Automotive Parts Manufacturing
Elgin, IL
A northern Illinois automotive parts manufacturer was struggling with perpendicularity and parallelism in the high volume production of gear blanks. The original cell was made up of (8) cnc lathes and the use of standard B206 Kitagawa chucks. These chucks were found to be lifting the part in the z-axis, which is what contributed towards the high scrap rate of 5%. The second consideration is that there was no validation, nor feedback that the part was up against its datum reference surface.
After reviewing the application and needs of the customer, the final solution led to a sealed, pull back chuck (i.e., PU206) with a perpendicularity/ parallelism monitoring system. The PU206 additionally permitted more aggressive machining and thus cycle time reduction over the B206.
What benefits did the new workholding contribute towards?
- 4.5‰ reduction of scrap parts
- A reduction in overhead costs associated with the reduction in hours worked
- Decreased cycle time
ROI: Delivering a measurable ROI is critical to any productivity improvement project. We conduct an ROI analysis with all of our customers to make sure the investment makes sense. In this case there was a 4.5% reduction in scrapped additional new throughput which provided increased profits to allow the solution to pay for itself in less than 8 weeks and delivered a 6+ times return on investment for the first year.
