Page 71 - MetalForming Magazine June/July 2022 80th Anniversary Issue

backfill with lower-skilled people.”
The Next Level of Automation
Automation long has provided a path to meeting productivity goals at BTD, where, says Fledderman, “there’s nothing we can do that requires unskilled manual labor, we can’t charge enough to pay for it. We must add com- plication to our product line, and, in terms of our strategic vision, focus on complex, technical and risky business, to avoid having the whole world become our competition, especially in the high-volume automotive business.”
And similar to WTW, value-added operations take center stage. “Ten years ago, 20 percent of what we stamped had some sort of next operation per-
formed inhouse—welding, assembly etc.,” Fledderman says. “Now it’s more like 70 percent, and not just the added operations, but the work is more com- plex and involves new technology. And with the cost of labor, we can’t afford to do this work manually.”
Automating automotive work, how- ever, has become more difficult to jus- tify as volumes have shrunk, Fledder- man explains, noting that custom systems now get the call for many applications rather than off-the-shelf robotic cells. BTD, large enough to be positioned to operate a corporate automation team to serve its facilities (U.S. locations in Indiana and South Carolina, as well as a plant in Mexico), “is really good at automating the actual
processes—welding and assembly, for example,” Fledderman says. “Now we’re focused on automating material han- dling through these cells, using tech- nologies such as vision-guided bin picking.”
Technology Catalyzes the Productivity Push
All four industry executives we spoke with for this article know that maintaining state-of-the-art operations are a must, including automation and other capital equipment, as well as software, Internet of Things and other Industry 4.0 technologies. WTW’s Wiegel, for example, at press time was quoting two new 600-ton presses— “those would be our largest presses,”
68 MetalForming/June/July 2022
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Operational Excellence:
Is It Time for Your Organization to Up Its Game?
by Cynthia Hannafey, managing director, UHY Consulting
What if your people, processes and technology were so perfectly aligned that they could quickly and effectively share knowledge and information across your organization? What if manufacturers could measure, view and continuously improve per- formance? What if operations were efficient and scalable so that manufacturers could take on addi- tional contracts and expand into other markets with ease?
Achieving operational excellence starts with having the correct definition that everyone can understand and know how to reach. The Institute for Operational Excellence defines operational excellence as “the point at which each and every employee can see the flow of value to the customer and can fix that flow before it breaks down.”
Operational excellence focuses on the concept
of value, like the related theories of Lean and Six Sigma. When the value stream is visible, everyone in your organization knows when things are functioning correctly or can then act to solve the problem.
Six Steps to Operational Excellence
The process of fulfilling the organizational vision and opera- tional goals should begin with a thorough understanding of a company’s current situation and end with implementing a care- fully crafted plan.
1. Establish the purpose (or mission) of the organization. Then, agree on the lower-level goals that roll up into the com- pany’s purpose as indicators of progress and success.
2. Analyze the current state and document value streams.
3. Identify the areas for improvement and determine the best approach.
4. Create a culture of continuous improvement by setting desired goals and behaviors.
5. Implement a performance management system for employees to self-monitor and report on their progress.
6. Build scale by creating replicable systems that deliver value.
Research presented in the Harvard Business Review found that companies with peak operational excellence have 25-per- cent-higher growth and 75-percent-higher productivity than laggards. It’s all about the people. To achieve operational excellence, you must create cultural change. Operational excellence is achieving the perfect alignment of your people, processes and technology.