In-Plant Manufacturing

- Productivity and Quality Advances in Generator Manufacturing Save Millions-

A plant produces large generators sold to power generation businesses and governments. Public safety and convenience demand that these be high quality products. Part of the process requires building, forming and wrapping specially designed copper bars that carry very high current when installed in generators. They can be tens of feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds. Considering their size and weight, these copper bars are extremely costly to rework or scrap.

Each bar goes through more than a dozen manufacturing stations before completion. At any time along the way, it can be inspected and sent back one or more steps – even to the beginning – to be reworked. If it gets sent back, it is subject to two additional inspections before it can reenter the production system. With dozens, even hundreds, of bars on the floor of varying sizes and shapes, some in, some out of, the production line, the need to track them is obvious. Now the manufacturer knows where every bar is at all times.

Before deploying PenFact’s XMD software, the manufacturer kept its processing and rework records on paper. Forms circulated in multiple copies. Engineers entered data manually for analysis and special summarization. Then they re-entered it on spreadsheets to produce and maintain special reports. Then, for a third time, the data was re-entered, this time into ERP and quality systems.

To eliminate these problems, management implemented a comprehensive system in successive steps. First up was quality recording and reporting. Using PenFact’s XMD software to turn their paper forms into electronic ones, with multiple tasks and data collection items on each step, the manufacturer replaced the paper system. Whenever a form is changed, PenFact’s XMD software automatically distributes the updated form to all who use it. This feature rapidly improves quality data collection steps, altering data collection items and responses to optimize them for users’ needs.

Each bar is tracked by the PenFact’s Router™ which, using flexible links and decision trees (send back to station 8, rework, use as is, etc), circulates the bar around the shop as needed in light of what happened to it before, the results of inspections, the results of rework signoffs, and the like. As the bar moves paperlessly through production, operators make their own decisions and have them executed by the Router. Inspectors can move bars back into normal production or into the quality rework process. This happens electronically and with full accountability: the Router can offer different decisions, based on need, for each production step. Production needs drive outcomes, not software restrictions.

Collected data is subjected to ad-hoc Pareto analysis, a standard product component of PenFact’s XMD software. This allows root cause analysis for inspection data without the effort of data extraction and manipulation. Customized reporting and summary data retrieval sits on top of the detailed Oracle production database. For the final touch, the system generates daily snapshot reports of progress on in-process rework and e-mails them directly to managers.

The hardware for this system is a combination of fixed workstations, including those with touch screens, Fujtisu PCS wireless pen tablets, and Casio IT700 Pocket PC/PDA units. The mobile computers can be used interchangeably. All computers communicate wirelessly. Users choose among the three as need dictates. PenFact’s XMD software supports total off-network operation for any computer at any time: because paperless manufacturing demands 100% availability. XMD software works when the network does not, so no data is lost and no work need be done twice. This powerful system is the base that directly links all shop operations - without paper, without wires and without worries over loss of data or downtime.

The manufacturer's more than 300 in plant mobile workers now have customizable tools to report, record, control, track, and respond to every single bar, plus the power of mobile computing. Now, with high reliability as a foundation, manufacturing management can rely on collected data and has visibility into any aspect of the shop. Engineers can analyze any piece of the process by zooming down to any level of detail choosing from a range of software products and custom tools to aid their research. The plant has true end-to-end quality information – and has embedded quality into and throughout the rework process. Management saw a complete payback in less than 12 months from a) accurate, believable data, b) complete traceability, c) labor hours saved in report processing, d) complete elimination of reporting lead times, reducing rework, and e) the elimination of more than 12,000 paper forms per year. ROI over 300% in year 2 years.

Summary

Using PenFact’s XMD software software, this manufacturer now:

• Scans and records any bar coded data – including unique identifiers for each bar
• Guides operators through data entry and work steps at each process point, providing process information, selection lists, even pictures as needed
• Links process points into a factory floor workflow for sequential manufacturing operations, including configurable user driven decision trees
• Captures ad-hoc inspection data when and where needed
• Links rework processes into a workflow, including configurable decision points
• Stores production and inspection data, including data not previously available, in a central database (Oracle)
• Keeps working when network fails
• Enforces electronic revision control for all shop documents
• Generates Pareto (frequency) analysis for fast, ad-hoc reporting
• Automatically produces and e-mails daily reports of shop activities
• Provides on demand, up-to-the-minute reports of production activities to supervisors

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PenFact, Inc. · 500 Harrison Avenue, Suite 3R · Boston, MA 02118
Phone: (617) 482-6900 · Fax: (617) 482-5155 · www.penfact.com