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PPI Combines Manpower and Machinery to
Achieve Customer Satisfaction
“Lean manufacturing” is the buzzword of the moment for industrial manufacturing. Many business leaders read a book, put fad-driven operations into play and then revert back to their normal way of doing business without ever learning the proper definition or utilization.
Ron Pleasant, president and owner of Pleasant Precision Incorporated (PPI) in Kenton, Ohio, is a bit different. He not only knows how to define “lean,” but also how to put the concept into practical application. Their intent was to drive out manufacturing time and costs in the custom mold making work for their automotive, medical, consumer and office plastic injection mold customers.
“After attending a symposium by Injection Molding Magazine focused on lean manufacturing, and reading the book ‘Lean Thinking,’ I became totally caught up in the concept,” says Pleasant. “We taught it to our upper management and to the shop floor. We set some goals and re-arranged our equipment so that we could develop a batch flow of one. Those goals primarily dealt with inventory reduction, decreased time to produce parts, quicker delivery times and manufacturing cost reduction.
“We were able to reduce our inventory by $100,000 in just a nine-month period of time. Also, our time to produce a batch of inserts dropped from five weeks to five days, which has since dropped to three days. If someone orders a part, it will take us only three days to produce it and get it to the customer. One of the keys to lean manufacturing success like this is to have great people, great management and great machinery all working together for the best interest of the customer. We were able to develop the first two aspects; Makino has provided us with the third, both in testing and customer application.”
Rushed Beginnings [back to top]
The lean process investigation for PPI began years ago with a trade show project called “RUSH Technologies.” It was undertaken by PPI in conjunction with a number of machine tool firms and corporations, including Makino. PPI Shop Production Manager Ronald Justice says, “RUSH is an acronym for ‘Rapid Use in Shop Hours.’ The idea was to bring together four or five different companies to collaborate on the benefits of advancing high technology to reduce the time that it takes to deliver a mold. It was more about time compression than hour compression because of customer demands.
 “PPI knew little about high-speed machinery at that time, and even less about lean manufacturing, so we investigated a half-dozen different machine tool makers to select a partner for the project. Makino’s support group stood out on top, and the technological programs they put in place made them our best partner opportunity. We supplied the mold making knowledge, and Makino supplied the machine tools. And we worked together for about a month to prove out the techniques that we were going to demonstrate at the National Plastics Exhibition.”
Justice said that PPI worked with Makino on the SNC64G/S graphite milling machine; the V33 and the V55 vertical machining centers; and the EDNC85, EDNC43 and EDNC43S Ram EDM machines. They were used to develop test cuts for an arm rest hinge support and pop-up console hatch for a major automobile manufacturer.
“During these PPI and Makino tests, we found the number of electrodes needed was cut in half, cutting time was cut in half, and burn time was cut by almost two-thirds compared to previous equipment used,” says Justice. “We found that one EDNC43 machine could do the work of two of our competitive machines at that time. And, we were able to get only a 12-micron finish from competitive machines; Makino was able to get us to 10 microns. That was enhanced to 4 microns with the use of HQSF™ (High-Quality Surface Finish). What took 20 hours to burn with six electrodes on a competitive machine took seven hours and three electrodes with Makino. And, with a satin finish that required no polishing, we saved another 40 hours of benchwork. That sold us on our future.”
The Formula For Lean [back to top]
A great deal of PPI’s lean manufacturing processes and concepts were developed through that activity, according to Justice. “The idea of the ‘RUSH’ project was to produce a mold each and every day of the show. We would start in the morning with one part in mind. Then we would design the mold, program the machine, cut a path on the machine, assemble the mold in a molding press and actually mold different parts every day. We found that if we could do it during the show, we should be able to incorporate that aspect into our shop on a day-to-day basis.”
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“What took 20 hours to burn with six electrodes on a competitive machine took seven hours and three electrodes with Makino. And, with a satin finish that required no polishing, we saved another 40 hours of benchwork. That sold us on our future.”
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At the same time, PPI began to experiment with some lean processes in order to keep customer work from going offshore. The focus on going lean was to drive out operational costs and to supply a product delivery time that was unattainable by foreign competitors. And, from the ‘RUSH’ project, they knew that modern equipment was vital.
“We decided to become lean to reduce inventory with some different manufacturing procedures,” says Pleasant. “We were inefficiently moving back and forth between building a mold, building plates, building a cavity/core or running a small batch production. We needed to change.”
The testing at PPI was conducted on Round-Mate™, a mold making insert that PPI itself produces, markets and sells internationally. Round-Mate™ is an interchangeable insert mold system for master frames of injection molds that allows for 10 minute mold changes at the production point, which by itself fits a lean environment.
PPI discovered that the Makino SNC64 was successful in making the Round-Mate™ process lean, so they set out to apply their formula and principles on varying customer projects. They discovered that the success of the lean process depended upon coordinating their manpower and machinery resources, which required the machines in their shop to operate at maximum performance to maintain workflow, another asset of Makino.
To Mill Or To Burn [back to top]
One primary decision orchestrated toward lean manufacturing was whether to burn or mill a cavity and core. Justice says the first key determinant revolves around the number of set-ups on that block. “If you have a lot of corners and details, you will tend to want to burn a mold on an EDM machine, because all of that detail is already set up on the machine. If a large surface area needs to be covered, we are going to mill it in order to compress time in the shop. We actually discovered the Makino SNC64 could do both for us (see
related article).
“Lean is an interesting theory; but getting everything to practically come together at the same point in time, and trying to develop processes that eliminate all the waste, are the key elements to success. By interjecting new equipment and new processes into it, by simplifying procedures and steps and by selecting the right equipment for the job, the advantage and the savings can be huge.
“With our old equipment and processes, we would have had 40 to 60 hours in electrode design and manufacturing, and then probably another 20 hours of burn time,” says Justice. “With Makino, we have been able to cut the machining time to about eight hours, plus about 15 hours of programming.
“If you sit idle you are going to die. If you do not grow, you are going to die. There is no question. Technology is moving so fast, I was surprised that a shop of our size was able to hold on as long as we did without some major repercussions. We discovered that Makino is a total solution. They get their equipment working together in a synergy, and that is pretty incredible.”
Delivery Was A Test [back to top]
PPI does not directly account for their Makino cost savings, as they are primarily interested in passing value on to their customer. “In our current market place, delivery is really the top dog anyway,” says Pleasant. “We need to compress time. While everyone is sensitive to costs, you are not even in the game unless you can deliver product faster. If you can deliver, you can make money. That is how we focus.”
The customer demand for faster delivery from a lean process is what drove Pleasant to acquire the Makino SNC64. And, they acquired it as fast as they began to utilize it. “I was at a trade show on Thursday, saw the machine, and decided to buy it on Friday, providing they could deliver it on Monday. We had installation and training completed by Tuesday, and we were cutting product electrodes and elements for a mold
by Wednesday.”
Pleasant said this transition to lean created a tense situation where, if they missed the delivery, they probably would just lose the customer. “They were not going to be tolerant of our late delivery and we had a lot to do in a very short period of time to get lean. The availability of the machine from Makino was absolutely imperative. A matter of being able to have the machine delivered in such a short period of time, and up and running, meant thousands and thousands of dollars of time and improvement in this situation, and saved us a valued customer.”
That’s cutting it close; or, in the case of PPI, cutting it lean.
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