Huge Productivity Uptick

“We’ve found that the panel bender offers an advantage over the press brakes in certain operations,” Raddatz says. “Whereas the P4 averages 45 sec. to make a part via automated setup and tool change without ever missing the backguage, the same part would require two press brakes, and two different setups. The quantities are just off the charts as compared to using the press brakes for some of these operations. Once programmed, the P4 does the work correctly every time, so you just need someone for loading or unloading. Conversely, a press-brake operator would need to know how to flip the part, understand the bending sequence and a lot more. The payback sold us.”

Santaromana is quick to agree.

Engineers at Bretford Manufacturing, familiar with the automatic panel bender’s capabilities, design parts and products specifically for this equipment.

“The press brakes can do some things that the P4 can’t, but the P4 does not require setup and it performs automatic tool changes,” he says. “And, it can perform accurate radius bends automatically and much more quickly than on a press brake, without us having to buy and set up 5-ft.-long radius tools on the press brake.”

In a manufacturing cell, the P4 replaced two existing press brakes, which were transferred to handle sheet from a coil-fed laser-cutting machine. Raddatz stresses that productivity savings through the P4 addition have freed up employees for other operations at Bretford.

“We don’t let anyone go when we make lean improvements, such as bringing in the automatic panel bender,” he says. “We will move people to other areas and only reduce employment through attrition.”

In getting the P4 up and running, Bretford provided to Salvagnini a list of parts, many being difficult to form on the press brakes, to see which ones would be ideal for running through the new machine.

“About 70 percent of those parts could be run with no issue,” Santaromana recalls.

In any case, when programming the panel bender, computerized simulation ensures an ideal process.

“I just fine-tune within our typical tolerance of 0.015 in. and the job is good to go,” he says.

Everything Supports Lean

Bringing in this panel-bending technology fits nicely with Bretford’s lean quest—a big reason why the company can meet its target of a five-day lead time to the customer.

“We try to keep as little material on the floor as possible,” explains Raddatz. “Our materials supplier takes a daily inventory and delivers each day based on what we used the day before. And, we don’t stock products, but build to order—we have about 8000 part forms, but can’t make 8000 different parts each day. Orders are released to the shop floor on the first day, and we route what we can to cells, where productivity is very high. On higher-volume products we might route that to a cell outfitted with a turret press, press brake, spot welder and robotic welder, with one to three employees staffing it, depending on the volume. We’ll move people to the product that sells rather than just build to stock.”

That said, Bretford kanbans its inventory, with some parts premade and pulled as needed.

Primarily for educational settings, Bretford Manufacturing constantly debuts new products, including mobile charging carts for iPads (top) and furniture with built-in charging stations.

“As they are pulled, the signal goes back to replenish the bin,” Raddatz says, “so we constantly produce the parts that we need. We are driven both by kanban and by work order.”

Joining the P4 and coil-fed laser cutter on the production floor are two laser-cutter/turret-punch-press combos—six press brakes are dedicated to output from the coil-fed unit, and six to the combos. From there, parts go to electrical, assembly and the paint line.

“Throughout our plant, if you just look at production time, without waiting time, it takes 10 hr. to go from cutting the material to packing,” says Raddatz, rightly proud of Bretford’s lean practices. “There’s not a whole lot of sitting around. For example, we have leaned out our paint hooks. We looked at hang patterns to optimize those, and as soon as we hang something on the paint line, our Packsize machines (two inhouse used to make cardboard boxes) get the signal to cut cardboard.”

Bretford also produces its own electrical units…and again, ‘not sitting around’ is the theme.

“We produce schedules each day that cover today’s production and two days ahead,” Raddatz says. “With this schedule, we begin premaking the units so that they are completed eight hours ahead of packout—not much buildup here. And, we generally ship the same day that a product comes off of our packout lines.”

During MetalForming’s tour of Bretford, Raddatz and Santaromana detailed the equipment and operations with obvious pride, which is no accident, as the company has worked hard (and successfully) to rework operations and, just as it claims, reimagine its product line and processes.

“This is a family-owned company dedicated to what we do, and it costs a lot of money to do lean,” Raddatz concludes. “I am proud of our plant, I’m proud to give a tour and I’m proud of our employees. We work together, and we get good products to our customers when they need them.” MF

See also: Salvagnini America, Inc.

Technologies: Bending

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