Page 22 - MetalForming February 2011

Process Integration:
The Key to a Profitable, Lean Punching Operation
Asheetmetal-fabricator’s world is squeezed more today than ever before. Not only is local compe- tition fighting for the same piece of pie, but the global marketplace has created competition internationally. The labor pool for skilled craftsmen is shrinking. And, customer demands for cost reductions are compounded by a shop’s internal demands to reduce costs. Meanwhile, their OEM cus- tomers, fighting the same economic battles, have migrated to lean-manu- facturing methods and reduced the size of shipments. Add a recession into the mix and you have the makings of a major challenge to profitability.
It’s been said that “whoever frames the question wins the debate.” Along that line of thinking, as lean-manufac- turing concepts have gained promi- nence, variations of lean manufactur- ing have morphed in order to be applied to an individual operation’s particular set of demands. In so doing, we have made buzz words like “speed” and “efficiencies” preeminent in our search for the newest capital equip- ment with which a fabricator can update its shop.
I want to challenge that paradigm using the concepts of “flexibility” and “process integration” as the primary criteria.
Cary Teeple is regional sales manager, Murata Machinery USA, Charlotte, NC: 704/394-8331; www.muratec-usa.com.
Here’s a lesson in how sheetmetal fabricators can increase profitability by reducing operating expenses and inventory, and increase throughput, with the flexibility to get what you want, where you want it, when it needs to be there.
BY CARY TEEPLE
20 MetalForming/February 2011
www.metalformingmagazine.com
Since the advent of hydraulic press technology and servo-driven ram technology (shown here), we’ve gained the ability to precisely control the ram stroke. This does much more than simply increase process speeds; it allows fabricators to take advantage of new tools that add more value to the parts and eliminate secondary operations.
Flexibility + Integration = Profitability
Eliyahu Goldratt wrote in his book, The Goal: Do not improve one meas- urement in isolation. The goal is to reduce operating expenses, reduce inventory and increase throughput.”
The ultimate goal obviously is increased profitability. With this as our goal, let’s take a deeper look at how focusing on the concepts of flexibility and process integration can help a met- alformer add to its bottom line.
For our purposes, we’ll define flexi-