenard.co.uk

Our partners in the USA, JobPack Inc will be exhibiting at The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in September. IMTS 2008 is the 27th edition of the premier manufacturing technology show in North America and is one of the world's largest industrial trade shows, regularly attracting over 85,000 visitors. JobPack will be demonstrating from the booth D-3040.

Exhibition details

Dates: 8 - 13 September 2008

Venue: McCormack place, 2301 S.Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60616, USA

For further details about the event, including pre-registration, reasons to attend and a full list of exhibitors please visit the IMTS website www.imts.com The website also includes a section dedicated to International visitors with useful contact numbers and advice on where to stay in the area.

www.jobpack.com
www.imts.com

A steep increase in ongoing business placed Integrated Hydraulics Limited under pressure to deliver its products to demanding deadlines. To help meet these demands the company turned to manufacturing software specialist, Seiki Systems, to supply its market-leading planning and scheduling package.

Based in Leamington Spa, Integrated Hydraulics Limited is a global leader in the design, manufacture and supply of hydraulic screw-in cartridge valves and integrated electro-hydraulic control systems for numerous business sectors. These include off-highway and heavy construction vehicles, aerial access platforms and agricultural equipment. Customers include JCB, Atlas Copco, Caterpillar, Volvo, Ransomes Jacobsen and Terex. The business has seen growth of more than 25 per cent year-on-year, with a target of £30 million turnover for this year. The company’s philosophy is to design valves and systems that are suited to a customer’s application, and not to try to force an application to fit a range of standard products. Hydraulic manifold blocks are manufactured in-house to exacting standards, from high grade steels and aluminium with close tolerance finishes for higher functional accuracy and a longer working life.

With a total of 280 employees, there are 42 staff working in the machine shop split over three shifts. Senior production engineer, Tony Cave, says: “Our philosophy is to offer the complete range rather than focus on high volumes of a small variety of hydraulic blocks, so the machine shop has a staggering variety of low volume work to cope with - having made around 1000 different variations last year.” Around 80 per cent of Integrated Hydraulics work is bespoke to a customer’s requirement/design needs for fluid control. The company produces approximately 160,000 cartridges per month with up to 15 individual components in each one in a variety of different styles. Of the machined parts required, all turned components are manufactured externally as are high volume block orders of 500 or more. 

The in-house machine shop addresses about 30 per cent of the company’s needs, and batches tend to be small at 5, 10, 25, 50 or 100-off. Setting the machines for the many different parts takes time and this lost production hits the efficiency and profitability of the operation. Tony Cave explains: “With no real visibility of what was being made, orders went into the machine shop and people worked on infinite capacity plan to try and fulfil them. Two senior staff attempted to work out what was going through the workshop and in what order, using an Excel spreadsheet which tended to reflect past performance and/or hopeful targets. Effectively, nothing was done on time because there was always too much to do.” To address this the decision was made in invest in a production scheduling software package from manufacturing software specialist, Seiki Systems, to provide a transparency of data so that everyone involved could see what was happening in real-time.

The new software had to work in conjunction with the existing Sage Line 500 ERP system used across the company as well as the Seiki Systems networked manufacturing software (NMS) used to transfer manufacturing data to the shopfloor. It also had to capture data from the various machines’ controllers to provide a status check – job start, job finish, waiting time, alarm...etc, as well as analysis information for engineering improvements. Data collection from the shopfloor is achieved via relays hardwired into the machines’ control system, providing accurate information for weekly analysis of where production time has been lost, be it breakdowns, waiting for operator or waiting for material. This allows the company to target specific problems rather than trying to fix everything at once. The Seiki Systems’ software now provides a closed loop control method for the manufacturing operation with jobs logged all the way through the manufacturing process. Following initial installation Integrated Hydraulics spent three months updating and ensuring the accuracy of its manufacturing route data.

Production director, Paul Hone, explains that in some cases the data in the existing routes was not usable as it was based on old plant and machinery. “In some cases it was just a general guess with 5 minutes allowed for everything. The data had to be accurate because the planning system would highlight a machine as being overloaded because it was carrying out five operations at 5 minutes each but the reality was that the machining cycle time was just 8 minutes. Over a batch of 100 the over allocation of time in the system could amount to nearly a week’s worth of work,” he says.

Three Integrated Hydraulics staff, including Tony Cave and Paul Hone, and two staff from Seiki Systems worked on the project. The production engineering department operated the system for about one month prior to training the shopfloor staff in its use. It interfaced smoothly with the existing Seiki Systems NMS system and expanded the data capture to include more machining processes to extend the control. The software has focused the company and made a major impact. Now it has an identified capacity and can accurately predict an overload several weeks in advance. This allows time to alter the schedule with the redeployment of work out to a trusted subcontract engineering base or brought back in if there is available capacity. Better feedback for production control allows that department to match up cartridge and body manufacture to make the final assemblies. A lot of chasing of piece parts internally and at subcontractors is carried out by the production control department, and it was very difficult not knowing when parts are going to be ready.

Says Paul Hone: “Now the software allows the accurate forecast of a due date, when everything is going to be ready. And, if a priority change comes in from sales or production control the company can instantly tell what the impact will be on the rest of the jobs in the queue. This could not be done before, it was just haphazard and things were hidden in the system. It also places the decision with the departments that are talking to the customers that may be affected.” When the system was first implemented the company was chasing 97 different orders that represented around 120 items which in manufacturing terms were more than one week late. Now there are just nine that are overdue. Better scheduling has reduced the number of set ups and brought the late deliveries under control.

The return on investment has been phenomenal. The implementation of the Seiki Systems software used at Integrated Hydraulics has been ongoing for a number of years, starting with the Seiki Networked Manufacturing System in 1999. The cost of the most recent addition to the system, the Component Level Scheduling software, was approximately £10,000 and what it has provided is a significant decrease in the number of customers upset by late deliveries. Each upset customer is potentially worth the whole of their contract so removing this concern has very tangible benefits. Also, the 120 items that were previously late had a value of around £150,000 with the reduction of parts due down to nine the value of the late parts has been cut to around £10,000. This will reduce further as the accurate scheduling is now starting to allow the machine shop to get ahead of the order list. “There are cost advantages to the whole business, as the benefits of the scheduling software roll out across the company.” confirms Paul Hone, “For example, the efficiency of the assembly operation is directly influenced by the delivery of the finished machined parts. If the parts are not available then the assembly staff will be idle. One assembly unit, which is set up next to the machine shop, only works on specific valve bodies and if the machine shop is late delivering then there is nothing for the operators to do.”

With clear and accurate information about the manufacturing operation it is also allowing a change in operating principles moving away from the traditional ‘machine everything as soon as it’s available’ to a ‘machine just in time to meet the order’ methodology. Not fighting fires has provided a clear vision of the capacity and therefore delivery. It has also reduced the need for overtime to try to catch up with the backlog of late orders. This removes an additional cost that was coming straight off the bottom line. It also provides around 20 per cent extra spindle capacity due to overtime capacity being available so that sales can be increased with new business opportunities. The software also provides data for future machine investment decisions and allows the ‘what if’ scenario to be played out. This means that the benefits or impact on the operation can be measured before any changes are made.

The cost of the investment was relatively small compared to the rewards that Integrated Hydraulics is receiving and there has been a significant commitment in terms of time and effort from the production engineering department to ensure that the full capabilities of the system, including real-time feedback and reporting facilities, are utilised in order to support ongoing continuous improvement strategies. The improvements in the manufacturing data is of course an ongoing process but the analytical tools that are available and used by the company to measure performance provide further benefits. The data is available across the company so that everyone that needs to know is kept informed. It also allows the production department to highlight any extra capacity that is available so that the business development team can go out to the market and try to fill this, knowing that the company will be able to deliver to these new customers as well as the existing ones.

As Tony Cave concludes: “The systems’ ease of use has also been crucial to its successful implementation, along with our willingness to move forward. For example, the person responsible for updating the system has only been with the company for four months but has quickly picked up how the software works and how it interfaces with the company.”

www.integratedhydraulics.com

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www.rayburn.co.uk
www.mitcon.co.uk

Our new product brochure, which contains an overview of our entire product range, is now available. Seiki Systems Ltd specialises in enabling businesses to achieve effective control, realistic scheduling, information at point of demand, data collection and analysis reports – resulting in improved productivity and ensures that the investments made in production resources is maximised. The Seiki portfolio includes ERP, real-time scheduling with visibility of shop floor production to help achieve delivery dates, and extends through to paperless manufacturing.

If you would like to request a copy please email your full contact details to marketing@seikisystems.co.uk