Scheduling and Monitoring system helps Kenard to maximise productivity and machine utilisation

The Dartford-based sub-contractor Kenard Engineering increased its sales turnover by some 30% during the first half of 2005. Whilst this improved performance was helped in some part by the installation of new high-specification machine tools, a new manufacturing systems and production scheduling system is controlling day-to-day events on the shopfloor and maximising both production and customer deliveries. With some 320 different components on the ‘work to do’ list – most of them high-value and requiring up to 38 operations – accurate and detailed control and monitoring are of paramount importance.

The new system – supplied by Brighton-based Seiki Systems Ltd (Tel: 01273 680411) – has not only built confidence right through Kenard with its ability to control production, but also improved machine utilisation; and by reducing work-in-progress times, the software has set the business well on the way to achieving its target of giving customer a 40-day turn-round from enquiry to delivery. Director Keith Ellis says: “We hear much about the importance of the ‘knowledge-driven’ economy, but we have a ‘knowledge-driven’ production operation, where management and customers know exactly what is happening and what should be occurring.

“We have recently invested more than £1 million in two of the latest mill/turn centres. One is capable of very complex production cycles involving simultaneous five-axis milling, while the other can produce parts of up to 1,000mm in diameter x 2,000mm long. As a result, we are particularly competitive, having the ability to combine five or six separate operations into one or two very specialised ‘one-hit’ cycles and almost doubling our capacity for large work.”

Although Kenard has this new capacity, Mr Ellis says it is the installation of the iMES integrated manufacturing system from Seiki Systems that has enabled the company to control its work-flow and improve its response to customers, reduce work in progress and make the best use of its 15 CNC machines.

Installed in the first quarter of this year, the Seiki Systems software had an immediate impact, creating extra capacity by increasing machine utilisation. “All information regarding work in progress is held within the company, not by individuals. We work with factual information and no longer rely on someone’s instinct,” says Mr Ellis.

That said, Kenard was quite ‘switched on’ to production control, even before installing iMES; it used a full-time graduate to monitor and check the work-flow. “With the new software, it now takes half-an-hour to perform the same level of housekeeping. The beauty of live information is that we can see not only if any problems are looming, but also the effects on delivery or other planned operations of any delays in setting, machine loading or inspection.”

Kenard employs 55 people at Dartford, where it offers sub-contract machining services, mostly on high value components for the aerospace, oil and gas, telecoms, defence, medical, motor sport, sub-sea and mechanical-seals sectors. The company also has another site in Tewkesbury, where it has 18 CNC machines – including a £2.5 million five-machine flexible manufacturing system comprising four-axis horizontal machining centres and Fastems automation. There are also sheet metal, sub-assembly and final assembly facilities that mainly serve the defence, oil and gas and aerospace sectors.

Prior to installing iMES at Dartford, Kenard used its own Kenard Integrated Database Scheduler (KIDS), which transferred data to a Preactor scheduling system that in turn exported lists of jobs to do. The system, originally installed in the early 1990s, became complicated, as systems do. In comparison, iMES is much faster, easier to use and genuinely ‘real-time’.

“There was also the issue of reduced lead times, which was becoming the driving force of the operation, especially with such a significant level of added-value work available in the UK,” says Mr Ellis. “To win these contracts, you must be able to respond and deliver parts to the level of quality demanded, and to a tight schedule. We have been able to generally reduce our lead times from the 12-16 weeks of five years ago to less than four weeks now – and we are well on course to hit our 40-day enquiry-to-delivery target.”

High Value Machining

Typical of Kenard’s higher-added value components is an aerospace part for which the manhining alone is valued at more than £6,500 (and for which the route card lists 38 different processes). “This is not the type of work you want to be gathering dust around the machine shop, plus we have a fair number of parts with material values alone exceeding £1,000. With our new mill/turn machines, we knew that we had the additional capacity required to reduce lead times, but we had to improve machine utilisation across the board if we were going to move the business forward,” says Mr Ellis.

“The iMES installation achieves this, giving absolute feed-back of what is happening in real time, with live graphical predictions of work-loads on each machine. This is backed up with projected completion dates and performance reporting in a totally paperless environment. The iMES system provides us with planning and a real-tine scheduling display of all stages of relevant manufacture – including subcontract processes – from material order to final dispatch. We also have the bonus of immediate and automated management reporting. We no longer have to wait to see how we performed; the relevant data is on the screen in front of us.”

Due to its ability to integrate with other software systems, iMES takes the original ‘work to’ listing from the Kenard KIDS program and links into the Seiki Systems Networked Manufacturing Software (NMS). NMS monitors the operational status of each of the 15 CNC machines in real time, to provide a continuous flow of information.

On the shopfloor, operators and supervisors view the same job queue and, as appropriate, are informed that the material, programs and tooling are available, thereby eliminating time lost searching for tools, material or parts that have been pre-machined. If the job is not ready to run, the software system automatically feeds back all relevant information; when the next job is taken in preference, the system automatically updates the re-rescheduled works order and highlights a problem if the final promised delivery date will be affected. Meanwhile, the progress of each job is shown on screen as it moves through its planned production routing.

The scheduling and monitoring system has proved to be so successful that Kenard is currently expanding its use by installing it at the company’s Tewkesbury site. There will also be a live link back to the headquarters in Dartford, to provide a totally transparent capacity, work-in-progress, production analysis and management reporting system. In addition to the 18 CNC machines at Tewkesbury, bench working, painting, sheet metal production and assembly are also being integrated into the system to provide full site coverage.