NIST

PUBUCATiOr4S

NISTSP 848

A Collection

OF Successful

Interactions

Between

THE MTCs

AND

Client Firms

RICHARD SUENRAM

^BnISTs Manufacturing^B

^

Technology Centers

^

Program ^|

-QC

100

.U57

//848

1993

U.S. Department of Commerce • Technology Administration • National Institute of Standards and Technology
NIST SP848 Richard D. Suenram

Molecular Physics Division

National Institute of Standards

and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD 20899

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

COMMERCE

Ronald H. Brown, Secretary

National Institute of Standards

and Technology

Raymond G. Kammer, Acting Director

March 1993

CODEN NSPUE2
NIST'S

MANUFACTURING

TECHNOLOGY CENTERS

PROGRAM

The United States' long dominant manufacturing

position in the world's marketplace is declining

due in part to increasingly sophisticated foreign

competition and the swiftness of changing

technologies. There are more than 350,000

manufacturing firms in the United States with

less than 500 employees. These firms employ 12 million workers and account for over 50% of the

total of this country's value-added to goods and

services. While some small manufacturing firms have been able to maintain their competitive

edge in smaller domestic markets and in special

technology areas, most simply have not kept pace

with the rapidly-changing computer-assisted

global marketplace of the past decade. To address this problem, Congress, through

the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act

established the Manufacturing Technology Centers (MTC) program as a new initiative at the National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The charge of the program was to contribute toward improved U. S. industrial productivity and

competitiveness in the growing international marketplace.

In January of 1989 three centers were

established. These were the Northeast

Manufacturing Technology Center (NEMTC)

located in Troy, New York, the Great Lakes

Manufacturing Technology Center (GLMTC)

based in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Southeast

Manufacturing Technology Center (SMTC),

situated in Columbia, South Carolina. Since

beginning operation in 1989, these three centers have achieved an estimated cost savings of more

than $130 million for the small business firms that they have assisted. In the spring of 1991 two additional centers were established. They are the Mid-America

Manufacturing Technology Center (MAMTC)

located in Overland Park, Kansas and the Midwest

Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A third round of competition was just recently

completed in July of 1992. Two new centers were

established in this competition. The California

Manufacturing Technology Center (CMTC) is headquartered in Torrance, California and the Upper Midwest Manufacturing Technology Center (UMMTC) is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Although the basic charge to each center is the same, "to enhance productivity and technological

performance in U. S. manufacturing through the

transfer of manufacturing technologies and

techniques," each center's approach is unique,

tempered in many respects by the locale and the type of manufacturing firms being assisted. The

centers provide a wide range of services including

individual project engineering, training courses, demonstrations, and assistance in selecting and

using software and equipment. Many have

established large data bases of computer aided

design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing

(CAM) software packages as well as a wide

variety of PC based hardware systems,

workstations, and mini-computers which use the software. This provides small manufacturers an

extensive selection of state-of-the-art systems with

which they can gain hands-on experience and

allows them to make intelligent decisions on the system selection that is best suited for their application. In addition to the computer

demonstration facilities, the centers also have

demonstration facilities which display various

types of automated metal working equipment

(lathes and milling machines), robotics, and

state-of-the-art coordinate measuring machines

which are used to demonstrate the automated

machining process. Two of the centers (NEMTC,

in New York and MAMTC in Kansas) have

mobile demonstration facilities in operation which

allow demonstrations of automated

equipment at some of the more remote

manufacturing firms, technology symposia, and

other events. These types of facilities should be
extremely useful where larger teiritories are being

served. Some aspects of the individual centers are highlighted below:

Northeast Manufacturing Technology

Center, Troy, NY.

The Northeast Manufacturing Technology Center

is located within the Center for Manufacturing

Productivity and Technology Transfer on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus in Troy,

New York. NEMTC's principal target region is New York State (81% of client interactions) with some satellite operations in Massachusetts (12%),

Pennsylvania (5% ), and Maine ( 1 %). Their typical

client firms have 25-75 employees and fall into SICs 3400 (Fabricated Metal Products) and 3500

(Industrial Machinery and Equipment). NEMTC

is strongly tied into the highly developed outreach

program provided by the New York State Science

and Technology Foundation Industrial Technology

Extension Service. In addition, the Hudson Valley

Community College also located in Troy, New

York serves as NEMTC's liaison with a network

of community colleges located throughout the Northeast.

Southeast Manufacturing Technology

Center, Columbia, SC.

The Southeast Manufacturing Technology Center

is located on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.

SMTC's client base are the 4000+ small- and

medium-sized manufacturing firms in the state. Typical client firms have 50-100 employees. Most

of the target firms are small rural manufacturers

of discrete parts and metalworking firms with a smaller number specializing in electrical/ electronic, plastics, and lumber/wood products.

SMTC's emphasis on technology transfer is coordinated through the technical colleges

throughout the state with primary centers located

at Greenville Technical College in Greenville,

Midlands Technical College in Columbia, and

Trident Technical College in Charleston.

Great Lakes Manufacturing

Technology Center, Cleveland, OH.

The Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology

Center (GLMTC) was established by the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing Program

(CAMP), a not-for-profit company incorporated

in Ohio and headquartered in Cleveland. CAMP

is part of the State of Ohio's eight-center Edison

Technology Center network. GLMTC s client base are the nearly 9000 manufacturing

establishments in and around the Cleveland area. The more general region served however ranges from Minnesota to Pennsylvania in the Great Lakes area. The GLMTC serves this extended

region through a network of affiliated centers known as the Association of Great Lakes

Manufacturing Support Centers. Nearly 40% of

the firms served by the GLMTC are SICs 3400

(Fabricated Metal Products) and 3500 (Industrial

Machinery and Equipment) with the remaining

firms being a diverse cross section of

manufacturing technologies. Approximately

e
90% of the firms have less than 100 employees.

During 1990 GLMTC initiated 334 technology

transfer projects for 197 firms in this region.

Midwest Manufacturing Technology

Center, Ann Arbor, MI.

The Midwest Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) was founded as a part of the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) located in Ann Arbor,

Michigan. The initial service area for MMTC is the southern Michigan region which has

approximately 4000 manufacturing firms with

800.000 employees. Two of the core industries

in Michigan are automobile production and office furniture manufacturing. One third of all auto

industries (SICs 371 1 and 3714) employment is

in Michigan. In addition, 40% of office furniture (SIC 2522) manufacturing is done in Michigan.

Initially, MMTC plans to concentrate its efforts on the small firms that supply automotive

manufacturers and metal office furniture companies. These firms specialize in machine

tools, tooling, metal forming and plastic

processing.

Mid-America Manufacturing

Technology Center, Overland Park, KS

The Mid-America Manufacturing Technology

Center (MAMTC) located in Overland Park, Kansas is a subsidiary of Kansas Technology

Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) which is headquartered in Topeka, Kansas. KTEC is a

non-profit corporation established by the state of

Kansas. The service area of MAMTC is the entire

^tate of Kansas and several adjoining counties of

Missouri near Kansas City. This area contains

more than 2600 small to medium manufacturing

firms. There is a diverse mix of urban and rural manufacturing establishments. The three largest

industry groups manufacture agricultural

equipment, fabricated metal products and aircraft

parts. In addition to the Overland Park headquarters for MAMTC, six regional technology transfer

offices are located throughout the state, with a seventh planned for the Kansas City, Missouri

area. MAMTC also has strong ties to the colleges

and vocational technical institutes in the state.

California Manufacturing Technology

Center, Torrance, CA

The California Manufacturing Technology Center

is headquartered at El Camino College in Torrance, California. It is sponsored jointly by

the California Community Colleges and the California Department of Commerce. Its primary

focus is to provide assistance to the large number

of aerospace industry suppliers in the Torrance

area.

Upper Midwest Manufacturing

Technology Center, Minneapolis, MN

The Upper Midwest Manufacturing Technology

Center will use the existing facilities of its sponsor, Minnesota Technology Inc., which is a public non-profit corporation dedicated to technology transfer. Its primary clients are computer, industrial machinery, metal fabrication and plastic and composites fabricators.

o
A SAMPLING

OF INDIVIDUAL

CASE HISTORIES

The following descriptions of

interactions that the Manufacturing

Technology Centers have had

with a number of firms in their

respective regions were selected to

reflect the wide variety of assistance

that the MTCs can provide to client

firms. Some of the interactions are

quite basic in nature, ranging from

simple CAD/CAM selection and

implementation to several interactions

that were unique, providing a definite

challenge to the staffs of the

MTCs involved.

o
ISO 9000

Implementation

Program for

Small

Manufacturers

NISTs Manuiacturing

Technology Centers

have developed a

strong program

to assist small

manulactimng firms

with becoming

registered to the new

European ISO-9000

set of

business standards.

TA he small to medium sized manufacturer is being pressured from a number of directions, both

nationally and internationally, to produce higher

quality products. Pressure is coming in the form

of shrinking markets, reduced profit margins,

OEM reductions in the number of suppliers used

and global competition. As suppliers to OEM's

based domestically and offshore, many are being

required to conform to the ISO 9000 Series Standard for Quality Assurance.

Effective quality management methods have

become increasingly important as a means to producing quality products on time and at a competitive price in the highly competitive global

marketplace. The ISO 9000/Q90 series, since its inception in 1987, has become the universally

recognized standard for demonstration of a

supplier's capability to assure quality in all phases

of design/development, production, installation, inspection and testing, and servicing. While the ISO 9000/Q90 series is only a minimum set of requirements for a quality management system, it provides the foundation for total quality

management. Organizations that do not meet the requirements of ISO 9000/Q90 are unlikely to be

able to meet more comprehensive requirements

such as GM's "Targets for Excellence" or Ford's "Ql" program.

Purchasers are increasingly requiring suppliers

to conform to the appropriate quality system

model (ISO 9001/Q91, ISO 9002/Q92 or ISO

9003/Q93) by means of second party (external) audits or third party certification (by accredited

registrar). In Europe, thousands of industrial sites are registered under the ISO 9000. In the United

States, the number is only around 250-300

registered companies, but interest has recently

gained increased momentum and many more

organizations have begun, or are in the planning

stages of an ISO 9000/Q90 quality system

implementation. Registration under ISO 9000,

while not mandatory, is becoming a minimum

requirement for supplier/purchaser contract and

many experts are predicting that it will become the de facto prerequisite for doing business in Europe

under EC '92. While the standard is not new, information

about how to interpret the standard and implement

it within an organization has been slow in forthcoming. Companies looking for assistance have had to go to consultants or randomly pick

seminars and training from the ever-increasing

quantity of service providers claiming to have

expertise in the ISO 9000 quality arena. With very few companies registered in the United States, verifying expertise and credibility has been

difficult if not impossible for the small to medium

sized manufacturer and costs associated with

preparing a quality system for registration have

been prohibitively high. For many small manufacturing firms with

limited resources, becoming ISO 9000 registered

is a formidable obstacle. Most firms need help

with developing the best way to work through the

registration process.

In an effort to assist small to medium sized manufacturing firms with their efforts to become

ISO 9000 registered or "certified," NlST's

e
Northeast Manufacturing Technology Center (NEMTC) has established a "Quality Systems Resource Facility (QSRF)" at its headquarters on

the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. The staff at NEMTC

has developed a complete series of seminars,

workshops and training modules that are intended

to give the small to medium manufacturer a logical

and coherent step-hy-step plan toward registration of a quality system to the ISO 9000 series of

standards. The program consists of ten sessions ranging from 4 hours to 2 days in length and

spread out over 12 months duration that will

assist small manufacturers as they go through the process of preparing for the third-party registration

audit.For New York State, NEMTC has led the way

in helping manufacturing firms through the

registration process. The program was developed

by Michael Levy, one of NEMTC" s field engineers

and Pat Sullo, a professor at RPI in the Center for

Industrial Innovation. The set of seminars

developed by NEMTC is designed to bring

together the Quality Managers from a number of

firms. Through a combination of seminars, group

discussions, and site visits to member firms"

facilities, the Quality Managers self-help each

other to improve the quality of each facility which

is necessary in order to meet the ISO 9000

criteria. The first group of nine companies

participating in the pilot Program attended a kickoff meeting in October of 1991. The member

companies participating in the program represent a diverse cross section of New York State industries,

including the paper industry, injection molding,

industrial fasteners, and industrial valves. The first three seminars of the series are designed to familiarize all the participants with

ISO 9000 standards starting with an introduction of ISO 9000 and ending with a detailed analysis of

critical elements of the standard. The next few

seminars are designed to help the participants

begin the implementation of the standards in their workplace. During this set of seminars, site visits to the manufacturing facilities of the participants

facilities are undertaken. This allows each firm to receive feedback from their co-participants in a fashion analogous to third party audits which are carried out by registrar firms in the final ISO 9000

registration process. Team building concepts are discussed as well as how to prepare a Quality

Manual, which is one of the requirements of ISO

9000. In the final set of seminars, plans are presented for having a third-party auditor visit the

o
members" facilities where they will carry out the

registration of the company for ISO 9000. Donald Ackerman of Huck International is a

quality assurance manager for Buck's Installation Equipment Division headquartered in Kingston.

New York. Huck Intematational is one of the participants in the program. They are an

international firm that specializes in the manufacmre of industrial fasteners. In the

Installation Equipment Division, Donald is in charge of getting the division registered in the ISO

9000 set of standards. One of the major thrusts in

their registration process is the implementation of

Statistical Process Control (SPC) for many of the

tools they manufacture. Kingston's sister division

in the United Kingdom has already become

certified to the ISO 9000 standards, so in addition

to the assistance being provided by NEMTC,

Donald has the added experience of Huck's sister division to draw upon. Huck has set a tentative table for ISO registration for the second or third quarter of 1993. Albany Engineered Systems of Glens Falls, New York, a division of Albany International, is also one of the companies enrolled in the initial group of seminars. AES specializes in the manufacture of auxiliar>' equipment used in the paper industry. The company recognizes the benefits of the ISO 9000 standard and is integrating the project into their overall Total

Quality Assurance (TQA) development effort. The staff at AES felt that one of the areas that needed work is in the documentation of its procedures. In an effort to improve this situation, the personnel actually doing the work in the production area are now writing the work

instructions. Procedures in other areas of the company are also being developed by the people

who will use them. In order to simplify this task, Irene Umstead, ISO 9000 Project Manager,

introduced the use of flow-charting and basic

technical writing techniques to the employees. In addition, she is coordinating other activities needed to comply with the ISO 9000 standards and tracking the progress of the project. Albany

Engineered Systems anticipates registration to ISO-9001 by September 1993. The pilot program for assisting small to medium sized businesses through the ISO 9000

registration process has been highly successful and

it is anticipated that the program at NEMTC will be used as a benchmark that will be extended to the other MTCs throughout the country.

o
D.

NIST's MTC

Program

Assists New

York State

Technology

Programs

The NIST

Manufacturing

Technology Centers

Program provides a

means by which

states can reorganize

their own industrial

extension

infrastructure,

increase their

effectiveness, and

achieve a greater

economic impact.

^uring the mid to late 1980"s, New York

State developed a series of initiatives to assist its in-state manulaeturing industry. The New York

State Science and Technology Foundation is responsible for the manufacturing programs that have a technology component which are usually

related to colleges and universities. Since 1989.

these programs served to compliment the National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

funded Northeast Manufacturing Technology

Center (NEMTC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic

Institute (RPl) and in some cases provided

matching funds to the NIST award.

In 1992 the New York State Science and

Technology Foundation was in the process of assuming prime responsibility for the NIST/NEMTC award. This prompted the Foundation to take a hard look at how its manufacturing technology programs were being

managed and coordinated. The Foundation

determined how it could better integrate and

coordinate its operation with the mission of

NEMTC and how important technical resources

could be maximized at RPI. A primary concern was that such programs be presented to the manufacturing "client" in a clear, understandable

way with minimal duplication of effort and

confusing references. The Foundation feels that the NIST award was a major incentive which

accelerated the consolidation process. Figure 1 shows the organizational structure that was developed. The manufacturing companies are served by the Industrial Technology Extension

agents, who have the responsibility to know about

the available resources and act as a broker to the resource that best meets the company needs. NEMTC. and its staff, acts as the coordinating

mechanism by finalizing referrals and projects

helpful to companies. The boxes below represent

a variety of state sponsored and NIST/NEMTC

sponsored programs which are pulled together

under the NEMTC management structure. This arrangement creates an effective federal-state-university-industry partnership to support manufacturing competitiveness and in effect accomplishes a major intent of NIST's

Manufacturing Technology Centers Program.

NORTHEAST MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGV CENTER

FUNCTIONAL MODEL

INVOLVING NEW YORK STATE PROGRAMS

Target Firms

Sinall/Mid Size Mfg Firms

(up lo 20.000 in NYS)

Statewide Ind Tech E<t Serv 20+ Field Agen ts/10 Regions

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES

Figure I. Ori^iinlzatioiuil slructiire of New York States Technology Program.
F

Fortitech, Inc.,

Schenectady,

NY

Businesses in a fast

growth mode employ

the services of

NIST's Manufacturing

Technology Centers to help them resolve

bottlenecks to growth.

ortitech is a business venture that was

incorporated in 1986. The company was started by Walt Borisenok and three other business

partners and has rapidly grown to a company with

25 employees with a projected $8 million business

volume by the end of 1992. Fortitech started in a small 460 m-^ (5000 ft^) facility in the Rotterdam

Industrial Park in Schenectady. Since its formation, the business has been in a rapid

expansion mode and the initial facilities were

quickly outgrown. Recently Walt and his employees have moved the business into a spacious 2700 m^ (25.000 ft^) facility in the same industrial park. Fortitech is in the business of blending

minerals, vitamins and other food additives for use

in the food and beverage industry. Probably the most familiar products that contain supplements

that Fortitech blends are the various breakfast

cereals and infant food products but practically every other product in the grocery store contains at least small amounts of various food additives that provide part of the USD A recommended daily

allowance of vitamins and minerals. In addition to blending vitamins and minerals for companies.

Fortitech assists food suppliers with the development of custom blends of these additives,

in essence providing some research and

development needs for approximately 65% of

their client firms. Fortitech has several different sizes of blenders ranging from the size typically found in most

pharmacies which are capable of handling research and development sized lots of 500 g to 1 kg to an

industrial blender capable of handling 4500 kg

( 10,000 lb) of material. Typically it is necessary

to pre-blend some of the components into a small batch lot since some of the components are present

in such small amounts. For instance, it is not

possible to blend a few grams of one substance

into a batch lot of 1000 kg and get the substance

distributed evenly and thoroughly throughout the

entire batch lot, thus it is necessary to go through

two or even three different blending procedures

for some batch lots to ensure even mixing of all components throughout the batch. In many cases

it is also necessary to grind and screen certain substances to a uniform particle size to prevent

separation during shipping. Presently Fortitech supplies over 300 different premixes for the food

industry with a volume of 100,000 kg/mo

(250,000 lb/mo). Fortitech maintains a comprehensive quality control program that monitors the manufacturing process from start to

finish. Fortitech maintains a state-of-the-art in-house laboratory equipped with high pressure

liquid chromatographs (HPLCs) and atomic

absorption (AA) flame photometers. All raw

materials and finished premixes that Fortitech uses goes through in-house testing and each batch lot that is shipped comes with a Certificate of

analysis. The s,taff of Fortitech follows good

Figure 2. Fortitech

employees weighing

out one of the ingredients to he

used in a blended

mixture.
manufacturing practices which are typically used

in the pharmaceutical industry.

As might be envisioned for a company with

such a rapid rate of growth, especially in a company where articulate records must be kept, it was becoming more and more difficult for the staff

at Fortitech to keep on top of the situation. Walt

Borisenok was concerned that his chemists were

spending most of their time simply carrying out hand calculations of the amounts of components

that were necessary to make up the blends for the orders that were being received. Thus, turnaround

times were increasing to longer than 30 days

because his chemists did not have time to attend

to the analysis of the final products which was

necessary before the products could be shipped to the food manufacturer.

Walt Borisenok was familiar with the New

York State Industrial Technology Extension

Service (ITES) which works out of the Local

Technology Development Council. He contacted

Brad Morrison, the local ITES agent in his area to see if he could offer some help to improve the

situation. Brad was familiar with the National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

sponsored Northeast Manufacturing Technology

Center (NEMTC) which was headquartered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in nearby

Troy, New York. Brad put Walt in touch with

Rick Korchak at NEMTC and arranged for several of NEMTC" s staff to visit Fortitech. Rick

Korchak is the Manager of the Manufacturing

Technology Resource Center at NEMTC and is an expert in systems analysis and design and

integration. After the initial visit to Fortitech. Rick

analyzed Fortitech' s manual system of calculations

for the various blends that they manufacture. He

was then able to computerize most of these

practices using several off-the-shelf database programs. Rick spent several weeks working with

the staff at Fortitech and assisting them in the

installation and instructing them in the use of one

of these programs on their computer systems. As a

result, Fortitech has all of the necessary data on all of the compounds that they use in their blends in the database so calculations of the necessary amounts of components in a blend is all done

using the computer. Fortitech now has a total of seven PCs and is in the process of networking

them together. Eventually, the HPLC and AA

instruments will also be hooked into the network

so that the final component analysis will be

calculated using the computers. This also provides

a permanent record of each batch lot that is shipped for archival purposes. The turn around time now from time-of-receipt

of orders to final shipment is approximately 10 to 13 working days. The computerized system

allows the production department to send orders

to the inventory control (ordering department) on

a daily basis thus eliminating the necessity of maintaining huge inventories of components used

in the blends. Walt estimates that the assistance from NEMTC has saved Fortitech several million

dollars in business that would have been lost due

to Fortitech" s inability to perform the work or the long turn around times that would have ensued.

Figure 3. Fortitech chemist

using an atomic absorption

flame spectrometer to assay

the mineral content of one

of their blends
Pierce

Machinery,

Andrews, SC

NIST's MTCs can

provide specialized

measurement and

engineering services

that smaller

companies can not

build up in-house.

Pdh lerce Machinery is a small machine tool company located in the lowland region of Eastern South Carolina. Pierce Machinery's owner, David

Pierce, has been in the machine tool business for approximately 15 years, concentrating on

designing and building machine tools associated

with the wire fabrication industry. The company

just recently moved into a new 418 m- (4500 ft-) building and has 12 full time employees and a yearly business volume of $500,000.

The type of wire fabrication that Pierce Machinery is involved with centers around the machine tools used in the production of wire used

to bind bales of cotton, recycled paper and other

materials for shipping. The wires used in this type

of industry are typically 1.5-3.0 mm ( 1/16 to

1/8 in) in diameter and 2-8 m (6-23 ft) in length

with a tensile strength of up to 1.4 MPa

(200,000 Ib/in^). This industry is currently

undergoing somewhat of a renaissance since the advent of recycling.

There are number of steps in the production

of wire used for binding large bales of materials. Wire is fed from a large spool into a commercial

machine which straightens the wire. The wire is fed continuously into a second machine which

Pierce Machinery has been actively involved in developing and improving over older commercial

machines. In this machine the wire is cut to length, a flat spot put on one end and then a loop is formed on either one or both ends. For the paper

industry which uses single loop wires, the baling

machine pulls the open end through the loop and

twists it once the proper pressure has been

achieved. With double loop wires, the wire of choice in the cotton industry, the baling machine

essentially ties the two pre-formed end loops into

a square knot once a preset pressure has been

achieved on the bale. All wires for the cotton

industry are the same size since the bales are all the same size. Over the past several years, David has been

working hard on expanding Pierce Machinery into the fabrication of wire using the machines he has reproduced and fabricated with operational

upgrades. Pierce Machinery is in a strong growth

mode and is in the process of spinning off a wire

fabrication production part of the business into a new business venture called Whaley

Manufacturing. This venture is a direct result of David's expertise in the design and building of

specialized machine tools for the wire fabrication

industry.

The Southeast Manufacturing Technology

Center (SMTC) began its involvement in this project when Dr. Michael Coward, President of Coastal Wire, which is located in Georgetown, SC

and David Pierce of Pierce Machinery talked with

David Sandora, a SMTC Technical Associate at Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway,

SC, about the possibility of doing a reverse- engineering project on a foreign made wire

fabricating machine. Coastal Wire owned one of

these machines which was essentially worn out. Because Coastal Wire runs the machine 24 hours a day in a seven day work week, additional machines would add capacity to the shop as well

as decrease the probability of not meeting demand

due to downtime on the existing machine. David
Pierce was confident that he could completely

rebuild the machine but in order to do so he would

have to take the machine out of service for an extended amount of time to make all the necessary drawings for the composite pieces. This was a less than satisfactory solution for Coastal Wire since

the machine was being used to fill orders and they

could not afford to have it removed form service

for an extended time. David Sandora contacted Roger Hsiao of the SMTC in Columbia. SC who is an expert in Computer-Aided-Design Computer- AidedManufacturing (CAD/CAM). Roger had several consultations with both Coastal Wire and Pierce Machinery and was able to work out a solution

that was satisfactory to all parties involved. The

solution was for Coastal Wire to shut down the machine on one weekend. David Pierce of Pierce Machinery could then disassemble the machine

starting on a Friday afternoon. Roger Hsiao

traveled to Coastal Wire and boxed up most of the

parts that needed to be rebuilt. He drove the parts back to his laboratory on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia where

he used a coordinate measuring machine (CMM)

to reverse engineer a large number of the machine

parts. From these measurements a set of drawings

were reproduced that David Pierce could use in the fabrication of the new parts. The process was

complicated by the fact that many of the parts were extremely worn and estimates had to be made

as to the original dimensions. Once the old parts had been mapped out using the CMM, Roger

drove the parts back to Costal Wire where David

reassembled the machine. The machine was back

up and running by Tuesday of the following week

thus very few days of machine time were lost. David could now begin the process of rebuilding

the parts for the machine in his machine shop.

This was done and within several months the new

machine was installed and in operation.

Over the years as David Pierce has worked

with machines of this type he has incorporated

many innovations and improvements in the machines. He is currently manufacturing a line of wire fabrication machines in his machine shop.

These machines are capable of operating at factor of two to three times faster than any other machines on the market. They are much more

reliable than other commercially available machines due to the use of high quality materials

in the manufacturing process and the improve- ments made by David Pierce. They are also less expensive than other machines on the market. He

is now working with Roger Hsiao of the SMTC on

the design of a mirror-image machine that would

allow one operator to oversee the operation of

Figure 4. Close-up view

of the sinfile loop wire

produced hy the Pierce wire

fabricati)}g machine. This

type of loop is used in the recycled paper industry.

o
two machines instead of just one. This process

involves using a CAD program to construct mirror-image parts from original drawings. David

Pierce has one of his new wire fabrication machines on-line in his expanded facilities and

is in the process of building four more. These

machines will form the backbone of Whaley

Manufacturing. By expanding into the wire

fabrication business David Pierce will triple his

overall dollar volume of business. David Pierce has come to realize the power of

CAD/CAM and is working with David Sandora of

Horr>'-Georgetown Technical College to begin an

apprenticeship program with Pierce Machinery

where one or more enterprising students in the CAD/CAM technical program of HorryGeorgetown or at the University of South Carolina

:an apprentice with Pierce Machinery as a way of

oartially fulfilling their degree requirements by

gaining hands-on experience with CAD/CAM in a

real working environment.

Figure 5. Two views of

the Pierce wire fabricating

machine on the production

floor of Whaley

Manufacturing.

®
D

Davco

Industries,

Seneca, SC

NISTs MTC's can

provide access to highly specialized

equipment that is needed on a

one-time basis for

prototyping.

avco industries is a small injection molding

firm located in the western-most tip of South

Carolina, approximately 40 miles west of the Greenville, SC metropolitan area. They are housed in a new, modern 480 m- (5200 ft-) building. They are a relatively new business

operation which was established in 1985. Currently they have 5 employees and have an

annual sales of $850,000.

Davco has four automatic injection molding

machines which have a 5 to 15 second cycle time. Typically batch lots of several thousand to more

than a million pieces are the types of jobs that are

run. Davco produces injection molded plastic

parts for several major U.S. firms. Among the

parts that Davco produces are vinyl plugs for a leading toy manufacturer, position sensors for a pneumatic air cylinder firm and a variety of plastic caps used as dust covers and tamper proof covers

for the soft drink beverage industry.

Recently one of the major soft drink producers

in this country was looking for a manufacturer for a temporary plastic dust cover for some plastic bottles which were used in the concentrated syrup

industry. These bottles were manufactured at one

facility and then shipped to a second facility where

they were filled with syrup concentrate for further

distribution to soft drink vending companies. To

ensure that the containers remained clean during

the interim shipping, a plastic dust cover was

needed for the containers which could be applied

to the bottle as soon as it emerged from the mold.

As is typically the case for many manufacturing

companies, the beverage producer had an urgent

need for the dust covers. Jim Atwater, Davco'

general manager, received a facsimile transmission

of the drawing of the dust cover that was needed

and was asked to bid on the project.

A few months earlier, Jim had attended a CEO

breakfast at the Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton, SC which was sponsored by the Southeast Manufacturing Technology Center (SMTC). At this meeting some of the resources of

the SMTC were oudined and small manufacturing

firms were encouraged to take advantage of the services offered by the SMTC. One of the subjects

that was highlighted at the breakfast meeting was

the rapid prototyping facility at Clemson

University. Initially Jim had been talking to Tom

Bowman, a Technical Specialist of the SMTC at Tri-County about a business analysis and possibly some assistance with ISO-9000 registration.

When the request for a quotation for the dust covers came in, Jim thought it would improve his business advantage if he could take a working

prototype of the newly designed dust cover with

Figure 6. An automatic

injection molding

machine at Davco

Industries.
him to the meeting with the personnel from the beverage firm so he asked Tom Bowman if the SMTC had any way to make a rapid prototype of

the required dust cover as was described in the breakfast seminar. Tom contacted David Reiling

with the SMTC at the University of South

CaroHna. David is a Senior Specialist with the SMTC with expertise in the CAD/CAM area. David reproduced the CAD drawing of the dust cover which was sent to Jim Atwater. He then downloaded the CAD file over the university

computer network to the mechanical engineering

laborator>' of Cynthia Jara-Almonte at Clemson

University which is in the Greenville, SC area. Cynthia and her students have an Intelligent

Design and Rapid Prototyping Laboratory. Using

this process, it is possible to make a solid model

plastic prototype of an item directly from the CAD

drawing of the item. The process employs an

ultraviolet laser/photopolymer-based stereolithography technique to generate the solid model in 0.127-0.254 mm (0.005-0.010 in) increments. In

this process, a 3-dimensional representation of the

part to be made is generated from the CAD model.

It is then sliced into sections by the computer that are 0.127-0.254 mm (0.005-0.010 in) thick. The

ultraviolet laser is then scanned over the liquid

polymer which solidifies wherever the laser hits it. After a scan has been made, a table in the liquid

polymer is lowered a small amount and the laser rescanned over the next slice or section of the CAD file. The whole process only takes a few

minutes once the CAD file has been down loaded

to the laser controller. Cynthia generated a solid model of the dust cover which Tom Bowman of

the SMTC was able to hand-carry to Davco

Industries the following day.

Jim Atwater of Davco was able to take the prototype with him to the meeting with his client

firm. The client firm was impressed and gave Jim

the go-ahead to have a number of the dust covers manufactured from the regular polymer to be used

in the manufacturing process. Using the same CAD file, David Reiling again downloaded it to

the university computer network sending it this

dme to Midlands Technical College in Columbia,

SC where a prototype mold was made and tested. This step saved making a mold and going through numerous revisions that are sometimes necessary

to ensure proper flow and fit of the final product to the bottle. Davco Industries obtained an order from the beverage firm for 2.5 million dust covers. Davco esfimates that this will be an ongoing order

that will continue to generate revenue for Davco

for several years. Jim Atwater of Davco credits the acquisition of

this order to the rapid prototyping that the SMTC

was able to pertorm for him which allowed the personnel at the beverage firm to have a working

prototype in their hands within several days time. Jim believes that having the rapid prototyping

technique will also help him in the future to obtain

additional orders. He believes that the assistance from the SMTC on this project and others that are anticipated to follow will enable Davco to increase

their business by more than $1 million.

Figure 7. The stereo lithiograhy instrument at Clemson University used

to make solid model plastic rapid prototypes ofproduction parts.
TX h Union City

Chair Co.,

Union City,

PA

Often small

manufacturing firms

can benefit a great

deal from having an

outside agency come

in and carry out a

thorough analysis of

the overall business

operation. This

type of service is available from

NIST's Manufacturing

Technology Centers.

Many times this type

of service can lead

to huge cost savings on such things as

inventory reduction,

reduced work in

process, and waste

minimization. These

types of good

business practices

generally cost the

company little or nothing to implement.

he Union City Chair Company which was

founded in 1881 is located in Union City,

Pennsylvania, a small town situated about 20

minutes drive south of Erie, Pennsylvania. The

manufacturing facilities are located in a two story brick building that was constructed in 1905. The

plant, although fairly old, is spacious and well

constructed. Union City Chair Co. currently has 160 employees and does approximately $7 million worth of business during the course of a year. The

plant produces a variety of styles of hardwood

chairs in the early American style. Seventy

percent of the chairs are constructed of oak with

the remainder being maple. The majority of their chairs are sold unfinished to a network of 600

retail dealers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and even to some outlets in England. The daily output is about 500 chairs. The market that Union City Chair supplies is one that has been fairly constant and in fact slightly declining over the past few years. In order

to maintain their profitability, some changes

needed to be made in the manufacturing aspects of

the chair construction or some changes had to be

made in the type of product that was being

marketed. Of course one way to increase the profit

margin would be to use cheaper materials in the construction of the chairs but this was ruled out because the solid hardwood construction was a major selling point for their chairs. In fact. Union

City wanted to improve the quality of the chairs

that they manufactured in hopes that this would

enable them to retain their market share over

products that were manufactured with lower

standards of quality.

Barry Smith, operations manager for Union

City Chair Company learned of the Great Lakes

Manufacturing Technology Center (GLMTC) from

David Andersen, the Executive Director of the Northwest Pennsylvania Industrial Resource

Center (IRC) in Erie, Pa. The Northwest IRC

serves as an outreach center for the GLMTC in Cleveland. Robert Schmidt and Gene Voda of the GLMTC carried out a two day SITE (Services to Improve your Technical Edge) visit for Union City

Chair Company. During this assessment a number

of areas were observed where improvements in the manufacturing operations could be realized. From the SITE visit, it was evident that a number of the steps in the manufacturing process were not well organized in the production line which led to some serious bottlenecks in the overall manufacturing operations. A new plant

layout was suggested which organized the line into a number of work cells in which various classes of

chair parts were constructed. For instance, the steps necessary in the construction of the chair bottoms were all grouped into one area of the plant

where the rough-sawn boards are cut to length and

then rough-planed. With the use of an overhead

projector on the ripsaw, the operator rips a number

of boards into a set that form the exact width for a chair bottom. These are then passed on to the next workstation where they are glued up to form the chair bottom. All these steps are carried out in a family of work cells that are physically located in close proximity to one another so that the work

tlows smoothly from one station to the next. This

has reduced the work-in-process inventory by 25%

and has eliminated a good deal of extraneous movement of materials around the plant. In addition to rearranging the plant layout, a number of new automated machines are being

brought in to replace older ones or they are being

used where hand operations were used in the past. The overhead projection system used on the rip saw for the chair bottoms has afforded a 12%

increased yield on the bottoms. It has also allowed

the company to move down a grade in the lumber

that they buy since knots can be eliminated by

ripping them out of the middle of the boards. An

automated saddle sander has recently been

installed that completely sands to the chair bottom

contours in a matter of seconds. In the rim

bending department Maury Bennett has developed

a novel rim bending jig that applies end pressure to
the rims being bent. This has been the key to a major increase in yield on the steam-bent rims

used in the chair backs. A second area where improvement was needed was in inventory control. Due to the large variety

of chairs that Union City manufactures, often job

lots were run in excess of orders to ensure that a

certain variety was on hand to carry through until the next time the company tooled up to make more

of this variety. This type of business practice leads

to a large inventory of stock that may sit idle for several months at a time until new orders are received. Clearly a total business system software

package was needed to cut down on the excess

inventory. The GLMTC staff worked with Barry

Smith in order to develop a set of specifications

for the software needs of the company. Since in the past, little or no data was available about

inventory on hand, a good deal on time and effort went into taking the requisite data in order to know

what would be required of the software system to be purchased. This set of specifications was sent

to a number of software vendors to solicit proposals for software that would adequately meet the needs of the company. A system has recently been

selected and Union City Chair is in the process of

installing the system and entering the data that will be used to guide future production runs. Union

City Chair has set a goal to reduce their inventory

by 25% during 1992. As of July, they had already

reduced their in-house inventory by 19% and

should easily reach the 25% goal by the end of the

year.A third area in which Union City Chair has found an increasing market share is in the finished

furniture arena. In the past, many of Union City

Chair's retail outlets finished the furniture that they bought from Union City Chair. More

recently, with more strict regulations being

imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency

many of the retail outlets have decided that it is not

profitable for them to continue to apply finishes to the furniture and have instead opted to have Union

City Chair do it for them.. This affords Union City

Chair the opportunity to add another value-added

step to their manufacturing process. They have

made a number of improvements in their finishing

operations including the use of high-volume

low-pressure (HVLP) spray equipment which cuts down on spraying emissions by 60 to 80%. They

are also looking into the use of water based

finishing techniques in lieu of the conventional

solvent based systems. In the past year the market

for finished chairs has grown from 10% to 25% of

the total sales for the company and this area should

continue to grow. As a result of the help from the staff of the GLMTC, Union City Chair Company, has greatly

improved the manufacturing standards in the company which translates into marketing a higher

quality product. They have also improved their on-time delivery, greatly reduced their in-house

inventory, and have expanded into a marketing

area that allows them to gain a value-added step

in the manufacturing process.

Figure 8. Operations

manager Barry Smith

( left) ami some of the saff of the Union City

Chair Company in the warehouse with several

types of chairs that they

manufacture.
Aetna

Plating Co.,

Cleveland,

Ohio

Plant modernization

is an area where the

experienced teams

from NIST's

Manufacturing

Technology Centers

can be of assistance

to small

manufacturing firms.

AAAetna plating is a family-owned metal

finishing and specialty metal plating company

located in Cleveland, Ohio. The company was

established in 1934 and incorporated in 1952 and

currently has 40 employees. They are a small to medium run job shop company that provides

cadmium, zinc, tin, nickel, and silver plating services for the aerospace and nuclear industry.

Over the years they have developed a reputation

in northeast Ohio as a premier plating company.

Superior plating coupled with a good deal of

flexibility in the type and quantity of parts that they can plate qualifies them as a high technology

company. Aetna's specialty is plating parts that are either too large or too difficult for other plating

companies.

in 1991, Aetna's sales were $1.6 million and

projections for fiscal 1992 exceed $2. million. Their customer base includes such firms as Crawford Fittings, Lincoln Electric, Lucas

Aerospace, Loral Defense Systems. Parker

Hannifin, and Reliance Electric. Aetna currently

offers services to more than 400 customers. The metal plating industry in recent years has been under intensive pressure to meet ever-morestrict environmental requirements. This type of

industry relies heavily on acidic solutions to clean metal parts before plating. The plating process

involves plating metals from solution onto a

metallic or plastic substrate. Used solutions must

be cleansed of metal atoms before they can be

disposed of in the normal waste water streams. These stringent requirements demand continuous

monitoring of the waste water stream to insure

that all Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

regulations are being complied with. As a result.

small companies cannot support the equipment

needed to meet EPA and pollution prevention

regulations. Large companies want out of the plating business and look for platers that they are confident can meet these regulations. Aetna

believes that the only way one can survive in the business is to invest heavily in state-of-the-art pollution prevention equipment coupled with the most modem plating techniques and equipment.

In June of 1991 a marketing director was hired and groundwork for a multi regional sales force was laid. Aetna's business plan is to double sales

in the next 3 to 5 years by expanding their market

geographically, taking advantage of the consolidation that is occurring in the industry and focusing on jobs that other platers cannot produce. Aetna's business is growing and their current 1,500 m^ (16,000 ff^) plating facility is inadequate

for their needs. In order to accommodate their growing business, Aetna must expand their manufacturing facilities. In 1985 Aetna purchased a 6,000 m^

(65,000 ft-) building near their current plant.

Since the building was vacant, Aetna could start from scratch and design the production facilities in the manner that best suited their plating business.

It was obvious that a careful layout and design of

the plating lines would be necessary before the

lines were actually installed. Holly Harlan a Technology Application Engineer with the Great Lakes Manufacturing Technology Center had been

talking with Peter Sobey, President of Aetna

Plating Company about some of the hurdles facing

the plating industry in the 1990s. During these conversations, Peter suggested that since Aetna

had no in-house personnel that could work full time on the design of the new facility that they were moving into, perhaps the GLMTC could

assist Aetna with their business expansion plans.

Since the overall project was multifaceted, the GLMTC established a group of engineers managed

by Wayne Lumpi, Technical Program Manager
for Mechanical Systems to assist Aetna with the various aspects of the project. Peter Sobey's plans for Aetna were to double

the company's size in the next 3 to 5 years by

taking advantage of the industry's consolidation.

In order to do this Aetna would need $2 to S3

million to facilitate the move into the new- renovated manufacturing facilities. Tony Dumm,

Associate Engineer with the GLMTC worked

with Peter Sobey, Aetna President, and the staff

at Aetna to devise the best plant layout for the new production facilities. Tony used the Computer-Aided-Drafting (CAD) facilities at the GLMTC to generate the new plant layout. In addition, the GLMTC team helped Peter develop a complete business plan for the business expansion

and implementation of the advanced plating

technology that would be used in the new

facilities. This business plan aided Peter in obtaining funding for the expansion project. Peter Sobey estimates that the reduction of

costs and decreased throughput time associated

with Aetna's expansion will allow Aetna to

realize improved sales and profit margins. He

estimates that Aetna will experience a 30%

improvement in productivity as a result of the business expansion which translates to a labor savings of $375,000.

During the past 5 years Peter Sobey has been

preparing his staff for the move into the spacious,

newly renovated facility. Two new chemical

engineers have been added to the staff as well

as a full time safety director. Formalized job

descriptions and procedures have been written. A

new employee handbook and quality manual have

been developed. Most of the new automated

plating equipment has been purchased along with

a state-of-the-art electroplating software package

for their 486 computer system. As a result they

are ready to face the future with the best technology available.
E

Erie Bolt

Corporation,

Erie, PA.

NISTs Manufacturing

Technology Centers

can help small

manufacturing firms

improve their

business operations

by bringing to bear

modern business

practices such as computerizing

their business

operations.

Irie Bolt Corporation is a manufacturer of

specialty fasteners and upset forgings. They are located in Erie, Pennsylvania and have been in business for 80 years. They have 85 employees

and have annual sales over $6 million. Most of

their business is of the job shop type with

production runs ranging from as low as five pieces

to several thousand. Typically the bolts produced

are 1.25 cm (0.5 in) in diameter up to 7.2 cm (3 in)

in diameter. The majority of these are made of

high-grade materials including inconel and

stainless steels. The bolts are used in a variety of

industries including ship building, diesel engines on locomotives, turbine generators, off-road construction equipment, and other special

equipment and machinery.

Erie Bolt management realized that the company had production problems which were

leading to long lead times in the manufacturing

process. There were bottlenecks on the shop iToor which caused inventory in process to remain on

the shop floor longer than necessary. Some of the problems were the result of poor interdepartmental

communications. Raw material shortages for some jobs were causing "rush lists" which led to increased overtime, additional set-ups and added

operations.

Erie's managers asked the Great Lakes

Manufacturing Technology Center (GLMTC) to conduct a SITE visit (Services to Improve

Technical Edge) As.sessment; an in-depth

evaluation of a company's total operation. Gene

Voda and Robert Schmidt of the GLMTC

Figure 10. One of the massive bolts produced

by the Erie Bolt Company using the upset forging process.

conducted a two-day SITE Assessment for Erie Bolt Company and came up with a number of

significant findings that could improve Erie's performance.

One of the more significant findings was that tooling changes were not being recorded on

drawings but were simply being changed in the production process. Thus, management did not have an accurate picture of process improvements.

As a result, a new computerized tool inventory file with a record of all CAD drawings with all changes and additions was set up. A new tool scheduling system streamlined tool room

scheduling and shop floor planning. This has also reduced outside tooling operations which has led

to decreased production costs. Another critical area pinpointed by the SITE

Assessment was the raw material shortages. A

closer look into the operations as to why shortages were occurring indicated that the shortages were

being caused by an inordinate number of internal

rejects that were traditionally were being remade

without proper documentation. This system was

changed so that now every reject is documented at the time of occurrence, stating the description, cause, and corrective action to prevent

reoccurrence. A task force (the Material Review

Board) was organized and now meets weekly to evaluate the progress, to reduce internal scrap. This is the first quantifiable internal scrap control system that the company has ever had.

In an effort to eliminate the bottlenecks in the production process, mini-work cells and new CNC

equipment were added to improve product flow on

the work floor. In addition, a new job-routing

procedure has strengthened employee

communication.

The president of Erie Bolt Company, Harry

Brown estimates that Erie Bolt is realizing savings of over $100,000 per year as a result of the improvements that have been made because of the assistance of the GLMTC.
c

Air Gage

CompanyCadeyes

Development,

Ann Arbor, MI

The NIST

ManuiactuTing

Technology Centers

move technology from

the laboratory into

the market-place by

forming linkages with

firms which wish to commercialize

the technology.

Conventional fixed gage and Coordinate

Measuring Machines (CMMs) currently used for high precision measurements are typically

point-wise measurement systems which are fixed

to a set selection of points (for fixed gages) or

require long measurement times (for CMMs).

Through a joint effort between the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) and a commercial gage

vendor, a moire ^ based gaging system has been

developed that provides high accuracy, absolute measurements for those applications needing large

amounts of data. The target market for this device

is high accuracy measurement applications that require some degree of full-field measurement

capabilities and flexibility, such a clay models,

dies, airfoil shapes, delicate surfaces, or other complex shapes which are not well addressed by

currently available gages. The development of the CADEYES system is an example of technology transfer in motion. The

technology used in the CADEYES system was the

result of an extended effort at ITI which was

aimed at addressing certain key gaps in the gaging

tools available to manufacturers. The ability to measure full surfaces quickly, and efficiently in a manner meaningful to Computer Aided Design

(CAD) operations was seen as a missing link in the CAD/CAM cycle. To fully close the loop on

manufacturing, there needed to be a way both to

initially input large amounts of data, and to verify

the truly complex shapes possible with modem

computer-numerically-controlled (CNC)

machining.

The demonstration of the moire measurement

capability initiated discussions with both potential investors and commercializing partners. In a short time, these discussions led to Air Gage Company,

a builder of fixed gaging systems. Air Gage was

looking for a way to diversify their capabilities and

address those applications requiring large amounts

of high accuracy data. In the period of four months after qualifying this interest, a prototype gage system was built and ready for test demonstration at a national trade exposition.

Initial interest in this capability was high from

many sources ranging from large manufacturers to small tool shops. Although the potential was

realized, it became evident that the expense to own

a system was not something many small shops

could justify. In order to help give small shops

access to this new tool, the Midwest

Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) (ITI

is the organization that established the MMTC)

has contracted with Air Gage Company to set up a

service, directed at providing "fast" turnaround measurements of the type needed by the small tool and die shop. This service will help reduce

development time for these shops, and provide new access to information only available at very

high costs in the past. The time frame for the CADEYES

development from concept, to partners, to product

introduction, and now service access has only been

18 months. This is the type of time frame which is expected to dominate the introduction of new

technologies in the future.

'This system employs a 3-dimensional noncontact vision based interterometric technique to measure irregularly shaped objects and is capable

of 0.127 lOJTi (5 )i inches) resolution with a 1 cm

depth of field.
Progressive

Metal

Forming,

Hamburg, MI.

The NIST

Manufacturing

Technology Centers

help small

manufacturing firms

implement completely

new manufacturing

processes using

machine tools which

are commercially

available. In this case

study, the technology

in question is being

proven out for the

MTC in NIST

laboratories.

regressive metal forming was founded in 1962 and incorporated in 1967. It is located in Hamburg, Michigan, a suburban area convenient to the Detroit Metropolitan Area. It is housed in a 2.800 m- (30,000 ft-) facility on a 10 acre site which encompasses both its offices and

manufacturing space. It currently employs 46

people and has annual sales of over $5 million.

It is a high quality supplier of deep drawn

metal parts for the automotive, refrigeration and

building industries with parts that vary from

shallow forms to complete deep-drawn

components. It specializes in producing

stampings with unique and unusual features. It is somewhat different from most metal forming

companies in that it not only provides production

runs of stamped parts, but it also designs, and build

its own in-house tooling. In addition, has a vendor

quality program which assures complete control of

manufactured components from raw material through to the finished goods. This allows it to provide its customers with one-stop-shopping for stamped metal parts. Progressive Metal Forming was interested in decreasing the lead times for production runs of new types of stamped parts. Presently lead times were averaging 4 to 6 months for going from

blueprint to first-good-part. Progressive realized

that one of the major bottlenecks in the manufacturing process was in the production of

the tools (dies) that were used in the stamping

operations. The time involved for tool development ranged from 6-10 weeks. Generally,

the tools to be used to stamp the metal parts were made using a three step process that involved

soft-turning as a first step followed by heat treatment and then precision grinding to final dimensions and finish. Of the steps involved in the production of these tools, the grinding

procedure was by far the most demanding

operation, and was consuming approximately 50%

of the total time used in the tool production. The

grinding operation is difficult since the tool (which

had been hardened to Rockwell 58-62C hardness)

had to be finish ground to ±13 |im (±0.0005 inch)

with a finish of 0.25 |im (10 |iinches). This was

traditionally done using a manually operated

grinding machine.

Progressive Metal Forming was considering

the acquisition of a new universal computernumerical-controlled (CNC) grinder which had

the ability to grind both internal and external diameters. The company contacted the Midwest

Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) for advice before purchasing the equipment because of

the large initial investment required to purchase

such equipment ($400,000). After carrying out a comprehensive analysis of the number and type of

tools that Progressive Metal Forming needed to make for its stamping business, MMTC field engineers Tom Benedetti and Janet Mitchell

concluded that the acquisition of the necessary

grinding equipment could not be cost justified.

They further recommended that a viable

alternative would be to look into the purchase of a CNC turning center which has the capability of

turning hardened materials. This technology is somewhat newer but is capable of producing

turned parts with tolerances of ±5 |im (±0.0002

inch) and surface finishes of 0.25 - 0.38 |im (10-

15 ijinches) on parts that had been treated to Rockwell 62C hardness. This technique

eliminates the grinding process entirely. The cost of a ready-to-use CNC turning center is slightly over $120,000. This would result in a savings of
nearly $300,000 over the purchase of CNC

grinding equipment. In addition, the CNC turning center would cut the tool development time by

almost a factor of two. The MMTC staff also carried out an in-depth

analysis of the overall lead time that was necessary

to evolve from a blueprint to a first-good-part

and came up with a number of other suggestions w hich, when fully implemented, will cut the overall lead time to 2 - 3 months from the original 4 - 6 months.

Progressive Metal Forming is currently

analyzing the capabilities of the hard turning

technique by having some test tools manufactured

using this technique. Tom Benedetti of MMTC

has arranged for several of these dies to be

produced by Alkan Donmez and his colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST). NIST has a state-of-the-art program in hard turning technology and should be able to provide Progressive Metal Forming with the best

dies that can currently be produced using this technique. Tom thinks that a number of tool and

die manufactures in the Detroit metro area could

benefit in switching over to this type of process in

its manufacturing operations.

Figure 1 1 . Some of the

stainless steel stamped

parts produced by

Progressive Metal

Forming. The series across the center of the picture illustrate the progressively formed

part from the initial blank.

! O i
M

Manufacturing

Development,

Inc., Cheney,

KS

Companies which seek

to do business in the

international arena

must coniorm to a

quality standard known

as ISO 9000 (after

the International

Standardization

Organization). This

applies to firms which

export their products

and to the smaller

companies which

supply them with parts.

For many small firms,

the ISO 9000

registration process is a

formidable hurdle to overcome. The NIST

Manufacturing

Technology Centers

help companies work

their way through the

ISO 9000 process.

anufacturing Development, Inc (MDI) is a small company of 25 employees located in Cheney, Kansas approximately 15 miles west of

Wichita along the Route 54 corridor. The

company was obtained by Frank Castor, its present owner, in 1980 and currently has annual sales of

approximately $1.5 million. MDI specializes in the fabrication of sheet metal parts for the aircraft industry. Primary customers consist of Original

Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) such as Boeing,

McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics. Most

of the parts manufactured by MDI are aluminum,

stainless steel or titanium fabrications with sizes ranging up to 90 x 150 cm (36 x 60 in). The job

lots can range from one-of-a-kind to batches

consisting of several thousand pieces.

Manufacturing processes of this type typically are labor intensive and not particularly amenable to standard automation techniques.

In late 1991 MDI was in a situation faced by

many small businesses today in that many OEM

companies- are beginning to require that their suppliers meet more stringent Quality Standards

such as ISO-9000 registration. ISO-9000 has five categories. Most American firms seeking

registration will be certified under one of three of

these categories, depending on their individual circumstances. In essence the standards consist of

a set of goals aimed at the achievement of high

quality standards throughout the business

operation. Facing the possible loss of a major

portion of its business, the management at MDI

- In this instance, Boeing is requiring its vendors

to be approved as D 1-9000 (Advanced Quality

Systems) suppliers by 1996.

contacted the Wichita Regional Field Office of the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center (MAMTC) for assistance. MAMTC's field engineer, Celia Theiler, met

with Frank Castor, President, and Mike Castor,

Vice President, of MDI to determine the best approach for MDI to use in adopting the new

Quality Standard. The incorporation of statistical process control (SPC) techniques within the company was one of the requirements for approval. This was a new technology for MDI as the techniques had not been used before. A new

computer system had also recently been purchased

by MDI for shop floor control and data collection. SPC training for all employees in conjunction with

familiarization with the specific software being

used would be necessary. Additionally, some

testing and development work to establish baselines for the various machines in the plant was needed.

Celia arranged for Rae Hess, a quality

coordinator with MAMTC, to teach the statistical process control courses to the employees of MDI.

The training focused on short-run situations and was coordinated with in-plant data collection and

development of capability studies for MDI's

equipment. In this way, the employees were able

to gain hands-on experience in conjunction with

the formal course work.

Celia was aware of a number of state sponsored training programs available to small business firms in Kansas and worked with MDI to obtain a KIR grant. KIR (Kansas Industrial Retraining Program) is one of several business

assistance programs provided by the Kansas Department of Commerce that is designed to assist employees of restructuring industries. The KIR

funding is available on a 50% cost sharing basis to eligible companies that are restructuring their operations through incorporation of existing

o
technology, development and incorporation of new technology, diversification of production or

the development and implementation of new

production activities. MDI obtained a KIR grant

to partially fund the SPC training provided to its employees.

MDI received initial approval as a D 1-9000

supplier in May 1992. The training provided by

MAMTC was instrumental in gaining this approval. As a result, Mike Castor of MDI

estimates that a 50% reduction in scrap and a 25%

reduction in rework was achieved by MDI. These

savings amounted to $132,000 for the company in FY 1992. In addition, MDI has enjoyed a 20%

increase in revenues for the year and major steps

have been taken toward securing the future of the company.

Figure 12. MAMTC Field

engineer Celia Theiler and

MDI 's Mike Castor discuss

the SPC aspects involved in the production of an aircraft sheet metal part.
T

Smith Truss

Company,

Topeka, KS

In many instances the

experienced staff of

NIST's Manufacturing

Technology Centers

can help small

manufacturing firms

make the correct

business decisions to enable them to optimize

profits while minimizing

expenditures.

I he Smith Truss Company is one of the oldest orthopedic manufacturers in this country, having

been in business for over 100 years. It is located

in a newly renovated 1,670 mM 18,000 ft^) facility in an industrial park on the south side of

Topeka, Kansas. The company currently employs

65 workers and it is in a strong growth mode. The

Smith Truss Company manufactures a complete

line of orthopedic products for the healthcare,

industrial and consumer markets. A large share of

the business is in the healthcare market. This

market includes hospitals, physical therapists,

occupational therapists and chiropractors. These

healthcare professionals purchase the orthopedic

products directly from the company and dispense

them to their customers. The newest and most rapidly growing market

however is the industrial market. Fueled by rising healthcare and worker's compensation insurance

costs. Federal and state legislation requiring safer work places and efforts to control costs in a

recessionary time period, U. S. businesses have

become major customers of injury preventative

orthopedic supports, such as those manufactured

by Smith Truss. Worker's compensation premiums and related expenses will cost companies over $40 billion this year. Half of this amount can be directly traced

to back injuries. Companies are faced with a

situation where health-related expenses are rising

faster than revenues and they are thus looking for ways to reduce costs and injury related man-days

by preventing job related injuries from occurring.

On July 1, 1992, a new law under the Americans

with Disabilities Act (ADA) took effect. One of

the major topics addressed by this law requires

employers to provide ergonomic changes in the

work place so as to reduce and/or eliminate worker

injury and crippling as a result of Repetitive Motion

Trauma (RMTs).

As a result of skyrocketing workman's compensation costs, there has been a phenomenal increase

in the market for back supports that can be worn

externally by people who are required to do a good

deal of lifting during the course of an average work

day. It is in response to this occupational need that the PrevCareTM Industrial Back Supports were

recently introduced by The Smith Truss Company.

The Smith Truss Company recently filled a

large scale order of over 5000 PrevCare^**^

Industrial Back Supports for a major freight truck- ing firm. The company is anticipating a follow-up

order of 10,000 units. The customer's desired lead time was no longer than one month. Original pro- duction capacity was less than adequate to complete

this order on time, not to mention any other orders which may be received. Management foresees a steady increase in demand for this type of back support for the next few years as more and more companies take advantage of significant cost savings to be had from

providing their employees with back support

systems. As the market saturates, it will eventually

be dominated by a more level market for
replacement back supports units. As a result Smith

Truss needed to temporarily increase its output for

the industrial back supports by several fold while

continuing to maintain its traditional healthcare orthopedic goods market. Due to this complex business situation. Smith

Truss decided it would be beneficial to seek outside

consulting for analyzing the best way to proceed

with its manufacturing growth needs. Management

contacted the Manhattan. Kansas regional office of

the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology

Center (MAMTC). Steve Plaster, one of

MAMTC's field engineers provided this support.

Smith Truss had already located a new building

that was 50% larger than its facilities. MAMTC

contracted with Smith Truss to provide facility

layout for the new plant as well as to initiate production planning in the company.

The new workplace was logically organized

into two production areas, a raw material stores, a shipping/receiving area, and a finished goods

area. Production was divided into two areas in recognition of the different natures of the markets

served. The industrial belt market would be served by a few products which would be made in large

volume. The orthopedic healthcare market was

served by hundreds of products made in small volume.

The industrial line was set up as a flow line, while the orthopedic line was maintained as a job

shop. The flow line also received new equipment,

while the healthcare line used the machines already

owned by the company. Although production

volume more than doubled, only eight new

machines were purchased for the new facility. The move was coordinated by MAMTC. The

entire move took place over a weekend, and less than one day of production was lost. The move

went very well thanks to the pre-planning effort. Once the move took place, emphasis was placed

on the production planning process. Up to this

time, production was coordinated by the sewing

supervisor with input from the purchasing agent.

Purchasing was done on the "Hey we're out of this" method, although the business system in place had some limited MRP capabilities (single level bill of

material, back flushing, demand explosions). Because of budget constraints, the company

decided that new software was not an option.

Therefore, Steve worked with Smith Truss

personnel in terms of making the best use of the current software. Also by this time, the President was convinced

that he needed a full time plant manager, and Ron

Klingbeil was hired. This proved to be very

beneficial. Ron and Steve worked to develop a workable system that would provide material requirements with enough lead time so that stock-outs would not occur and customer service

levels could be maintained while not requiring a

larger than necessary inventory level. A rough-cut

capacity worksheet was developed so that potential

manufacturing plans could be analyzed for

feasibility and capacity requirements.

The planning system is just being put into place

and time will tell as to the final improvements. The

facility design has proven to be a very workable

layout, and has allowed the company to meet demand at twice the original projected levels. Furthermore, the company is not stopping at this. The next step is to develop a demand-pull system

to better manage inventory and to assure that the products being buih are what the customer wants and not what forecasting says the customer wants.

Figure 1 3. Photo of one of

Smith Truss 's employees

wearing a PrevCare TM

Industrial Back Support

illustrating the proper

technique to he used in

lifting heavy objects.

r
GLOSSARY

AA Atomic Absorption. A chemical

identification technique typically used for the determination of metals. A dilute solution containing disolved salts of the metals to be analyzed is aspirated through

a flame. Each type of metal atom imparts

a characteristic color to the flame. The

light from the tlame is dispersed through

a grating type of spectrometer which

allows the identification of each metal

based on the characteristic spectral

"fingerprint" of the metal. CAD Cpmputer-Aided-Design, The

process of constructing engineering

drawings using a computer and software

rather than by conventional drafting

board and instruments. CAM Computer-Aided-Mjcinufacturing,

The process of using a computer and

appropriate software to instruct a machine

(typically a lathe or milling machine) to manufacture a part. All movements of

the machine and tool speed are sent by

computer instruction directly to the machine.

CAMP Cleveland Advanced

Manufacturing Program, A not-forprofit organization established in 1984

to offer industry one of the most

comprehensive technology development

and transfer programs in the United

States. CIM Computer Integrated

Manufacturing. A technique of manufacturing where computers are used

throughout the manufacturing process. CMM Coordinate Measuring Machine.

A computer controlled measuring

instrument which uses a computerized

contact probe to "scan" over an object

which has been placed on the measuring

table of the instrument. CNC Computer Numerically Controlled,

A process of using a computer to control

a manufacturing machine, typically a

lathe or milling machine whereby a set of instructions are coded and then down

loaded (sometimes punched on a paper

tape) and then transferred to the machine

to execute. EEC European Economic Community,

The consortium of European Nations

consisting of Britain, France, Germany,

Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Holland,

Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Denmark

and Greece which have established a common set of standards which eliminate

trade barriers between the countries. This

set of standards became effective at the end of 1992 and is generally known as EC-92.

GLMTC Great Lakes Manufacturing

Technology Center, One of the three

original Manufacturing Technology

Centers established in 1989 by the National Institute of Standards and

Technology. It is a division of the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing

Program and is located on the campus of

the Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.

HPLC High Pressure Liquid

Chromatography, A technique for separating various chemical compounds

in a mixture that utilizes a solvent mixture under high pressure to elute the compounds of interest through a column

packed with any one of a variety of

specialized microporous materials. ISO 9000 International Standardization

Organization 9000, This is the general name for the quality standard accepted

throughout the European Economic

Community. It was initially adopted in 1987. At the present time, over 140

countries have adopted this set of

standards including the 12 Nations of the European Community as well as NATO

and the U.S. Department of Defense.

ITI Industrial Technology Institute, A

not-for-profit organization with a mission

to promote the renewal and continuing

vitality of North American manufacturing. It was established in 1982 and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

JIT Just-In-Time, A system of ordering

materials needed in a manufacturing

process where the materials arrive shortly before they are needed thus minimizing

the time materials are held in inventory.

KTEC Kansas Technology Enterprise

Corporation, A non-profit corporation

established by the State of Kansas in 1987 with a mission to create and

maintain employment by fostering

innovation, stimulating the commercialization of new technologies, and

promoting the creation, growth, and

expansion of Kansas enterprises.

LAN Local Area Network, A software

system that is used to link a number

of small computers together so that messages and data can be transferred throughout the system.

MAMTC Mid-America Manufacturing

Technology Center, One of the two new

Manufacturing Technology Centers

established in 1991 by the National

Institute of Standards and Technology. It

is a subsidiary of the Kansas Technology
Enterprise Corporation and it is located in Kansas City. Kansas. MMTC Midwest Manufacturing

Technology Center, One of the two new

Manufacturing Technology Centers

established in 1991 by the National

Institute of Standards and Technology. It

is a subsidiary of the Industrial Technology Institute and it is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

MRF Manufacturing Resource Facility,

A joint venture between Cuyahoga

Community College's Unified

Technology Center (UTC) and the Cleveland Advanced Manufacturing

Program (CAMP). The facility is located on the campus of Cuyahoga Community

College in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It features $2.5 million worth of the most modem automated machining equipment,

computer hardware and software. The

staff at UTC and GLMTC provides small

to mid-sized manufacturing companies in the Great Lakes area with hands-on manufacturing demonstrations, training, and

education necessary for manufacturing

modernization and modem day

competitiveness.

MTC Manufacturing Technology

Centers, A new initiative at the National

Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST). The charge of the program was

to improve U. S. industrial productivity

and competitiveness by advancing the technology level of small and medium

sized companies.

NEMTC NorthEast Manufacturing

Technology Center, One of the three

original Manufacturing Technology

Centers established in 1989 by the National Institute of Standards and

Technology. It is located on the campus

of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

NIST National Institute of Standards

and Technology, A part of the Department of Commerce which was

formerly the National Bureau of

Standards. The name change occurred

1988, as part of the Omnibus Trade and

Competitiveness Act. OEM Original Equipment

Manufacturer, A type of manufacturing

firm that manufactures the equipment

that it markets. PC-AT Personal Computer-Advanced

Technology, A series of computers

pioneered by International Business

Machines (IBM) that originally employed

an Intel-80286 microprocessor. Many

companies have adopted this technology

and built computers that employ the same

architecture. Eventually this computer

series was upgraded and now consists of

80386 and 80486 processors also. SMTC Southeast Manufacturing

Technology Center, One of the three

original Manufacturing Technology

Centers established in 1989 by the National Institute of Standards and

Technology. It is located on the campus

of the University of South Carolina with

additional facilities at the technical colleges spread throughout the state. SITE Ser\'ices to Improve your

Technical Edge, A service provided by

the Great Lakes Manufacturing

Technology Center in which staff members from GLMTC visit a client manufacturing facility and provide an

in-depth analysis of the facility and how

improvements can be made.

STP Statistical Process Control, A

technique that involves statistically

establishing control limits on some

measured characteristics of a process and

the subsequent monitoring of the process

using these control limits. USDA United States Department of

Agriculture, The department of the U.S. Govemment that deals with agriculture

and farming in the United States.
Ntsr

U.S. Department of Commerce

National Institute of Standards and Technology

March 1993