O/T Flexible Manufacturing (Cells)_

[jspangler]

Hi

Well, that is where I would like to be headed. I have read the "Cheese" books, but haven't heard of the other one, i'll have to pick it up.

 

Thanks again for the responses.

 

PS, we just had a huge UGLY meeting about production on the OTHER side of the shop (tube bending, and fabrication) so I get to spend alot more time over there now, cracking the whip, and getting parts out the door. It's amazing how people have to be SHOWN the efficeint way to do things, or they'll keep working twice as hard, and half as productive for as long as you let them. Geez.

 

 

John

[cnc rama]

I think that manufacturing cells can be very productive, however in today's economy it will be hard to get jobs big enough to justify the investment.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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...however in today's economy it will be hard to get jobs big enough to justify the investment...

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I'd have to disagree for a few reasons. First, the "F" in FMS stands for Flexible, and that they are. They work well for long run jobs as well as short run jobs. As long as you've got a cycle time of over 15 minutes per pallet, you're good. Use common tools and that's one less thing to do when putting a new job in. There's a common mis-conception that HMC's are not as flexible as VMC's and that's just wrong in so many ways. I guess it comes down to how good your programers/setup guys are and how willing they are to push the envelope for productivity.

 

JM2C

[Travis B]

we ran short and long runs on our LaBlond Makino cell (2 A55's with 15 pallets) for 14 years until a business decision was made to sell them off. The great thing about this type of system is you can leave more dedicated fixturing on the machine which cuts set up time way down.

[DrewG]

"The great thing about this type of system is you can leave more dedicated fixturing on the machine which cuts set up time way down."

 

That's one of the very best asset's of the cell. A machine, in theory, making chips is making money. Everyone knows when the spindle is stopped during set-up's, the machine is not making chips and thus not making money. If you are running stand alone machines, VMC's or HMC's, and have alot of change over's, the machine can be down for a significant period each day, week, and month of a year. If you have your cell properly set-up, you could be making chips 60 minutes an hour of every day of every year(minus tool changes, of course). Depending upon the applications, the cost of a cell could pay for itself in less than a year.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

The beauty of an FMS with 2 or more machines is you can take one out of "service" for a time to do a setup, maintenance, whatever... and the other machines will/can pick up the slack, then when you're ready to put it back in service, ... I do this often. I'll be doing a setup during the day, and it'll run production at night when I ready for it to do so. VERY flexible.

[MetalMarvels]

This has been an interesting thread to follow. On other contracts, it has always been the "flexible" part that has eluded me to some extent.