Lean manufacturing has become a way of life in many industries. Moldmaking isn't immune from this trend, and moldmakers are quickly realizing that lean may be an avenue to higher profits and improved lead times.

"Many moldmakers think their machining process isn't anything like a mass-production manufacturing setup, where lean has made huge inroads," says Rod Jones, a manufacturing consultant with over 28 years of experience."The fact is that lean can work in moldmaking just as well as it works in manufacturing."

Lean Is Based On Common Sense [back to top]
"Lean manufacturing is a simple concept, based on common sense tactics that focus on reducing the time and cost to produce goods. It's about giving the customer more value and quality by streamlining processes.

"There are two kinds of activities to identify in manufacturing, those that add value to the product and those that do not. The core of lean is to reduce the non-value-added activities," says Jones. "To make a process lean, every step must be scrutinized to see if removing that step would make the product worth less to the customer."

"The hardest part of going lean for many manufacturers is challenging long-standing techniques and ways of thinking," continues Jones. "But they must question old practices and not just focus on improving flawed processes. Watch the operation as it is happening, and worry less about abstract results and more about the concrete processes."

To Get Started [back to top]
A simple way to start this process is to think about all the non-value-added activity that takes place on the shop floor. Where are the bottlenecks? Where is there unnecessary movement? What's causing the process to be slower than it needs to be?

"Just stand back and watch how a mold is made in your shop," says Jones. "If you look at the process objectively, questioning each step as it happens, countless examples of inefficiencies can usually be found. It's not the workers or managers fault that things have become inefficient; the processes just need to be re-examined from time to time. Keep asking yourself - does this step add value to the product? Could it be eliminated?"

After examining the shop floor, go through the steps to identify if each activity is adding value.

There are common non-value-added activities that are found in mold shops that can be recognized when the company tries to figure out what processes don't add value to their product. The most common of these are waste, outdated technology and costing systems.

Eliminate Waste [back to top]
For many shops, the biggest non-value-added component is waste. "Waste is a big problem in many mold shops. Waste is found in the form of scrap, inefficient systems and processes, rework and waiting," comments Jones.

"One way to tackle waste is to maximize quality," says Jones. "By using machines that produce better parts you end up with less wasted time and less scrap."

A mold maker should expect good parts straight from the machine, requiring no rework and little or no bench-time.

For example, remove an hour of hand-polishing by using a machine tool that cuts with a better surface finish. Adding that up over dozens of pieces saves a lot of time and labor. Producing a part with first-pass-quality can be a tool to provide additional value. If a well maintained, good quality machine tool is used, less passes are required. The part is cut correctly sooner and doesn't require bench-time or intense inspection to make sure it's perfect, so it can be moved onto the next step quickly.

Process Waste [back to top]
Not only must the machine be efficient, but the process in which the machine is used must also be efficient.

"In a traditional manufacturing setup, an error is the fault of a machine or person, detected via inspection after the work is done. In a lean setup, an error is immediately visible to someone as soon as it occurs and where it occurs," says Jones. This can be done via one-piece flow, sometimes called continuous manufacturing.

One-piece flow is a technique where parts are manufactured in a cellular environment. A cell is an area where everything needed to work on a part is within easy reach, and moving from one step to another is quick and simple. A part being manufactured in a cell isn't allowed to move to the next step until it's completely finished and defect-free.

"One-piece flow reduces the amount of walking between operations, helps to reduce the opportunities for machine or operator error, and allows for finished parts that don't require any re-work. One-piece flow can become an important part of a lean setup," says Jones.

Due to the nature of a cellular setup, unnecessary motion of labor and machinery is nearly eliminated. The loading and unloading of pieces becomes very quick due to the close proximity of like operations. Time spent looking for tooling is reduced because every machine is set to its function as a part of the cell, and waiting in queue is reduced because no part is set to the next process until it has been finished in the process before. In addition, final inspection time is decreased because the piece is inspected during the process.

In a cellular setup, because a "bad" part isn't allowed to the next step, rework and overproduction to compensate for bad parts is greatly reduced. A cellular environment allows the production of good parts faster, which also reduces inventory.

Makino machines are designed to work well within cellular setups like those in one-piece flow. And because Makino machines are built to cut parts the right way the first time, one-piece flow is hastened and the amount of scrap produced is minimal.

Waiting is Waste [back to top]
Most time in mold shops is spent waiting - waiting on machines to be restocked with consumables, waiting on machines to finish other processes, waiting on tooling, waiting on people and waiting on errors in the mold to be cleaned up. Using lean strategies and modern machine tools can eliminate a lot of the waiting, which in turn eliminates a lot of waste.

One way to reduce waiting is to lessen machine down time. Buying high quality machines goes a long way to reduce down time. Keeping up with routine machine maintenance is also important in keeping your machines running at full capacity.

"It should be noted that down-time is typically much more expensive than the cost of a better machine," says Jones. "Spending a few more bucks up front to make sure your system will run more efficiently will save countless hours of down-time later."

Quality machines not only tend to break down less, they also are accompanied by better service from the manufacturer. Getting a machine fixed fast is important - every moment an unfinished piece sits on your shop floor it's wasting your money and hurting your reputation for good lead-times.

A good machine also tends to use less consumable items. Makino wire EDMs, for instance, have been shown to use as much as 50 percent less wire as competitors' machines. Taking the time to change out spools of wire and paying someone to be there slows down the machining process and increases labor costs, as does the additional wire that is consumed.

Outdated Technology Will Eventually Lose You Business [back to top]
"Outdated technology is a big problem in mold-shops around the U.S. While nations like China lower their costs with cheap labor, the mold quality produced is usually much lower. Often the edge that American shops have is from improved lead-time and quality. Not being able to cut the molds to the accuracies demanded will quickly eliminate these advantages," says Jones.

Most bids come down to the three best prices, but often the contract is awarded to those who can also provide the best quality and quickest lead-times. Both lead-time and quality are affected greatly by the technology a shop has to produce molds. With old, outdated machinery a mold takes longer to cut, requires hours of hand-finishing, and can rarely meet exacting tolerances.

"Getting rid of old, inefficient equipment can do a lot to make a mold shop lean," says Jones. "Not only does removing old equipment free up space on the factory floor, it encourages workers to use the more efficient equipment in their processes, driving down the cost to produce the molds in the long run."

Technologically advanced equipment produces molds faster, reduces overproduction and over-processing, and allows your tooling and consumables to last longer, all while decreasing the number of bad molds produced.

"Shops should examine the benefits that can result from being able to turn over molds much more quickly, from reducing the labor that was required to rework molds made in outdated machines, to meeting the tolerances their customers demand," says Jones.

Get A Grip On The Costs [back to top]
"Beyond waste and outdated technology, the costing system many mold shops are using is limiting their ability to accurately cost and price molds," says Jones. Many shops use a traditional costing system - a standard price per hour for working on jobs. It doesn't matter if something is grinding, being cut by a machine tool, or waiting in queue for hand polishing; the cost per hour is the same. Traditional costing methods can lead to unrealistic pricing on some items. Custom jobs, for instance, can be priced too low, and more standard items may be priced too high.

"I've been in many shops where a custom mold that uses a lot more resources costs nearly the same as a standard mold that is cheap to produce," says Jones. "This is due to the shop's costing system only seeing 'time' as the concern, as opposed to what it actually takes to make the mold. Molds need to be priced based on the amount of resources consumed to produce the mold, not just hours in process."

Activity-based costing might be a better method for many shops. Many foreign competitors who have similar labor costs to the U.S. have better pricing because they are using activity-based costing.

"If U.S. moldmakers investigate how their pricing could change by switching to activity-based costing, most would find their margins would improve and the more profitable items would become cheaper to their customers, and, in turn, sell better," says Jones.

Beyond the benefits of attributing costs more accurately, activity-based costing lends itself to lean manufacturing much more easily than traditional costing because it focuses on the process.

"If your shop is looking to tighten up operations, changing how costs are assigned is an important component," comments Jones.

Start Small, But Start Soon [back to top]
"Lean is becoming one of the ways shops can stay competitive in a market where pressures are high to produce better molds faster and cheaper," says Jones. "By following some simple steps to identify the activities in your shop that make your product cheaper and better, you can easily increase your margins while becoming more competitive.

"Remember that lean is really a customer-focused process. It allows for better quality, lower costs and shorter lead times. All of these are what a mold customer demands from any shop."

AUTHOR [back to top]
Rod Jones is president and founder of Decision Technology, Inc., an industrial sales and marketing consulting firm located in Ada, Michigan. He has over 28 years of experience in manufacturing-related markets. In the last 13 years, he has worked with over 80 of the world's premier manufacturing technology equipment suppliers and distributors, and has completed over 350 marketing research and consulting projects. His working career includes hundreds of speaking and training presentations. Contact him by phone at 616-676-4650, or via e-mail at info@decisiontec.com. Visit his website at www.decisiontec.com.